My Story

Let me first say, since this is my first official post, how I came to be a fan of two MLB teams.  There tends to be such a stigma about rooting for more than one team, whether you get called a bandwagon jumper or not a true fan.  I find it quite ridiculous.  I became a Marlins fan in 1997 when my uncle took me to my first game and I fell in love with the sport.  I proceeded to go to eight games that season (4 during the playoffs) and then about 30+ the following year (1998; the year the Marlins went from first to worst).  I definitely developed a sense of pride for my team at such a young age, I feel, in part because I rooted for the worst team in baseball and did not know any better.    That same season, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays came into existence, and again because of my age and love for Florida (the only home I've ever knew up to that point), I thought it was only natural to root for them as well.  There I was, 10 years old, and my two favorite teams sported the worst records in the game, and yet I was enjoying learning, watching, and playing this amazing game.

Now, here comes my confession.   Because I could not go to any of their games or watch on TV, my Rays 'fandom' dissipated, to say the least.  They differed from the Marlins, who came back to prominence in the early 2000s and stayed there throughout despite a fire sale in 2006.  The Rays, however, continued to field borderline 100-loss teams for almost a decade and I admittedly lost interest.  I'm not proud of it, but for a long time, I was a true Marlins fan and just simply a Rays follower.  That all changed in 2008, when I ... [let the bandwagon jumper jeers begin] ... jumped on the bandwagon!  The Marlins were amidst there almost annual, unrealistic chase of the wild card in the last month of the season, but the Rays were shocking the world.  They were going against the top two payrolls in baseball, and they were winning, and winning big!  By the time that the division championship was clinched, I was hooked again!  Call me a bandwagon jumper or a fair weather fan, and I'll take it all because for those last months of the 2008 season, I had a relevant October and a team I could get behind 100%.  I truly believe that there is no greater feeling than that for a sports fan.

When spring 2009 rolled around, I found myself more and more checking the season outlooks for the Marlins and the Rays.  The season began and I was not only waiting for the ESPN bottom line to show the final score for Florida, but for Tampa Bay as well (At this point in my life I was living in Massachusetts so the only games I could actually watch were that of the Red Sox).  To make a long story short, I've been there for both my teams ever since.  I'll always live and die on every pitch for the Marlins, but my love for the Rays grows with every passing game.  Some may say that I'm not a true fan (Dan Herrero), but all those great aspects of rooting for and having a favorite baseball team, I get them two-fold.  Everyday during the season, it's the best of both worlds!

Keep coming back during the season for my take on everything Marlins, Rays, MLB, and anything else that I might want to share!