North Shore transplants in Florida are on the verge of requesting dual citizenship — in Red Sox Nation and Rays World.
The development comes as their former hometown favorites, the Boston Red Sox, square off in a seven-game series against one of the most surprising teams in baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays.
The prize will be a trip to the World Series.
"I love three teams," says Peabody-born John Doherty, "the Red Sox, the Rays and whoever beats the Yankees." The Yanks are consigned to baseball's ash heap for now. That narrows Doherty's affections.
Normally, there wouldn't be a question of allegiances. The Sox have a powerful pull on anybody born in New England. Yet, the stunning emergence of Tampa has made converts — or semi-converts — of even die-hard Sox fans.
The Rays took the worst record in Major League Baseball during 2007, and in 2008 managed to finish first in their division with the second best winning percentage in the American League. What's more, they did it with a lunch bucket team paid less than a third of what the Sox earn.
Doherty will be attending tonight's playoff game with his dad, Jack, a retiree from GE. Remarkably, the older Doherty will wear a Rays shirt. Among the draws, players with New England roots, including home run hitter Carlos Pena from Haverhill and speedy outfielder Rocco Baldelli from Rhode Island.
"It's hard to give up the loyalty of growing up in the Boston area," says Doherty, who clings to the old town colors. "But if the Rays win, it wouldn't be the worst thing."
Bob Babcock, originally from Danvers and now from Tampa, sees cars with New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine license plates in the Tropicana Park lot all the time, the owners barbecuing before game time. To the consternation of some locals and the Tampa players, they come to root against the Rays.
"The Red Sox have won two World Series, and I want to see the Rays in a World Series," Babcock says. But it isn't easy dealing with this. "I feel like I have to split my body in half."
The good news is that whichever way the playoffs end he will have a team to cheer for. "I've been here 10 years. ... Five or six years were pretty awful. They had (Jose) Canseco and all those jerks."
Attendance at some games was announced at 3,500 when it seemed even lower.
"I've watched the Rays develop and mature," Babcock says. "This team is something special. ... They're young. Exciting. Good people. And they'll do anything for the kids." He describes rookie sensation Evan Longoria cheerfully signing autographs for kids.
"We are die-hard Red Sox fans," says Marsha Kistler, originally of Peabody, now of the Tampa area. She attended the last Sox appearance at the "Trop" and discovered a Red Sox-friendly atmosphere.
Subsequently, she was surprised when TV sports reporters chided the locals for not supporting their team. By the end of the series, Sox fans were outnumbered by Rays rooters.
It wasn't pleasant to be a Bostonian after her team lost the second game, Kistler says. Rays backers were gloating, and she understands why.
"We were so obnoxious the night before (when the Sox won)."
Doherty uses the same word to describe Sox fans — obnoxious. "Boston fans get a pretty bad rap. But they deserve it. I've seen them throwing batteries off the heads of Yankee fans."
Moreover, Doherty says, everybody is getting tired of overbearing Bostonians boasting about their championship Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics.
Even so, the Tampa folk show a lot of tolerance. Not that they don't have some disagreeable quirks.
"Rays fans," Doherty says with a sigh, "they've got those cowbells."
