The Rays suffer more than their fair share of jokes at the team’s expense. People mock the attendance. They make fun of the stadium without ever having been. They don’t understand how a team can continue to compete with 2.5 starting pitchers and about ten thousand pounds of sheer determination.
And Rays fans just roll their eyes. They’re used to it. There’s not much they haven’t heard before, and none of the jokes are particularly good, anyway. The Rays faithful don’t care.
Still, there’s a team here worth loving, a team that Rays fans stand by season after season in spite of the trades, and the comments, and the questions of stadiums.