Oh Keith Olbermann, Don’t You Know When to Butt Out?

Notice I did not write South Florida. All of it. Rays’ owner Stu Sternberg was already less than sanguine about getting significant scratch from the state and local governments for a new ballpark that is absolutely essential to his survival in Tampa/St. Petersburg. If he had any hopes left after the disastrously low crowds for the free ballpark the good burghers of Florida gave Jeffrey Loria, they have to be gone now and he has to be looking elsewhere.

The nugget of non-objective “journalism” above, was dropped into or laps via Keith Olbermann in his latest article titled The Marlins: A Modest Proposal. What initially looked to be a piece specifically on the unrequited love affair between Miami and the Marlins, ended up as a poorly written conjecture festival to the tenth power; a piece on the seeming inability of our state to support one professional baseball team, much less two. His implication that, “Tampa Bay is gone. One would assume that at the latest the season of 2020 opens without a Florida team in the majors,” is uninformed to say the least. And his list of potential markets that are receptive, and potentially open, to a relocated franchise? Ridiculous at best. Montreal? Really?

Olbermann, like the throngs of other critics, is informed on the larger issues surrounding our beloved franchise, yet highly uniformed when it comes to the smaller intricacies therein. That is to say, it’s very easy for Olbermann to point his finger and pass along his opinion of what should be. I can’t help but wonder if his non-objective, ill-informed point of view, should be taken with anything but a grain of salt?

Do I think everything he said is baseless conjecture? Of course not. He certainly makes a cogent argument when it comes to Miami. However, this area holds something for the Rays that Miami has not held for the Marlins in some time: a fan base. Sure, you wouldn’t notice it by looking at the attendance numbers, but the fan base is there. Proof? The recent Quinnipiac poll that found the Rays with a much larger fan base (than the Marlins) in the state of Florida. I’d also argue that the sizeable increase in the Rays TV ratings speaks volumes. As Cork Gaines wrote in a recent piece for the Rays Index, “Of course, the good news is, this once again shows that people in the Tampa-St. Pete area are interested in the Rays, even if they are not going to the games in numbers that would please the national media.”

So Keith, let me just say when it comes to the local issues surrounding our Rays, get informed then feel free to fire away. Otherwise butt out and let us take care of our own. After all, you entering the fray certainly won’t help anything.