A Brave New World

As usual I am sliding into the blogsphere, blog-o-sphere, World Wide Blog or whatever you want to call it several years late. I've spend the last year or so randomly posting on myspace and since I've cracked the 500 reader barrier I figure it's time to post on a real blog site. Ok, so I got sick of my girlfriend making fun of me every time I logged onto myspace around her.

I don't have any goals with this site (other than to be on the 2010 list of most influential bloggers list) so I don't know how long this will last. This site be mostly about sports, especially on Tampa Bay professional teams, but might branch out to other areas as well.

This is a one man operation. A one man operation whose one man has sufficient spelling and grammar issues. So if you are one of the chosen few who reads this blog don't nitpick the details. The one man operation also has a full time job, you'll read about it from time to time. It's a great place to work... really... I'm not lying.

About the title of the blog - I love the Tampa Bay area so it's not a shot at the Gulf Bay Area. Yes it's alright to refer to it as the "Tampa Bay area" because even if you live in Tampa you hang out in St Pete and vice versa. I'm a St Pete guy - love the beaches and it's close to the No Limits Fun Factory. It's more of a shot at the fans and their mentality about sports.

Major professional sports in the Tampa area is a fairly new business. Of the big 3 (NFL- Tampa Bay Buccaneers, NHL - Tampa Bay Lightning, MLB - Tampa Bay Rays) the Buccaneers have been here the longest and that's only 30 years. While 30 years may seem like a long time in this instant information age just think about how long professional sports have been in cities like New York, Los Angeles and even good ol' Baltimore.

So even though the fans have gone though their share of misery in this area it's not like they have the generational losing aura like Cub fans or Red Sox fans before they became pompous assess. Losing is only one generation in this town. For as young of a sports town this is it has enjoyed success with a Super Bowl and Stanley Cup in the last 5 years. That breeds a bit of an impatience among local fans.

This area also has a huge transplant population that brings their old team loyalties with it. Even I your intrepid blogger is a Ravens fan and partial O's fan. Fan bigamy thrives in the TBA as evidenced by the crowds at Tropicana Field when the Yankees and Red Sox are in town. Winning cures some of that as you can tell by the diminished cheesehead appearances at Bucs games.

What bothers me the most, however, is the overall lack of knowledge displayed by the majority of fans in the area. For instance a few Lightning games I sat in the nosebleed seats and listened as fans whined for a penalty shot despite the fact that Brad Richards wasn't clear from the defense and got off a solid scoring opportunity two factors that by themself would negate a penalty shot. Among friends we usually refer to them as the "shoot the puck" crowd.

Speaking of friends you will hear the occasional mention of my close circle of friends including but not limited to Link - former Pittsburgh resident trapped in the 8th circle of hell known as South Carolina, Big Mike - local product who could rattle off Duke and Seton Hall's starting line ups from 1992 and Hamel - former co-worked at No Limits and roommate who is currently residing in Arizona.

To wrap up this will be a place of discussion primarily of the Devil Rays and Lightning. Nothing to fancy or scaldingly snarky as the deadspin and KSK kids. I doubt there will be much breaking news, but it should be semi interesting.

Hope you enjoy.