I wore my Phillies
jersey down here in Tampa today. I expected to talk baseball with
people and my expectations weren’t disappointed. The desk clerk was
first as when we started talking baseball he told me the Rays barely
attracted 20,000 people a night up to the All Star break and now
everyone is a Rays fan. That is so true, both Florida teams seem to be
that way. The whole season the hometown fans don’t seem to support
them, look at the Florida Marlins for instance, but if they make the
playoffs and World Series the fans come crawling out of the wood work.

Everywhere
I went down here, I encountered people who were finally happy to see a
guy with a Phillies shirt on! I heard that many times during the day,
and most people were very polite when they didn’t think much of my
Phillies shirt or choice of team. I even went down to St.Petersburg to
the stadium in a vain attempt to get tickets to Game 1 at the ticket
window at the stadium. I was told there will be a sale of seats, and
any remaining seats would go onsale at the Rays site if there were any
left. The actual sale of the tickets will be on Tuesday with the game
on Wednesday. I encountered some real die hard Rays fans waiting for
the players to arrive, they treated myself and my Mrs. like one of
their own, they knew we had come to get a glimpse of our heros from
Philadelphia, just as they were waiting for their local Tampa heros.

I
also went to the Clearwater Bright House Network Phillies stadium where
they have a gift shop that is open all year round, I looked at some
nice branded hats with the World Series logo on them, and some nice
shirts among other things. If you’re coming down to the games, go there
for your merchandise. It’s all in a nice gift shop right at the stadium.