The Rays averaged 28,852 fans (80.0% capacity) for their 10 September home dates, including two sellouts in their final two home games of the season. And yet, as recently as four days ago, Mitch Stacy of the Associated Press, wrote a story that was carried in many papers across the country titled, "Question for 1st-place Rays: Where are the fans?".

But the team is still playing to small crowds at Tropicana Field, a situation that's starting to give fans a bit of national black eye. The lack of buzz has some commentators questioning whether the Tampa Bay area even deserves to have the team.

These stories continue to be written as if the Rays and their fans are a blight on baseball. The implication is that any other team in a pennant race would be selling out every game, with fans spilling into the aisles.

One of our good friends, a die hard New York Mets fan, alerted us that this is not the case.

The above picture was taken at Shea Stadium on September 14. It was a Sunday afternoon game against the Atlanta Braves. At the time of the game, the Mets had a 1 game lead in the NL East.

The attendance for the game was announced as 56,041, about 300 short of capacity. Take a closer look at the image (a larger version can be found HERE. An even larger version can be found HERE). It is easy to spot the empty seats. In the lower deck they are orange, in the middle deck they are blue and the upper deck they are green. Also note that this photo was taken during the 3rd inning (see scoreboard) with the score tied 1-1.

So where is the criticism of the Mets and their fans? A Sunday afternoon, on a beautiful day, in the middle of a late-season pennant race against the team's biggest rival, in the biggest baseball town in the country...and it looks like they don't have anymore than 35,000 in the stands (~70% capacity).

Our friend assures us that the above picture is typical of a Mets crowd for the last few weeks, and yet the Mets continue to announce crowd sizes of 50,000+.

And what about Baltimore? Last night the announced crowd was 12,489. That is at least twice the actual crowd. We wondered aloud if this was the first road game in Rays history with more Rays fans than home fans. A "Tampa...Bay" chant could even be heard on the TV broadcast. Yes, the O's are 26 games back, but supposedly this is one of the great baseball towns in this country and they have one of the icon stadiums in the sport. And yet, two of the knocks against the Rays are that Tropicana Field is terrible and Bay Area fans care more about football.

Why is there no criticism of other teams like the Mets and Orioles? Because those teams bloat their attendance figures and their fans are fair-weather.

At times the Rays attendance has been disappointing, but our stance is that nobody should expect sellouts to occur overnight. At the beginning of the season, when fans make season-ticket purchases and corporations enter partnerships with the team, many still believed this was a losing franchise. All fans need something to root for. Now that the Bay Area has a team worth rooting for, the crowds will grow. And once they do, they will be loyal.

In the mean time, the only way the Rays and their fans will avoid criticism is to take a cue from the Mets and just lie.

Question for 1st-place Rays: Where are the fans? [Associated Press]

THE GOOD: Jason Bartlett's first home run with the Rays. We honestly wondered if he would ever hit an over-the-fence home run with the Rays. We have seen players with "warning track power" and Jason doesn't even have that. And we wonder if Bartlett actually enjoyed getting plunked his next time up. How many times in his career will he get plunked after hitting a home run? That is a sign of respect not usually bestowed upon little people in baseball...And if there was any question whether Joe Maddon's emphasis on running hard has had any affect on the Rays, you need look no further than Aki Iwamura's at bat in with the 7th inning with 2 outs and the Rays already up 8-1. Aki hit a routine ground ball to first base. Normally an easy out and would have been very easy to lollygag there. Kevin Millar bobbled the ball and with Aki busting his butt the whole way, he beat the pitcher to the bag scoring the 9th run of the game. Meaningless run? Yep. But those are the sort of things that become habit-forming and are contagious. It also shows everybody that a play is not an out until it is an out.

THE BAD: BJ Upton was benched for not hustling to first base after being hit by a pitch. Wait. *rechecks notes* What? Oh. Apparently he was not benched. Instead he was removed for precationary reasons. He is apparently fine.

THE TELLING: The Rays magic number to clinch a playoff spot is now 19...There was a lot of talk last week about the Rays low attendance figures. The Rays averaged 29,541 for the 3-game set with the Orioles. Not bad for a series against a last-place club. Will we see any stories this week about how strong the attendance was this weekend? Not likely...How many people watched Rocco Baldelli's walk-off hit on Saturday and after the team mobbed Carlos Pena at home, and turned to go after Rocco, thought "Oh Shit, please go easy on Rocco!"

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...

• We covered the September call-ups yesterday. [Rays Index]
  
• Dioner Navarro was out of the lineup again on Sunday with sore hamstrings. He will also sit the opening game of the Yankees series. [Rays Report]
  
• The Rays had been hoping Evan Longoria would be ready to come off the DL for the Yankees series that begins on Tuesday. Now Joe Maddon says that is not likely. Dirtbag has yet to take live batting practice and Papa Joe would like to see Longoria take BP for 2 or 3 days before being activated...With the solid play of Willy Aybar and the comfortable lead in the standings, the Rays are most likely just erring on the side of caution. [The Heater]
• Troy Percival will be activated on Tuesday. [MLB]
• Tom Jones has several issues with the broadcast put on by Fox during their coverage of the Rays game on Saturday. Jones also agreed with Dewayne Staats and Joe Magrane that the Rays needed to retaliate to protect Jason Bartlett after the shortstop was intentionally hit by a pitch...We disagree. If this was May or June? Yes. But the Rays are already shorthanded with injuries and are in the middle of a pennant race. The last thing Papa Joe needs right now is to get into a pissing contest and have players suspended. [St. Pete Times]
  
• JP Howell has made only 4 appearances in the past 2 weeks. Brittany Ghiroli says the Rays are just scaling back Howell's workload so that he will be well-rested down the stretch. [MLB]
• ESPN will feature David Price on their Tuesday episode of "E:60". [BaseballdeWorld]
  
• Buster Olney uses Edwin Jackson as an example of a pitcher that took a while to learn how to pitch, but the Rays' patience is now paying off. Olney speculates that with more emphasis placed on protecting young arms, it may have the undesired affect of slowing the learning curve for pitchers like Jackson. [ESPN]\

"Learning to deal with struggles is a big part in today's game," Jackson said. "There are going to be times when you are going to fail. It's not all smiles and giggles."...Young and talented starting pitchers are typically throwing only four to six innings as they come up through the minors, which means that they have fewer chances to pitch into and out of jams, fewer chances to learn how to pitch when they are tired and not working with their best stuff, fewer chances to take a deep breath and try to slow down the game. Thirty years ago, young pitchers were left in games to throw 115 to 130 pitches, in all likelihood -- so by comparison, the chance for acquired experience these days is quite literally 20 to 35 percent less... In most cases, the opportunity for failure is needed -- the opportunity to face a crisis and take a deep breath and slow the game down. The Rays were able to give that chance to Jackson last season, when he was horrendous in the first half but gradually began to gain traction in his career, finishing at 5-15 with a 5.76 ERA. "Last year was obviously my worst year," Jackson said. "But it was the best year as far as learning." Now Jackson and the Rays have been rewarded, as he has matured into a solid starter who will likely be a weapon in the postseason.

• The Ghosts of Tropicana Field take a closer look at the season BJ Upton is having. [The Ghosts of Tropicana Field]
  

THE GOOD: Finally, the Rays caught a couple of breaks. First was in the second inning after Matt Garza gave up a leadoff single. With the runner going on the pitch to stay out of a double-play, Lyle Overbay then hit a bouncer back up the middle that looked like a catcher trying to throw out a basestealer. The ball bounced chest-high right over the second base bag, right to a waiting Jason Bartlett, who caught it and threw to first for the double-play. Then in the 7th, after retiring the first 2 batters, Garza gave up back-to-back singles, the second of which went under the glove of Willy Aybar, essentially giving the Jays an extra out in the inning. Garza survived to get the next batter to pop out. Finally, in the 9th inning, with a 1-0 lead Joe Maddon brought in Dan Wheeler and looking like a genius, Papa Joe moves Justin Ruggiano from right to left field. With 2 outs, Rod Barajas hit a ball that if a foot farther is a home run. As it was, Ruggiano timed his jump perfectly and his glove and the ball reach the top of the fence at the same moment, and somehow the ball stuck in Ruggiano's glove. Game over...We've been saying it for a while, but if there was any doubt, there shouldn't be now. The Yankees are dead. The Yankees are roadkill.

THE BAD: Holes in the Rays' bats. The 11 strikeouts isn't terible. But when 9 of them come in the first 4 innings, that is terrible. It is hard to tell, how much of it was the Rays having a bad night or how much was just David Purcey pitching light's out. He threw a complete game needing only 90 pitches. 72 of those pitches were strikes. A truly Madduxian performance. Just gotta tip the cap and be grateful for Carlos Pena's latest home run, or else they might still be playing.

THE TELLING: The Rays magic number for the Wild Card is 25 over the Twins, with 31 games remaining.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...

• Dioner Navarro had an MRI done on both of his hamstrings and no damage was detected. He is listed as day-to-day. [Rays Report]
• Evan Longoria hit off a tee and Joe Maddon said everything went well. [The Heater]
• We have been trying to defend the attendance for a while now. But after this week, we don't know what to say anymore. John Romano is right: "And, in a remarkable display of grace under pressure, we continue to stay away from Tropicana Field in droves." Matt Silverman has a couple of quotes that reveal the frustration of the team. [St. Pete Times]

"The TV ratings are high, and that's a great sign, but it hasn't translated to the number of people at Tropicana Field. It really takes the wind out of our sails," Silverman said. "We've poured our hearts and souls into making this a great draw, and a great fan experience. And to come home after a great road trip and have … the smallest crowds in major-league baseball was discouraging.

• Baseball Mastermind takes a look back at their preseason preview of the Rays to see what they got right...As a side-note, we have a few friends that got the Rays over-under for wins prior to the season at 77. They laughed at how "high" it was, bet the under, calling it the best line they had ever seen. Like a broken record, they all chimed in, "I don't care how improved the Rays are, they will never win 78 games when they have to play the Red Sox and Yankees 18 or 19 times each." We warned them that it was not as impossible as they thought. Does anybody listen to us? Suckers. [Baseball Mastermind]
• This should put to rest any lingering thoughts that the Rays should have drafted Pedro Alvarez with the top pick in June. Turns out Scott Boras refused to do any negotiating until just hours before the deadline and when Alvarez finally stepped up and pushed the negotiations just before the midnight deadline, a deal got done. Only, now Boras and Alvarez are contesting the deal, saying it was not submitted in time and of course they want more money. In other words, Alvarez and Boras are not happy that Buster Posey got more money. [MLB]
  

The Tampa Bay Rays have averaged 26,613 fans for their 10 home dates in June. That nearly doubles the 13,999 that the Devil Rays averaged in June of 2007.

Unfortunately, as far as we can tell, none of the 836,453 fans that have attended Rays games at the Trop this season were Jenn Sterger.

WHERE IS JENN STERGER?!?!

For all the new fans jumping on the Tampa Bay Rays bandwagon this season, it is disturbing that the fanbase appears to have lost one of their more recognizable bodies faces.

Besides, we need an updated photo of miss Sterger in the new Rays colors.

• It is cold and rainy here in New York. We will see if we get this game off in time.
  
• It is still to be determined if Jorge Cantu will ever play for the Rays again, but we can be fairly certain that he will never play second base for the Rays again. When Cantu reports to Durham, he is expected to primarily play DH. Also, Cantu was scheduled to be arbitration eligible at the end of the season. Depending on how long he is in the minors this season, he may lose that eligibility until after the 2008 season.
• It's not a good sign when the team's just hopes the #2 starter will keep them in games. A good team would only say that about their #5 and possibly #4 starters.
  
• Apparently the Tampa Bay Business Journal decided they needed a poll to show that Devil Rays attendance will increase if the team wins more games. TBBJ calls it the "Business Pulse Survey". We call it the "No Shit Sherlock Survey". That was money and time well spent.
• Brendan Roberts of the Sporting News is a closet Devil Rays fan.
  
• The Hardball Times looks at Scott Kazmir and other good young lefties.
  
• There was more than one April Fool's Day posts involving the Devil Rays, including one that said Carl Crawford was traded to the Braves, and had us do a double-take in our half asleep hangover state. However, that was not as entertaining as THIS one. We laugh because it is funny...we laugh because it is true.
• 2004 18th round pick Jimmy Scholzen, a short stop, has reported to his first minor league camp 2 years after signing a contract with the Devil Rays. The Rays allowed Scholzen to complete his two year Mormon mission despite signing a professional contract.