Alex's Baseball Across America: Tropicana Field Review

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T R O P I C A N A F I E L D

September 23, 2011

Toronto Blue Jays v. Tampa Bay Rays

7:10pm

Toronto 5, Tampa Bay 1

WP: Morrow (11-11, 4.78 ERA)

LP: Price (12-13, 3.35 ERA)

Attendance: 18,093

Time: 2:52

72 degrees, dome

Tropicana Field’s origins are different than most. It was built in 1990, well before the area was awarded an MLB team in 1998. The reason the dome was built was to attract a team to come. Early rumors had the Seattle Mariners and even the San Francisco Giants moving in. Eventually, they were given an expansion team. Originally the Devil Rays, they are now simply known as the Rays. The Bucs practice here and the stadium has hosted everything form concerts, to insignificant NCAA bowl games, to college basketball.

The Rays season was all but over a month ago. Not unlike the Cardinals, the team above them has faltered while the Rays pressed on. Prior to the start of the game, the Rays were 2 games back of the wild card leading Boston Red Sox. David Price was on the mound for the Rays and the Blue Jays weren’t playing for anything, so you’d figure they had a pretty good shot to get within 1-1/2 games. It didn’t happen. The Jays controlled most of the game and the Rays fell to 2-1/2 back. Former Cardinal Colby Rasmus was in the lineup. There were a TON of scouts there. At least 15-20. The last time I noticed scouts was in Houston and there were four or five. I asked one of them why there were so many...they were advance scouting for the postseason. These guys have it made. Good seats. Radar guns. Stopwatches. Scoresheets. MLB shirts. The baseball life. I’m pretty sure Don Zimmer was sitting amongst them. He used to be in the Rays organization. I’m not sure what he was doing, but he didn’t stay for the entire game.

The Atmosphere: Disappointing crowd size given the fact the team has a shot at postseason play. This was another place I wasn’t overly excited about going because it always looks so bland and quite but the crowd that was there was into it. I was pleasantly surprise...it’s not a bad place to catch a game.

The Scorecard: There’s really not one. It’s similar to the Diamondbacks “scorecard” in that it’s inside a playbill-sized magazine they hand out. This one was easy to use and write on, but still...it’s not a scorecard.

The Hot Dog: Kayem brand. I’ve had these at least one other place. Up north somewhere. Grilled. Okay taste but nothing crazy.

The Broadcasters: I listened to them about half the game and then switched over to the Cardinals game on my MLB app. They were pretty good. Again, not the classic radio voices. The pregame was not baseball intensive.

Entertainment: They have a Coke race where Sprite, Coke, and a couple other soft drinks race around the outfield. When the crew came out to sweep the dirt, they had a dancing crewman. He was pretty funny. Raymond is their mascot. He’s not anything aquatic. He’s some fuzzy creature. I don’t get it.

On a side note, they use REAL chalk to do the baselines here. I had not seen that the entire trip. It’s been reduced to fancy systems that pump out spray paint everywhere else. I’m a chalk fan. I think Busch still uses chalk. At Busch, they hit a deal with a hammer to let the chalk out. Here, they use the classic wheeled chalk thing--the kind you’re more likely to see at a minor league game or amateur games.

No diamonds :)

The have game-used items. Random stuff. I did get a ball from earlier in the season.

Other Views:

Other words: None. Said enough.

Gripes: Get a scorecard. Open up the “Top Dog” stand! SHOW UP! Florida has serious issues with attendance, yet they have TWO MLB teams. I don’t know how you fix that, but when you’re team is pushing for postseason ball, you need to be there!

T R O P I C A N A F I E L D

S A I N T P E T E R S B U R G , F L O R I D A

H O M E O F T H E R A Y S

On Friday, the gates open 2 hours prior to game time. Unfortunately, both teams had gotten in late the night prior so there was no batting practice. There was a good crowd waiting outside to get in at 5pm. I was excited because it looked like it was going to be a large crowd...it wasn’t.

The Crowd: There were more people at the Marlins game. Why? They bring COWBELLS. This is NOT Mississippi State football. I have no idea why they bring cowbells. They are asked to use them “respectably”, but I don’t know what that means. They use them whenever they want. I’m surprised MLB lets them do this since it’s purely artificial noise. On the plus side, I ran into four fellow Cardinals fans.

The Stadium: It’s the only non-retractable dome in Major League Baseball. It’s not bad, though. Pretty easy to get around. Good parking around it. There is nowhere to really go in terms of eating/hanging out before or after the game unless you drive somewhere. It’s located on the St. Petersburg side of the bay.

S T A T I S T I C S U P D A T E

MLB Games Seen

36 of 37

Days

84 of 86

Driving Miles

15,570.1

Estimated Gallons of Gas

819

States / Provinces

37 + the District of Columbia + Ontario

Hot Dogs Eaten

Too Many

Border Crossings

2 of 2

P R E D I C T I O N S U P D A T E

(AFTER 29 OF 30 GAMES)

Current Stats (Predicted Total through all 30 games)

Runs

272 (249)

Hits

513 (512)

(Under...again)

Errors

36 (36)

(need an errorless game in St. Louis)

Home Runs

71 (65)

Doubles

113 (101)

(No doubles tonight...unusual)

Triples

11 (10)

Sacrifices (Hits & Flies)

30 (31)

Strikeouts

450 (415)

Walks

183 (189)

Home Team Wins

18 (17)

I want 19!!!!

Complete Games

1 (1)

Shutouts

2 (2)

Saves

17 (15)

Blown Saves

9 (7)

Balks

2 (2)

Wild Pitches

10 (19)

Hit Batters

19 (18)

(Over)

Walk-offs

2 (2)

Stolen Bases

34 (40)

Caught Stealing

14 (15)

(Getting close...)

Ejections

3 (4)

(Will Tony get ejected Saturday?)

Smallest Crowd

11,617

Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore

September 1st, Toronto v. Baltimore

Largest Crowd

47,744

Yankee Stadium, New York

September 3rd, Toronto v. New York

B A L L P A R K R A N K I N G S

A quick note about my Stadium Rankings. There’s a lot of good ones out there! When good parks like the Rangers and Nationals Parks end up near the bottom, you know there is a lot of competition. Just because they are low, doesn’t mean they aren’t good. Baseball has just been stepping up the bar over the last few years.

The Stadium

1. PETCO Park, San Diego

2. AT&T Park, San Francisco

3. Fenway Park, Boston

4. Target Field, Minneapolis

5. Comerica Park, Detroit

6. Yankee Stadium, New York

7. Wrigley Field, Chicago

8. Safeco Field, Seattle

9. PNC Park, Pittsburgh

10. Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore

11. Minute Maid Park, Houston