Every night I search on twitter for tweets mentioning "Rays attendance". Usually at least one person in the baseball twittersphere makes a bad joke about the Rays fanbase. I usually provide them with facts and sometimes they follow or sometimes I roll in the mud with the pigs and get dirty. It's a fun exercise that usually challenges my grasp of the attendance situation.
Last night, however, I did a different search. I searched twitter for "FSL attendance". The search led me to an interesting comment.
There was a sell out, record breaking attendance at my game tonight against @dsmith25blujay I counted every fan. I counted up to 27. #FSL
— Dante Bichette Jr (@DBJr19) July 8, 2014
Dante Bichette Jr is an third baseman for the Tampa Yankees. On July 7th, the Tampa Yankees visited the Dunedin Blue Jays. According to the Dunedin Blue Jays, paid attendance for that game was 702. The Rays also played that night, drawing 13,406 in James Shields' return to Tropicana Field.
Even worse, Dunedin outfielder Dwight Smith Jr didn't stand up for his own fan base and only commented "Hah".
@DBJr19 Hah #MILBProblems
— Dwight Smith Jr (@dsmith25blujay) July 8, 2014
Shame on Bichette and Smith. Being second generation professional baseball players, they should be more sensitive to their fanbases. Considering the home of the Dunedin Blue Jays, Florida Auto Exchange Stadium, is only 21.9 miles (33 minutes) from Steinbrenner Field, home of the Tampa Yankees, Bichette is criticizing the same metropolitan area he plays in.
Why a minor league baseball player would take to twitter to comment on attendance is beyond my comprehension. Especially one who grew up around stadiums and fans. Perhaps Dante Bichette Jr wasn't around when his father played in small towns such as Salem, Oregon; Davenport, Iowa; Midland, Texas; and Nashua, New Hampshire. Bichette Jr might also not realize that Dunedin, with a population of only 35,000 is one of the smallest towns in the nation hosting a minor league baseball team.
One day Dante Bichette Jr might make the Major Leagues. While he moves on to play in front of tens of thousands of fans, fans of the Florida State League will still be coming out to support the next generation of players. They will pay their good money to sit in seats and watch young ballplayers work to be the best in the world.
With a choice to see Major Leaguers play in Tropicana Field 21 miles to the south, Dante Bichette Jr and Dwight Smith Jr should be thankful for every fan, home or away, who comes to see them.