Shame cisting fans are treated like garbage...

[SDL]

http://tbsnradio510.com/columns/levi...not_wanted.htm

Headline should read Shame visiting fans are treated like garbage...

[Eddiey]

[QUOTE=SDL;1174757]http://tbsnradio510.com/columns/levi...not_wanted.htm

Headline should read Shame visiting fans are treated like garbage...[/QUOTE

The article speaks of an overzealous security guard. We all come across
abusive employees from time to time in places of business. Assuming the
guard was that bad the thing to do is turn him or her in to a manager just
as any of us would do at a retail store. Don't condemn a whole organization
and in this case the their fans because of the actions of one person.

[zengator]

It goes both ways - the sox fans this weekend were more loud-mouthed, foul-mouthed, and more overall obnoxious than I've ever seen at the Trop, and that's saying something. Not everybody, of course, but a higher percentage than usual. Many of them deserved to be taken down a notch or two, imo.

[raysnbran]

Usually the Trop ushers hush the home fans from standing and cheering, treating the Trop as if it was a library. The players themselves are tired of having to play road games at home when the Sox and Yankees come to town. This weekend was 10 years worth of pent up frustration manifesting itself into resentful feelings to the visiting fans that make this Fenway South. Less fans flying down from Boston will be replaced by new Rays fans excited about watching a young and hungry team make some noise in the AL East. The hotel and restaurant crowd won't like it, but tough, it's about time we were given the major league team we were promised back in 1998...

[bigtime39]

Nobody would care about visiting teams fans coming into our park(s), if those visiting fans didn't act like they were the Germanic tribes and the away park was Rome!
The bad feelings Rays fans have towards Yankee$ and Red $ox fans are nothing compared to those felt in Baltimore. We hate you...because you act like buffoons and morons when you come into our park. Show some respect. You are visiting another persons' "home". Act like you have the first clue about the concept of "manners", and we'll likely be quite cordial.

As far as chanting "Yankee$ Suck"...if they're not playing in the game at hand, it's true...but how is it relevant?

[Pere]

Unfortunately, SDL started dual threads on this topic, one each in the Sox and Rays forums. The most interesting comment so far from the other half of the discussion,

Even if it might be in the cause of building a fanbase, they can't take the Bosox fans' money and then harass them, though. Especially through an employee of the freakin team.
How about they use the Bosox and Yanks fans as a way to bring their own fans in? Make a big deal about the visiting fans being louder than the home fans, and challenge people to actually come to the game and shout them down (not beat them up). Give discounts to fans with FL driver's licenses, or even to people who buy their tickets at the box that day (somebody who is travelling in from up North is going to want to have tickets in hand ahead of time...at least, I would). Or just to people wearing Rays merchandise!
They could use this to boost sales if they worked it right. Even people who aren't Rays fans would respond to the challenge of making the Bostonites and New Yorkers shut the heck up (nonviolently).

[raysnbran]

I believe they did this for Saturday night's game, as I heard they gave those annoying cowbells to the first 15,000 fans wearing Rays gear...It will take time for the local fans to warm up to this organization after being spat upon by Naimoli for the first 7 years of existence. We heard that travel agencies in Boston set up these junkets to the Trop because not enough Boston fans can get into Fenway. So of course all the tickets for this weekends games were scooped up in the offseason before the locals knew how good the team was. It will end up being like the Bucs games were, once the team started winning the stadium half/three quarters full of Packers or Bears fans couldn't get a ticket. I would also like to get the ushers side of the story before crucifying him.

[zengator]

That's true about early ticket sales to Bahstonians. This was thah only weekend series between the teams in Flahda, so they came down in droves to see thah team play.

Also, a lot of the Sox fans at the Trop live here now but clung to old alliegences because the Rays were so bad. I'd guess that some will start switching over if the Rays are for real. With me own eyes, I saw at least a dozen people in Sox gear buying Rays stuff in the proshop before and after the game on Sunday.