Fan Spotlight

Each week, Team Rhino will be combing the social media landscape trying to identify passionate fans on the local and national sports scene that use social medial platforms while at games or at home.  In addition, Team Rhino will interview the fans to find out WHY they enjoy using social media during their sports experience.

The hottest team in all of baseball right now is the Tampa Bay Rays.  Coming off their 2008 American League Championship and winning record in 2009 for just the second time in the team’s history, the 2010 season has been a dream so far.

As part of the Rays experience, a loyal following has developed on Twitter to follow the #Rays every pitch.  No matter whether it’s a hit, run or error, someone somewhere is tweeting about the Rays (and every other Major League Baseball team, for that matter).

Two fans that have shown themselves to be diehard Rays fans and social media users are @Kero97 and @maryblanket of Twitter.  Pitch to the Rhino caught up with both of them recently to find out what fuels their social media desire when it comes to the boys of summer.

@Kero97 has been a fan since 2008 and she doesn’t mind if you call her a bandwagon fan.  She loves all of the players on the team and her favorite Rays moment to date was the last out of Game 7 of the 2008 American League Championship Series, which gave Tampa Bay the pennant.

@Kero97 has been on Twitter for about a year.  She enjoys tweeting during games using the #Rays hashtag because, “It’s almost like you’re at a bar and you turn to the person next to you to comment on the game.”

@Kero97 said she attends Rays games via the Saturday plan and she goes to other games when she gets a chance as time and finances allow.  “I just got a phone with internet access, but mainly I don’t tweet a lot while I’m there because I’m there to watch the game, which is hard to do while tweeting.”  A fan of Tropicana Field, she enjoys the indoor games because there are no rainouts and no worrying about heat.

@Kero97 met @southermojo through Twitter and the two of them are now seatmates at Rays games.  She also converses about the Rays with @sstamour, who she also met on Twitter.  She also follows @Dodgers because she grew up a Los Angeles fan and @Angels because she still loves former Rays pitcher Scott Kazmir.

While she didn’t have anything she wanted to tell the Rays Marketing Department, she likes what she sees in terms of the team’s social media presence and she would absolutely love to see the team host their own fan Tweetup sometime this year, which is something the San Francisco Giants did successfully on April 30 of this year.

Unlike @Kero97, @maryblanket has been a fan since the team’s inception as the Devil Rays in 1998.  Her favorite player is Ben Zobrist and her favorite moment in team history was, “Opening day 2009, when the ALCS flag was raised.  Everyone went crazy and it was overwhelming and amazing.”

This season marks the first time @maryblanket has used social media to communicate her feelings during sporting events.

“I enjoy tweeting during games because it helps express my frustration as well as celebrate great plays with my fellow Rays fans. I gain insight from their points of view.”

@maryblanket has interacted with almost 40 fellow Twitter users this season, most of whom she has not met in person.  While she has only attended two games so far, she tweeted during both because she enjoys interacting with other fans.  If a new stadium is built, she believes it should be built in Tampa and that it should still be a dome. “There is no way attendance will increase with an outside stadium in the dead of summer.”

From a team social media experience, @maryblanket believes the Rays Marketing Department does a pretty good job.  “I really enjoy the fact that many Rays players have Twitter and interact with fans. For instance, Pitcher David Price tweets all the time, whether it’s riddles or what he’s eating.”  She would definitely attend a Rays tweetup if the teams does one later this season.

As for shared fan experiences, @maryblanket has met a lot of #Rays fans through Twitter, such as @losvideo and @Boricua611, both of whom she says give great insight each game and are fun to speak with.

She has also met several non-Rays sports fans through Twitter such as @Stevo71, whom she called “a great all-around sports lover and really the reason I started Tweeting about sports. Another great non-Rays fan is @Dizzzledan, who is an Orioles fan. We began talking baseball in the opening 2009 series.”

While Team Rhino will seek out fans for this section each week, if you would like to nominate yourself or someone else for this section,