Tampa Bay Rays fans demand apology after Conan O'Brien's insulting Tweet

TAMPA - When talk show host and Boston native Conan O'Brien made a wise crack about Tampa on his Twitter feed Thursday, he kicked a hornet's nest full of loyal Tampa Bay Rays fans.

After the Rays clinched their playoff spot Wednesday on the same night the Boston Red Sox were eliminated, the red-haired comic consoled his home team with a snarky tweet to his nearly four million followers.

It read: "Remember Red Sox fans, they still have to live in Tampa."

"If it was funny, we would have gone 'ha ha.' Instead, it was just annoying," said Tampa Bay area radio host Mike "Cowhead" Calta.

In response, Calta rallied his legion of radio listeners and Twitter followers to flood Conan O'Brien's publicist with emails and phone calls. One Twitter response to the O'Brien dig read, "You know what else is a joke? Going from NBC to TBS."

Acknowledging the thousands of calls from angry Tampa residents, O'Brien offered an apology of sorts on his show Thursday night saying, "I want to apologize to all the people of Tampa for my last tweet. I'm sure Tampa is a fine place to live..., if you're a mosquito."

Mike Calta was unimpressed and said O'Brien missed an opportunity.

"He should have involved our show and said 'I'm sorry' and maybe endeared himself to some people in this market," said Calta.

Watch Conan's response in the video below.