Rays fans find respect in the Bronx

When you wander into Yankee Universe, wearing a jersey and cap of the Tampa Bay Rays, it's difficult to be inconspicuous.

Some New Yorkers gawk and point, like a Martian has landed. Others try East Coast bravado, hoping to scare the audacity out of anyone who would dare enter their palace and root for the visitors.

A few stare and smile, as if to say, "Oh, how adorable. He's dressed up like a Ray. He's going to cheer for his team just like a big boy."

So what is it like to pose as a Rays fan, jumping feet first into the pennant race, experiencing Yankee Stadium's most emotionally charged weekend this season?

In a word: awesome.

We donned the Carlos Pena authentic jersey - hey, who snarls at the ever-smiling Carlos? - and conducted a scientific experiment. How would we be treated?

First off, there was mutual respect. There was educated conversation: "When are you guys calling up (pitching prospect Jeremy) Hellickson?"

There was humor, the back-and-forth repartee that adds flavor to watching baseball. There was a common disdain for the Boston Red Sox.

And down below, there was quite a show unfolding.

The Rays and Yankees traded opening volleys before New York won 9-5 on Sunday, increasing its lead to three games in the American League East.

"You got a good club," Yankee fan Stan Maloney said. "But don't be getting any ideas that you're going to win this thing. You're chasing us. Don't forget that."

Ah, but remember the old days, when the Rays were just another bug for the Yankees to squash? Remember when Yankee fans regularly invaded Tropicana Field, solidly reversing the home-field advantage and always infuriating the Tampa Bay loyalists?

Times have changed.

Saturday afternoon, the No. 4 subway train rumbled into the Bronx, delivering thousands of baseball fans to the 161st Street station, in the shadow of cavernous Yankee Stadium.

"If you're coming to the game," a New York Police Department officer said into his bullhorn, trying to direct the pedestrian traffic, "please step over here to the left."

Then he noticed a half-dozen out-of-towners, dressed in Rays garb.

"And you folks, please go to the right, return to the train and go back to Tampa."

Insult?

Hardly. It's a compliment.

"The Yankees know who we are," said Vicki Starr, a Rays fan from Tampa who attended the weekend series. "We're on their tails now. This is going right to the end."

History lesson

Several Yankees fans wore the T-shirt slogan:

Welcome To History 101.

And that history was on full display. Saturday's Old-Timers Day already had been scheduled. But the weekend became a time of melancholy and celebration.

Within two days, a pair of Yankee legends had died - Bob Sheppard, the elegant public-address announcer, and George Steinbrenner, the principal owner who led the franchise back to glory.

Friday night, a lone trumpeter played Taps. Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera placed two roses at home plate. Steinbrenner was fondly remembered by video tributes from scores of Yankees. There were no in-game player introductions, a salute to the "clear, concise and correct" announcements of Sheppard. Saturday, a video was played of Sheppard singing "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," for years a Mother's Day tradition at Yankee Stadium.

Touching experience

"This place is something else," said Bradenton's Tom DeSaulniers, director of manufacturing commercialization for Tropicana Beverages North America, who attended the weekend games with his wife and daughter. "We love the Rays, but this whole experience has been very touching.

"You have to respect all the things that have happened here."

John Drahos, 64, a retired materials manager for a chemical company, attended his first Yankees game in 1951, when Mickey Mantle was a rookie. Drahos, who lives in Sayreville, N.J., sat with his 5-year-old son, some 11 rows behind the dugout, as Reggie Jackson launched three home runs in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series. Last year, he purchased a box seat from the old Yankee Stadium. It's in his living room. That's where he sat last October as he watched New York win its 27th world championship.

"These are things that have spanned our lives," Drahos said. "The Rays don't have that kind of history, not yet."

Longtime Yankees fan Joe Rutigliano, a former conductor and union official for the Long Island Railroad, spends his winters in Trinity.

He has been to Tropicana Field, a place he mildly tolerates. The old Yankee Stadium is home. The new place is special, too.

Rutigliano loves the stadium's nod to Tampa - Cuban sandwiches are served at the concession stands - and the way ushers hold back fans from the aisles so as to not block others' view until an at-bat has been completed.

"It's about doing things with a certain standard of excellence," Rutigliano said. "That's what has always been expected here."

And now that is expected with the Rays, too.

New York's proving ground

When Joe Maddon became manager of the Rays in 2006, he almost sensed sympathy from New York fans.

"It was like, 'Hey guys, just hang with it. Things will get better,'" Maddon said.

And now?

"The respect factor has gone through the roof," Maddon said. "You hear a fan say, 'Hey, take it easy on us tonight.' You never heard that before.

"I do love it because when you do well in New York, there's extra feeling to it. I mean, what does the song say?"

If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere.

"I've always felt the Yankees are almost at a disadvantage because every team that goes into New York feels the same way," Maddon said. "They always have to be up - always. When you play the Yankees, everything is heightened."

Especially now.

"Pitching and defense," said Maloney, the Yankees fan. "That's what the Rays do. But to hang with us, you got to hit."

"We're fine," said Starr, the Rays fan. "We're going to hit."

"Yeah, your left fielder (Carl Crawford), he's been hitting," Maloney said. "Next season, he'll be playing for us."

That potential reality gets the attention of every Rays fan. For now, there's a pennant race to follow.

Wearing the Rays jersey and cap at Yankee Stadium, something that might have prompted chuckles a few seasons back, shows that there is another opponent worthy of New York's attention.

Go get a hot dog, turn the corner, run into a couple of passionate Yankees fans, and here's what happens.

"Hey, who let the Devil Ray guy in here?" one guy says.

"That's OK," his friend added. "We don't mind you dressing up like that around here. If that's what you want to do. You got a good team."

Then he added a warning.

"If I were you - and believe me, it's for your own good - I wouldn't try this in Philadelphia. Those people are crazy."

The Yankee Universe, baseball's ruling power, has spoken.

And deep down, despite its legendary confidence, it knows the Rays are to be taken very seriously.