Terrible Tropicana Field

Going into the season, I had been to 28 of the current 30 Major League Baseball Stadiums.  I had 28 out of 30 after getting to Anaheim four years ago and then I was back to 28 out of 30 after getting the new Braves stadium last year.  I’ve had plenty of time, but I didn’t have much of a desire to get to the last two.  Tampa Bay and Oakland have the two worst stadiums in baseball and I just wasn’t motivated to go.  I always said that I’d go when they got new stadiums.  They need new stadiums, but I don’t know when that’s going to happen so I figured I’d make it happen this year. But I wasn’t just going to go to Tropicana Field.  I needed to combine it with other stuff.  So Tropicana Field was the first stop of three on my Easter vacation trip.  I’ll get to the other two stops later.

I left the day after Easter for Tampa.  I had been dealing with a cold for a few days and then my stomach was a little unsettled on the way to the airport.  So I was a little concerned as I was on my way.  When I got to Florida, I just took it easy.  I ordered some alligator tacos and they were pretty good.  Lent is over, but I learned this year that alligator is allowed on Fridays in Lent.  Obviously I knew that fish was allowed (which I took advantage of twice this year when I went out to dinner with friends on Fridays), but reptiles and amphibians are allowed also.  If I was making the rules, I’d say no vertebrates, but if we’re making sacrifices it seems that lobster and shrimp shouldn’t be allowed either.

Anyway, after relaxing for a bit, I headed to the stadium.  I waited until the day before to buy a ticket.  I like sitting near home plate, but tickets seemed overly expensive on Stubhub (which was still cheaper than the Rays’ website).  The issue was that in order for a robust secondary market to exist, the team needs to sell a good number of tickets and the Rays don’t (especially for Rays-Royals on a Monday).  I had my eye on a ticket on Stubhub and I was able to wait it out until it came down $5.  In reality, I probably could have just bought the cheapest ticket way out in the outfield and then sat wherever I wanted, but whatever.  I had a pulled pork sandwich and a Coppertail Independent Pilsner (I wanted something local).  Both were fine, but later on I saw a stand selling Cuban sandwiches and regretted not getting that.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a Cuban sandwich, but I was in Florida so that would have been something to try.

My view for most of the game

After five and a half innings, the Royals had a 3-1 lead, but the Rays came back.  I watched from my seat until the seventh inning stretch and then walked around.  The Rays took the lead on a home run by Mike Zunino in the bottom of the seventh.  If you go to the 3:26 mark in the video below, you can see me as his home run goes out.  The home run goes to center.  A little bit to the left there’s a section of chain link fence and I’m standing all the way to the left wearing my yellow St. Edward’s Hall shirt.  I ended up walking around and taking a seat pretty close to the field for the end of the game.  The Rays won 6-3.

I had very low expectations for Tropicana Field and those expectations were met.  Let’s go through what I didn’t like.  It’s the only stadium with a non-retractable roof.  Baseball should be played outdoors unless it’s raining or it’s 109 degrees in Phoenix or whatever.  It’s one of three stadiums with artificial turf (Chase Field in Phoenix was just added to that list, so if I do an official reranking after I get to the Oakland Coliseum, it's definitely moving down in my rankings).  Baseball should be played on grass.  When I was looking through the chain link fence, it appeared that the warning track was the exact same surface as the fake grass, only it was brown instead of green.  Does that help the outfielders at all?  Aren’t they going by feel?  It’s not like they’re looking at the ground when they’re tracking a long fly ball.  The food and beverage selections were decent, but they definitely could be better.  But I guess it doesn’t make much sense to have a huge variety when you don’t have many fans.  Attendance was 9,914 and it was quiet.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever been to a minor league game with more fans, but it’s not out of the question.  I’ve definitely been to minor league games with a better atmosphere.  It’s more fun going to a game with 6,000 fans when the stadium holds 6,000-8,000 or whatever than going to one with 9,914 when the stadium holds 42,735 (although the capacity for this season is 25,000 because they’ve covered up the seats on the upper level).

Seats that they don't sell because they can't sell them

My view at the end of the game

So not surprisingly, I have Tropicana Field ranked last on the list of stadiums I’ve been to.  Here’s an idea that I love, but it definitely won’t happen:  if the Rays make the playoffs, they have to pick the stadium of an AL team that didn’t make the playoffs for their home games.  I mean, yes, they can probably sell more playoff tickets playing in St. Petersburg than they could in another AL city, but I don’t want to watch games on TV played in that stadium.  To make this slightly less unrealistic, for logistical reasons let’s assume that they have to play every round in the same city and they have to pick right at the start of the playoffs.  As of today, the Rays have the best record in the AL, the Yankees would be the first wild card and and the Mariners would be the second wild card.  Where would the Rays play if my very unrealistic idea was adopted?  Like if they thought they were going to play the Yankees (or it least that was a strong possibility), would they pick Boston and hope that Red Sox fans show up to root against the Yankees?  But then they’d be running the risk of having lots of Yankee fans show up also since it’s a fairly short trip.

They have some rays swimming around in right center.  That's kind of cool, I guess.

So I’ve been to 32 stadiums all time (29 out of the current 30).  Tropicana Field ranks 32nd.  I’m expecting it to get bumped down to 33rd when I get to the Oakland Coliseum (which I’m expecting to be 32nd), but we’ll see.