For professional sports players, having a personal blog is a dicey gamble. While they provide the much-needed service of allowing sports fans a glimpse - and sometimes more - into their personal lives, it also comes with the built-in stipulation that you’re willingly giving fans of opposing teams’ more material to heckle you with. Case in point: It has now been confirmed that Kyle Kendrick loves the Backstreet Boys. Run with it, Rays fans!

Writing on his “personal diary” for the series over at PHILLYBURBS.COM - not being on the World Series roster gives him a decent amount of free time - Kendrick spends an inordinate amount of time (i.e. any at all) getting excited over the fact that the Boys from Backstreet were in attendance to sing the national anthem.

From PHILLYBURBS.COM:

I’m only 24, and as a kid growing up near Seattle, boy bands were popular. I always thought the Backstreet Boys were the best out there, better than ‘NSYNC. I was a freshman in high school when they came out with their big CD, and my buddies and I used to listen. The girls always thought they were cute and I liked their music. They were just good.

Years later, my musical tastes have expanded. I like some classic rock and a lot of country. I’m a big George Strait fan and I really like Carrie Underwood.

A little too late to try and recoup some of your lost dignity with those Carrie Underwood mentions, Mr. Kendrick. The question is, how are Rays fans going to use this to their advantage? Ask him repeatedly who his favorite Backstreet Boy is? Dress up as all five and taunt him from the stands? Having the PA announce system - if the series goes back to the Trop, that is - constantly play “I Want It That Way” whenever he pops his head out of the dugout?

The thing Rays fans must keep in mind, however, is that they’re going to have to get pretty creative if they want to get through to Kendrick. He’s already built up a decent tolerance for prankage after this classic: