The Charm of Discovering and Loving (Rays) Baseball as an Adult

A coworker told me this week that I exude a lifelong fandom for the Rays. Technically, that isn’t accurate because I didn’t start following baseball until 2020. It’s a compliment though because I take pride in how passionate I am about the Rays — everyone at work is aware of my obsession.

It’s an interesting dynamic being someone in her mid-20s who has only been a baseball fan for three years. There are times when I do feel like a kid, despite the fact that I only developed a love for baseball (and the Rays) in my adult years. And perhaps when I talk about the Rays, I project a more youthful, energetic spirit to those around me, much like a kid might in their earlier or formative years as a sports fan when they are just beginning to become familiar with the sport and team. It occasionally brings back memories of when I was a young Nets fan, and sadly, that energy faded a long time ago for me with basketball.

I didn’t grow up in a family of sports fans. Really, the only person other than myself who is knowledgeable about sports is my dad — and he's actually much more literate than I am when it comes to sports beyond just basketball and baseball. He has never been someone who's big on team fandom though. No, nobody in my family would actually want to go with me to sporting events: The only time my dad attended a Nets game with me was when my college offered two free Nets tickets as a reward for participating in a blood drive (my dad, concerned that I’m lightweight, did not want me to donate blood, so he offered to buy a pair of tickets himself).

I realized that I missed out on a lot as a young basketball fan. One of my biggest regrets is that I never got to see the Nets play in New Jersey — my parents never took me to a Nets game, and I went to my first Nets game when I was in high school or college (and by that point, the team had already moved to Brooklyn). I didn’t own a single New Jersey Nets jersey, either — they were more difficult to come by in New York, and it would be challenging to persuade my non-sports fan parents to spend >$50 on a jersey.

In many ways with my adult baseball fandom, I’m making up for everything I lost out on when I was a young basketball fan. Something that helps immensely is that as a full-time working professional, I have more control over my own finances and time: I can buy my own merchandise and attend games at my own discretion and with greater flexibility. In my first three years as a baseball fan, I’ve probably attended just as many (if not more) baseball games as I have basketball games in my life! I also own way more Rays jerseys than I do Nets jerseys, although that may have more to do with how baseball jerseys are the superior jerseys because they don’t look ridiculously oversized on the average person.

As the lone sports fan in my family, being an adult baseball fan also means being able to forge my own path. That’s why I have a baseball bucket list that I’m attempting to make into traditions, including my annual birthday trip! Aside from local games in New York that I can attend with friends, that will inevitably mean a lot of solo travel, which is my preferred type of travel anyway. Some people might find that intimidating, but you miss out on 100% of the life experiences that you don’t create for yourself.

My own time and money will be heavily invested in the Rays for the rest of my life. There will unavoidably be many tears and heartache as well. But I chose this life as an adult, and I can’t imagine having it any other way.