Cliff Lee said the following regarding Philadelphia's crowd and fanbase:

~~~"The intensity that you can feel when you get in the game, it has an elevated feel to it. Compared to everywhere else, it's completely different," Lee said. "I don't know what the fans do to create that much more volume and excitement in the stadium, but it's definitely something extra here. They get excited. They are passionate fans. They understand what's going on. They don't need a TelePrompTer to tell them to get up and cheer." ~~~

Maybe I am reading too much into it, but it hurts that the comment about the TelePrompTer is way too true regarding our crowds. I've always felt our crowds needed too much prompting to get into the game and react to the action appropriately.

Give it time. With some more success, more fans will become passionate. You can't expect them to go ape shit after just 1 winning year in the last million....

Too much psycho-analysis going on with this one. No matter what team Lee signed with, he was gonna be asked about how the fans played into his decision and he was inevitably going to give an answer about how great the _____ fans are, how passionate they are...blah blah blah. Besides, it's not like Texas and Philly are the only teams he's played for...I'm sure the atmosphere in Texas and the fan's passions were better than his moribund tenures in Cleveland and Seattle.

Lee spent about a half year in Philly and made a run to the World Series...same thing he did in Texas . I'd bet that his perception about how great the crowds were would be different if he went 2-0 in Texas and 0-2 in Philly....

There is a perception out there that Ranger fans are bad fans, which I don't think is fair. Ignorant fans, maybe. Apathetic at times? Sure. But to say we're bad fans isn't the whole truth.

It's just hard for a fanbase to know when to cheer when there's been so little to cheer about for the last 4 decades and especially after the Tom Hicks years. Not to mention that by the time Lee got to Philly, they were the defending World Series champs and were on their way to the WS again. I'm just speculating, but maybe their fans weren't quite as dedicated in the late 80s and late 90s.

Like Adam said, if we find ourselves back in the playoffs or even the series a few more times in the near future, then we will find people just as passionate and into the game as those Philly fans are.

As for Mr. Lee, I did want him back and I'm sad to see him go, but he probably could have worded that a little better.

Oh, yeah I wasn't attempting any psychoanalysis or anything. The whole quote is just like you said, what you get from every Free Agent signing press conference. Except for the last sentence.

The last sentence of his quote was above and beyond the normal standard fare you usually get with a new signing press conference. I truly believe that the teleprompter jab was about Texas.

If you remember (and were at the games) The Rangers had Andres Blanco and Elvis Andrus on the big screen before every play off game and they explained the Claw and Antler routine for the crowd.
Also one of the nicer crowd chants during the playoffs were the Upper Deck- Lower Deck back and forth chanting Texas. Rangers. It was all prompted by our boards and the ribbon though. I would actually like to see that make appearances next year too, but if you as a player enjoy crowds just being creative and obnoxious, then you have to go to BOS, PHI, NY to really get that.

I think you have measure in that last season was the first time in over a decade that we have had a reason to cheer at the end of the season and into the middle of october, so maybe their was somewhat of an "inexperience" factor as far as the getting riled up for the game or a big play during it. Also, maybe because it was the first time in so long, the highs were much higher and the lows were especially low, at least for me, so that may have taken a little extra out of the fans....might be overthinking it but no matter what it was, I expect the fans to be much better for all of next season, and I would expect the energy level to be higher during almost every game of the season

If you guys think that Lee left because Texas fans are fucking morons, then feel free and consider yourself, well....just that...

And if the difference in crowd energy between when Cliff went 2-0 vs 0-2 in the WS was the deciding factor...then good riddance...Loud is loud...energy is energy. Maybe the guy shouldnt have laid two eggs at the end,

Jeezus.

Pull T, if you don't smoke, you should start. Easy buddy!