It's not exactly a day trip, but Reporter staff writer Dan Sokil has some insights to share about Tropicana Field in Saint Petersburg:


My grandparents live down south of St. Pete, and for each of the past few years we've gone to catch (Devil) Rays games at Tropicana Field. The first thing you notice about going to games at the Trop is that it's about as different as you can get from going to games here in Philly. Instead of the crazy Philly tailgating scene, the Trop has a fancy tile walkway leading in from the parking lots, and instead of WIP or WMMR blasting in the parking lots, all you hear is Latin music and the breeze in the palm trees. I've gotten some nasty sunburns at the Vet and CBP, and worn more layers of clothing than I can count to keep from freezing at Eagles games, but once you're in the dome it's t-shirt and shorts weather every time. Outside, the Florida weather ranges from sunny and humid to rainy t-storms, but inside the dome is always a nice air conditioned 72 that you don't even notice once the game starts.


Once you're inside the rotunda (after buying your field level tix for $25 the day of the game), these kind folks greet you giving away gameday programs that are very helpful for those of us who keep scorecards. To the right is the team store (first floor is all Rays gear and second floor is Ted Williams stuff), to the left and right are concourses that have been totally re-painted in the last few years, from a dingy grey to the new team's light on dark blue, and there you'll find the speed pitch, food stands including a mini Outback Steakhouse, the typical ballpark stuff...until you go up the stairs to the center for the Ray tank.


Installed in '06, the ray tank is probably the most unique part of the Trop. You take a ticket and come back at your assigned time, kind of like an amusement park ride, and in groups of 15-20 you can go walk up and stick your hand into the tank and pet some de-stingered rays. On the way in, the Tampa aquarium officials who are on hand tell you to pet the rays on their undersides, near their mouths where they are smooth and kind of slimy, instead of on their backs where you could damage their spines. Most of the rays were about the size of a normal piece of paper, but there were a few babies that were closer to the size of a CD case who could really scoot around the tank! And of course, a handful of ray food (dried fish you could hold and they'd suck out of your hand) was only $5.



The tank itself is in right center field, and was installed before the 2006 season by the new ownership group headed by NY based investor Stu Sternberg. The new ownership group is VERY young, Sternberg is only in his 40s and general manager Andrew Friedman is only 31, and they have put quite a bit of money into refurbishing the Trop. For example, compare and contrast the scoreboards from 2004 and 2007:



In this '04 game, as we see the forgettable Travis Harper pitching to the great Ichiro, both teams' lineups are listed in center field on a very primitive number and position lightboard, and in right field two more basic text light boards flank one very 20th century video screen. By '07, however, the team had replaced those old text boards with color video boards, flanking a high definition video board that shows the lineup at all times. Around the ads, there is now quite a bit of decorative latticework too, and notice how the year before they changed the team's uniform colors they were already trying to play up the blue and white...




Very similar, notice in '04 how the facing of the left field upper deck has a very simple text board showing only out of town scores, and the pitch speed and time are on simple digital scoreboards next to the Majestic ad in left-center. By '07, those had been replaced by fancy video boards, very 21st century because they can say everything from "Welcome to Tropicana Field" to a player's BA/OBP/SLG/OPS, and that party porch looks like it has been cleaned up a little too!

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Another big difference I've noticed over the years has been the crowds. My first game at the Trop was in 1998, during the team's first week, and we were waaaaay up in the back row of the upper level. I hadn't seen any crowds that full until the recent playoff run they are on, but the Trop is notorious for large road crowds like the one in this '07 game against the soon to be World Champion Red Sox. Notice, behing Big Papi at the plate, all of that Red sox red in the stands, and compare it to the crowd for this '06 game against the Blue Jays, where despite Cy Young Award winner Roy Halladay pitching for Toronto, most of the fans there decided to dress like empty seats.

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But my favorite part about going to games at Tropicana Field is how easy it always is to get good tickets to see good teams and players. For example, in May of '05 I was able to buy these second row tickets (the bald dude is stadium security in the front row) the day of the game, and saw the eventual World Champion White Sox play that night. Number 30, their first base coach, is stolen base master and potential future Hall of Famer Tim Raines.Those empties in the upper level had been tarped off by this season to keep the seating capacity low, but now that the Rays are in the World Series (having beaten both the White and Red Sox to get there), they may well be filled with Rays fans...unless, of course, we Philly phaithful make our presence known there too!


And yet another sign of those upgrade: the boards showing attendance and the final linescore. In '06, we can see only 9,217 people went to see "Doc" Halladay beat the Rays for his 15th win of the season, but by the next year the video boards (not to mention the walls behind) had gotten just a little snazzier when Josh Beckett won his 20th. Attendance for that Red Sox game, according to Retrosheet.org, was 27,369. Little did we know going in that we'd see that year's AL champions and 2008's that night...and that the two teams would play such a dramatic Game 7 there a year later! The Trop only has a few years left, because the new front office is planning to build a spectacular new park on the St. Pete waterfront (see www.MajorLeagueDowntown.com for renderings), but mascot Raymond (8584) should make the move to the new ballpark, and after this season they'll have a pennant to fly there forever!