Tampa Bay Rays fever has swept Gainesville since the team defeated the Boston Red Sox on Oct. 19 to take the American League Championship and go to the World Series.
Rays merchandise has been flying off shelves, said James Cattaneo, assistant manager at Champs Sports in the Oaks Mall.
Cattaneo said the store wasn't stocking a lot of Rays gear at the beginning of the season in the spring, but after the team started off strong, hats and T-shirts became a hot commodity.
TJ Goodman, the vice president and general managing partner of Mother's Pub & Grill, said it has been funny to watch the transformation of the fan base in his bar.
"I would see customers come in wearing Red Sox garb and then a couple days later see them in Rays stuff," he said.
Goodman lived in Tampa when the team began play in 1998. He used to put the team's games on just one TV in his bar because he was the only person who would watch them. Now, all his TVs are tuned in to the games.
Justin Coran, a third-year UF graduate student and sociology instructor, said the bandwagon fan base for the Rays in Gainesville has developed because the city has such a large population interested in sports.
"There is also a huge population of students from the Tampa Bay area," he said. "They feel a sense of pride that their hometown team is doing so well."
The Rays attracted attention this season when they were dubbed by newscasters and newspapers as the team that went from "worst to first."
Before this year, the team was the laughingstock of baseball and never had a winning season.
The team's worst season was in 2002 when it suffered 106 losses and 55 wins under the management of Hal McRae.
Game 5 of the Series was suspended Monday night with the teams tied at 2. Philadelphia has a 3-1 lead in the series.
