Rays fan cutouts want their seats back

A group of the fan photo cutouts that occupied the seats for Tampa Bay Rays games at Tropicana Field during the 2020 season when people couldn’t attend in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic are angry that they have been replaced by actual human being fans and want the team to comply with their demands to be allowed to go to games again.

“And I want my seats; second row, behind the Rays dugout along the third base line, for every game,” said a cutout featuring a photo of season ticket holder Carl Airognol. “Not some tickets in some bullshit section like 347 for games against the Guardians or Rockies.”

“Damn, those are better seats than mine,” said the real-life Carl Airognol, whose tickets are located in section 347.

“The Rays are doing so well this year, we just want to be part of it, that’s all,” said a cutout representing longtime fan Amanda Arumawi. “Many of the players we watched in 2020 are gone now: Zunino, Kiermaier, Choi and my personal favorite, Brett Phillips. But we feel like they’re still ‘our’ team.

Rays Director of Fan Cutout Alumni Mike Rivers said he wants to accommodate the cutouts and that the team is working on a solution.

“Fair is fair and we do owe them a debt,” he said. “Sure, they got to watch a great team that eventually won the AL pennant but they were here all day and night, every day and night, all season long.”

“If we could get 10% of that level of devotion from our human fans, we wouldn’t have to float stupid concepts like playing half of our season in Montreal,” he added.