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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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Raysw to give away 20,000 tickets for Wednesday’s game

Posted Sep 28, 2010 by Roger Mooney

Updated Sep 28, 2010 at 05:45 PM

ROGER MOONEY
ST. PETERSBURG In response to postgame comments made Monday by Evan Longoria and Carlos Peña and a tweet by David Price that called the crowd of 12,446 an “embarrassment,” the Rays will give out 20,000 free tickets to tonight’s game against the Orioles.

“You’re heard from a couple of our players about the crowd (Monday) night, you can sense from that and from other comments throughout the year that our players really thrive on the energy in the ball park when it’s full,” team president Matt Silverman said Tuesday afternoon. “When it’s full of our fans, we have a very good record in this ballpark on Saturday night concerts and other games where we’re able to pack the place and so we are making these tickets available.”

Tickets will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis at the Trop’s ticket windows when the gates open at 4:45 p.m.

The Rays, needing a win Monday to clinch only the second playoff spot in team history, drew the fourth smallest crowd of the season.

Longoria, who did not play because of a strained quad, made it a point to address reporters after the game.

Price, who starts tonight, also commented on his twitter account.

When asked if they would have made the tickets available had Longoria not said anything, Silverman said, “It was something that we had discussed, but I don’t think we would have. It’s not about the two players, it’s about the sentiment expressed by the team throughout the year, the energy they get from the fans when this place is full. Two years ago when we clinched against Minnesota, the player celebrated with the fans. It was a packed house. It’s that type of celebration of this season we’re looking for. You see it in the record. The players really respond to the energy and the noise when our fans are in this place, and we’re looking to do that (Wednesday) with these free tickets.”