Tampa Bay Rays: Two good games, a laid-back St. Pete, and a record-spinning kitty

August 22, 2017
Tampa Bay Rays 6, Toronto Blue Jays 5
August 23, 2017
Toronto Blue Jays 7 Tampa Bay Rays 6

(Randy's Perspective)
We'd been warned about Major League baseball in Tampa Bay. We'd read about it. We'd seen pictures of Tropicana Field. And I talked to a couple of people who had been to St. Petersburg to see the Rays, who are the newest team in the big leagues playing in one of the worst pro parks in America.

These stories and pictures and what-nots on this blog site are documentation of my wife Penny's and my journeys to Major League ballparks across the country. Tampa Bay was trip No. 21 out of a potential 30 - even though Penny says we have to go back to Atlanta, because the Braves have left Turner Field. So does Atlanta count? I vote yes.

Sadly, with life and work getting in the way, we haven't had much time to travel during the past year. We caught three parks last year; one this year. Our odyssey is now in year six (I think), and we still have nine more stops to make. They've all been good; some better than others.

One of the rewarding things for me has been the connection to baseball that Penny is making - I mean, she's the one with the scorebook every game, even tallying the balls and strikes - as well as the re-connection that I - a sportswriter in a past life- am experiencing.

Tampa Bay is one trip we've talked about. It almost felt as if we were getting this one out of the way before we hit more traditional, historic and/or just plain well-known places that remain to be seen: Dodger Stadium, for example, or the New York parks. ... But to get to 30 you've got to check Tampa Bay off the list. So off we went.

I have a work friend from the Sebring, Florida, area, an hour and a half from St. Pete. He offered a curious, but accurate, analysis of going to a Tampa Bay Rays game.

He said, "Well, it's ... it's ... actually kind of interesting. It's not as bad as some people say. One of the good things is that the Rays don't draw big crowds. You can always get good seats. And it's inside, so you don't have to worry about the heat."

All of those things were true. In fact, in retrospect, it was kind of quirky and fun. ... What's not to

It's not an optical illusion. The roof is slanted, apparently
in deference to preserving cool air.

like about a stadium named after orange juice that features: an intentionally lopsided dome roof; catwalks that have been pelted by fly balls; a fan base that includes Dick Vitale as a regular; and a rally video that stars a record-spinning feline named D.J. Kitty?

Seriously, D.J. Kitty spins tunes. His first video went viral. Almost a million people saw it within a week. ... The Rays drew 11,000 a night during the two games we attended. Interesting doing the math on that.

Check out the kitty: D.J. Kitty on the scene

In fact, we saw two close, event-filled, one-run-victory games between the Rays and the Toronto Blue Jays - and the loudest crowd-noise moments during our evenings at Tropicana Field happened when: (a) the Blue Jays scored, prompting rowdiness from the 300 or so (apparent) Canadians that dotted third base-line seats; or (b) D.J. Kitty made his sixth-inning nightly appearance.

Speaking of quirky, allow me to mention an oddity about Tropicana Field. Penny talks about this in her entry, too, but there is a museum behind centerfield that has some interesting, but unusual exhibits. Since there's not enough Tampa Bay Rays history to house a museum, the Rays have broadened the scope. The bell cow of the Tampa Bay museum is the Ted Williams "wing."

If you're a baseball historian, your first thought is: Ted Williams - considered by many the greatest pure hitter of all time - was born in San Diego and spent his entire career in Boston. The connection to Tampa and St. Pete, we found, is that he liked Florida and once caught a big fish in the Gulf of Mexico near the St. Petersburg-to-Clearwater coastline.

The museum's historian told Penny: "Ted Williams really, really liked Florida." To the historian's credit, Williams was living in Inverness, Florida, in 2002 when he passed away.

One other thing. I found a personal connection in the baseball museum. They had a great hitters' collection. It contained a picture of Jim Rice, the Red Sox slugger, who happened to be four years ahead of me at our mutual high school alma mater, T.L. Hanna (Anderson, S.C.)

Two members of T.L. Hanna's athletic hall of fame are Jim Ed Rice (as we knew him then) and Radio, of Hollywood movie fame.

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Before quickly discussing the two games Penny and I saw, let me offer a two-day visitors' version of St. Petersburg.

St. Pete had a downtown thoroughfare – Central Avenue – that seemed trendy and chic. It had coffee bars, regular bars, ice cream shops, local – not chain – retail stores, vegan-friendly restaurants, a reflexology parlor, and a few artsy places of varying stripes. By golly, St. Petersburg had everything but people.

If fact, my first thought was that Central Avenue in St. Petersburg wasn't all that different than Capital Street in Charleston, West Virginia, the state in which we reside. Only Capital Street has more bars, seems busier and has more people meandering about. St. Pete had a smaller-city feel, in other words. Not that that's a bad thing.

Of course, Charleston, West Virginia, doesn't have beaches, theme parks and a major city, Tampa, right up the road. So there's that. But St. Pete and the beaches we cruised were pleasantly not overcrowded. That was kind of cool.

It being August in Florida, however, the weather was scorching, which might account for the lack of bustle. Perhaps Gulf Coast Floridians are smart enough to stay indoors.

That theme – something to do, no one doing it - even carried to its Major League Baseball venue: Tropicana Field. We saw two outstanding baseball games played by two slightly-under-.500 baseball teams. As I mentioned, the crowds were around the 11,000 number, and I think that total was generous.

Penny and I pose, 10 minutes prior to the first pitch ...
Did I mention that the announced crowd of 11,000 seemed
a rather generous assessment?

The notoriously small crowds, I would only guess, would be larger were the park more up-to-date and in Tampa. Then again, what do I know? It was odd, though, seeing such sparse, quiet crowds because the Rays seem to be a pretty solid club. They're not likely to make the playoffs, but they're technically still in the race. A nice winning streak could make things interesting. Perhaps it would get the crowds up to 15,000 to 20,000. They tell me that when the Yankees or the Red Sox are in town, the Rays can draw 30,000 - but the majority are Yankees and Red Sox fans.

The first night we were in St. Pete, the Rays won 6-5. The second night the Blue Jays won 7-6. Two excellent games that came down to the final at-bat.

Our Game 2 was an odd affair that included nine home runs, six by the Blue Jays. And they weren't exactly the just-over-the-fence variety. These were titanic shots.

This makes me proud.

Penny, who is fast becoming a scorekeeping wizard - an astonishing development considering that she probably had never fully paid attention to a baseball game until a couple of years ago - turned to me sometime around the fifth inning of the second game and asked, "Is this stadium known for giving up a lot of homers? It looks like the fence is pretty close in."

Penny's observation, I had to admit, was astute. I, who have seen lots of baseball games (and played in a few) in stadiums with playing fields ranging in size from the 180-foot fences at Embler Field little league field in Anderson, South Carolina, to the 420-foot centerfield fences at Fenway and Comerica parks. (By the way, I never played at Fenway or Comerica - just Embler.) When Penny said the outfield fences look short, I said, "You're right, these home runs are making the place look small."

So I jumped on the Worldwide Interweb and checked the stats, only to discover that Tropicana Field is not considered a hitter's paradise. In fact, it's not ranked in the Top 10 in terms of homers given up.

But I swear, from our seats behind the third-base dugout, when Kevin Pillar hit a solo shot in the eighth inning to give the Blue Jays the 7-6 win, the ball looked like it was shot from a howitzer.

Excellent game.

Oh, one other thing. During much of the 7-6 game, a torrential downpour with a lot of thunder and lightening were hammering St. Pete. We were indoors, and the temperature was 72 degrees.

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The Trop

August 22 and 23
(Penny's Perspective)

We weren't expecting a lot from the Trop since it is at the bottom of most rankings of MLB parks.  I was particularly dreading it, because I was afraid I would feel the need to bring a "Free the Stingrays" sign. Yes, the tank was as small as I dreaded and they actually allow people to reach in and touch them. We avoided this area but did take a picture from above. And yes, it smells!

We had great seats! We sat in the same ones both nights we were there.

The gold seat signifies Wade Bogg's 3,000th hit in 1999. Although he was known as a singles and doubles hitter, his 3,000th hit was homer. He also earlier had hit the Devil Rays' first home run in franchise history. .

You can't see the #98 on this shirt but it signifies the first year the team joined the league. This big plastic guy is coming out of the wall above the first level concourse.

I really enjoyed the Ted Williams Museum, but not because of Ted Williams. The exhibits were really interesting! I especially enjoyed the League of their Own display and the entire section devoted to the Negro leagues. Oddly enough, Ted Williams did not play in Tampa Bay. He did retire there but apparently was a local hero. Of course, I had to take a picture of Cal Ripkin's display in the Hitters Hall of Fame, since I am an Orioles fan.

                                                                                                                                                                     A rarity in ballparks, salad! This one was especially good at Ducky's. The guy behind the counter told me there are only four ballparks that sell salad.

Al Lang Field, a staple in the Florida training camp world, is about a mile or so from the stadium. It is now the home of soccer's Tampa Bay Rowdies.

We couldn't visit Florida without a trip to the beach! This beautiful shot is at Treasure Island.

You can find Raymond at the entry before every game if you get there around 5:30. 

I have found that I have to ask Randy less questions about scoring. I love having my score book as a record of the games we have seen. The man sitting beside me even asked how I scored a play and then replied that was he thought that was the appropriate way to score the play, too. Now, if I could just figure out to recognize and correctly score a fielder's choice, I'd feel I was making even more progress. I always mess that one up!


We also enjoyed staying at the Cordova Inn. It is the oldest hotel in St. Pete and more like a bed and breakfast. The rooms are super small and I think the bathroom was a closet but I liked the atmosphere, the staff and the big porch to sit on.

Thumbs Up:

• The Dome and AC!
• Easy to get to location and parking.
• Free programs.
• Salad!
• Vendors were around frequently but didn't really get in the way.
• Plenty of help and very friendly staff. Well, except for one security guy the second night. Evidently, he hates his job. 
• We were overloaded with canned noise, but there was just the right amount of information on the scoreboard. We also weren't bombarded with people in the audience playing games.
• I liked that the mascot was visible before and during the game. 
• I wouldn't really give the scoreboard a thumbs up, but it wasn't a thumbs down either. It was adequate. 
• I was amazed by the D.J. that was a cat. Randy will explain that in his blog.

Thumbs Down:

• The stadium is hard to get around. The layout is just plain difficult. You cannot walk around the entire stadium on any concourse. You have to maneuver steps and walk in the seating area to get to parts. I suspect this is part of the reason it falls at the bottom of almost every ranking.
• The crowd is very quiet and sparse.
• That stupid stingray tank. Free the stingrays!!!
• The catwalks above the playing field were somewhat of a distraction and I'm not sure what purpose they served.
• There is no outside entertainment at all. 
• I enjoyed the museum, but if we hadn't know it was there we would have missed it. If you go, it is up the stairs across from the stingray tank. 

We enjoyed two really good games - with a lot of home runs - at the Trop!