Die hard Rays fan here for 2+ decades. Randy reignited my love for the game during this post season run. I’ll never forget these playoffs where he was at the center of so many memorable plays and moments. He’ll always be a fan favorite no matter where he goes. Edit: when Randy was sitting in the bleachers saying goodbye to the fans in Tampa after getting traded, it truly touched me. I cried, he was a gift to this franchise.
At rays fan fest last year, I was wearing his jersey in line for something and he walks behind, I don’t even see him and he taps my shoulder to say what’s up just cause I had his jersey on. One of a kind player, one of a kind man. Wish him nothing but the best in the rest of his career.
Rays fan since 08', Randy is one of a kind. Every step along the way he proved himself to be a fantastic ballplayer and human being. Tricia Whittaker (Rays reporter) told a cool story about him on X, early on in his days in Tampa Randy caught a man 'cat-calling' her from the stands. He personally took offense (scaring the fan shitless) and everyday forward he asked her "Todo bien hoy?" (Everything good today?).
Rays are my second favorite team since the hometown AAA team, Durham Bulls, feeds into them. The walkoff hit of world series with him fumbling his way to home is still one of the most exciting baseball moments I've ever seen.
Fun fact: The president of Mexico at the time is a huge baseball fan so when Arozarena said he'd play for Mexico in the WBC if he could his citizenship application got expedited so he would qualify to play for them.
being famous shouldnt expedite anything that takes regular people ages. fame doesnt make anyone fuckin important. that shit is trash. players shouldnt ever play for countries they arent from. doesnt matter where peoples parents are from thats not where they are from themselves if not born in the same country. expediting players citizenship is trash just to play a useless sport that means nothing in the end .
Randy will find a loving fanbase up here in Seattle. Maybe we should as the Rays fans if its ok if use the term Randy Land also. Any Rays games in Seattle, we should allow all Rays fams to sit in left field.
The world baseball classic gave people who didn't get a chance to see Randy play a chance to see how special he is. He seems like such an awesome dude, you can't help rooting for him wherever he goes.
I’m a Mariners fan, but seeing Arozarena in the Trop with the audience made me tear up. That’s true dedication to your fans. I hope we in Seattle can earn that love with Randy now that we have him.
Die hard Yankees fan here, and Randy is one of my favorite baseball players of all time. I have had so many great interactions in the stands at home in Tampa and on the road in Baltimore and New York. Never refuses an autograph or photo. He even usually gives his extra or broken bats to fans. He crushed the Yankees every time he played us, yet nearly every single Yankees fan I ever talked to just couldn't hate him. That speaks volumes to the type or person and player he is. I'll miss watching Arozarena in Tampa
I called him over for a selfie back at Spring Training in 2020 and he was such a nice guy. I met him again this year and he’s still that same friendly guy despite all the attention he gets now. He signed autographs at 3 different spots in the ballpark and took time to interact with everyone. Gonna miss him with the Rays; this was a great video!
I cannot stress how much of Yasiel Puig, Randy has in him. Ik Puig has a ton of controversy but honestly it was awesome to see a guy remind me so much of Puig. Puig was the main guy that challenged the “old guy” narrative baseball used to have. Celebrating was never a normal thing until Puig broke out. Also just saying, both Puig and Randy got here nearly the same way.
Very well done video. I've been a Rays fans since 98 and a season member for a few years now. I was sitting right behind him just off camera to the right of him when he sat down in the seats. Hearing all of us chant "Randy" over and over until he stood up and waved was one of the most joyous moments I've ever felt as a Rays fan. I will never forget the fun times in Randy Land and him always giving back to the fans that showed up for him. He would make sure kids always got a ball from him. I always brought my "Vamos Randy" and "Rakes All Night Day Year" signs to every game in left field for him and he would always give me a thumbs up. He will be missed here. Thank you Randy for everything. 😢 ¡Vamos Randy!
5:49 i'm suprised u didn't mention his breakout season was in a weird way attributed to covid. He's always had good bat to ball skills but he was a low line drive gap to gap speed/defender guy but he got COVID and had to stay in a hotel for like a month by himself. Not being able to cook,he was like u know i should start eating a lil healthier in general. using RU-vid he got a recipe for 1pot chicken and rice down....Bored in a hotel room he did nothing but a couple hundred push-ups & Sit-ups a day and eat chicken & rice. He packed on like 15lbs of muscle and was shocked at just how much of an affect it had on his game/power and had a breakout season😂 i remember when the story came out ppl were calling him Saitama😂
As a Mariners fan, I hate how much Randy had to leave the Rays. It was his home. Nobody will ever be like him. While the offense bat was needed, I'd still rather see him playing with Tampa Bay. 😔
Imma miss him so much. Randy was everything being a Ray was about. Happy Flappy Boi, but not over the top with it. Underdog, but got that Dawg in him. Such a fantastic player to watch in his time with us.
Big baseball goober myself. Guardogs are my squad, but Tampa has a spot in my heart, being so similar in cheapness and whatnot. Anyway, been having a rough go at life, as we all do, and I just couldn’t help while watching, to take Randy as a giant inspiration. While admittedly, I don’t know much about his background, but one could assume it wasn’t gumdrops and rainbows. The man comes out of that and gives it his all, became a success, and most importantly stayed true to himself, by seemingly being the coolest dude. Fair play Randy.
Worked at the trop last summer, and wasn’t rlly a baseball fan, but now I’m a huge rays fan and I credit a lot of that to him. Such a cool guy. Would throw a ball over the net before pretty much every ab and always interacted with fans. Hate that we traded him
Randy is the shit. I became a fan during that playoff run. Then the guy gets traded to MY TEAM? WHAT? He’s not the best player, he doesn’t have the best stat line. But Randy is my guy and now he’s on my favorite team? Love it!
I was working the Randyland table the game he came as a fan, nobody knew he was coming to the game. I was walking back to the table after stepping away for a moment and ended up doing a triple take when I walked past him. Some may argue he's not a superstar because on the field he's not on the levels of Trout, Judge, Ohtani, etc. But he was such a good dude in every other aspect that we see, that he just has to be up there.
It would be interesting to see how much would have changed if Arozarena didn't do the postgame livestream. I don't know if the Cards front office would have believed in him anyway, but that's easily the main reason they traded him. I wonder if John Mozeliak and company lose sleep at night over what he's become.
Used to be into MLB, but lost interest in it a while back. Got back into it once MLB The Show came to Xbox. Arozarena has been my favorite player since. Also, his debut for the rays was on my birthday, never knew that
Whenever people label the greatest seasons of all time, they always tend to mention any of bonds’ 01-04 seasons, or a few of babe Ruth’s “historic” ones. None of them come close to 1884 old hoss radbourm, who accumulated almost 18 WAR and started 75 games.
I'd say either Ken Griffey Jr. And Torii Hunter were the 2 coolest baseball players ever. In fact, I have to give a slight nod to Hunter. Not only did I love his play despite being a lifelong diehard Royals fan (and he destroyed us year after year.) However, he also paid his respects in a major way! Back in late September of 2007 when the Royals were one of, if not THE worst team in all baseball, the Royals were set to play a season ending series against the Detroit Tigers who led the AL Central, and whom Torii Hunter's Minnesota Twins needed the Royals to sweep while the Twins swept their series in order to win the AL Central. Well, Torii Hunter promised the Royals that if they helped them make the playoffs, he'd treat the team to some bubbly champaign. And, by some miracle, the Royals pulled off their sweep of the Tigers and the Twins swept their series (don't remember who they played.) And so, the Twins won the AL Central and made the Playoffs in the most unlikely of ways. And to show his immense gratitude, Hunter sent FOUR bottles of Dom Perignon Champaign to the Royals clubhouse as a way of saying thank you and congratulations! Now THAT us a DAMN cool player. I'll never forget him or that piece of sportsmanship. Oh yeah, and he did it despite the fact that it apparently broke some BS MLB rules. But he didn't care. He's Torii effing Hunter, and he's too cool for that bull.
Just wanted to say, Randy became a Mexican citizen so that he could play for Mexico in the WBC. He messaged the president of Mexico saying something among the lines of "make me a citizen so I can bring the wbc championship to Mexico."
Basically the Tom Brady of mlb. Btw midway power up baseball cabinet is now on display at galloping ghost arcade in Chicago. So now there is an nba jam style baseball
It’s wild that with his 1.190 playoff OPS he would only have 83 RBI if you stretched his playoff numbers over a full season. Getting no help from the guys hitting in front of him
I know the team’s model is that nobody’s irreplaceable, especially if they get good trade value, but I thought he was gonna be the face of the franchise. I hope he does well and gets more exposure in Seattle, but it just feels meaningless watching the Rays without Randy.
