Long Time Gone

After just starting this blog a couple weeks ago I went on vacation to Siesta Key, FL for a week and didn't touch a computer all week. I have to tell you, going 7 days without looking at a computer screen can be an good experience from time to time. I actually read newspapers and enjoyed looking at printed box scores again.


Anyways, here's a recap of one of my journeys during the trip.

Tropicana Field

While I was in Florida I was bound and determined to catch a baseball game of some sort. I figured I would go and watch the Sarasota Reds, but I ended up traveling up to Tampa and catching the home opener for the Rays.

I know that the Rays rarely draw a big crowd, but I was a little worried with it being opening day. We didn't even try to look for tickets online until the day of the game and when we did we only had limited success. So I figured that I'd just find a scalper at the game and take care of the tickets there. We parked in downtown Tampa and took a bus into the field since all the parking around the field was full over an hour before the game. I was surprised that there weren't scalpers lurking all around the field, but from what I heard from the locals, scalping was just recently legalized in Florida. Anyways, we were walking around the stadium for about 5 minutes and just happed to spot a young lady holding up tickets. She took care of us and sold us two tickets in left center field.

Even with it being opening day the crowd was pretty late arriving. The attendance was about 34,000 and was called a sellout even thought the published capacity of the stadium is a bit higher. I have to say that Tropicana is one of the lower tier baseball stadiums I've been to. Playing baseball indoors in Tampa just seems silly. It was a beautiful night and taking in a game in open air with real grass would have been much more enjoyable. Overall the stadium does have some nice ammenities. There are plenty of bathrooms and lots of different selections when it comes to concessions. It was easy to see though that they were completely unprepared for the size of the crowd. There were plumbing problems in the bathrooms and vendors. One huge shock for me was that I couldn't find anyone selling programs or scorecards anywhere in the outfield. I have a thing for keeping score when I'm at a game and this really bummed me out.

The game itself had to be one of the slowest I have ever attended. It seemed to drag on and on. I was looking forward to seeing Matt Garza pitch for the Rays against Eric Bedard for the Mariners, but Garza got pulled early (for injury), and both pitchers worked really slow in the early innings.

In the end the Rays fell in their opener. Overall I'd have to give this stadium a C. It has a lot of fun things to do and eat in the concourses, but as far as the baseball experience this stadium falls short of even the Metrodome, and that's saying a lot.

The Rays are pushing for a new stadium in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area along the water with a retractable roof system. The promos around the stadium look pretty cool, but I'm just not sure that a city like Florida can support a Major League Baseball franchise. Just look at the Florida Marlins. The population in these cities seem to have mostly people who have either moved to the area and have loyalties to other teams, or just don't care to spend their evenings sitting in a baseball stadium. Who can blame them with the weather they have.