At the Stadium--Tropicana Field

The Jar was fortunate enough to get free all you can eat/drink tickets for the Tampa Bay Rays - Yankees game last week (thanks Bosley). Free beer and hot dogs. The jar is happy. Plus I thought it fitting that the first segment of "At the Stadium" take place watching a team perennially in the Sports Toilet. Well, actually not this year as well documented by Shay Shay. But generally speaking...yes. The Rays are the only expansion team to have never made the playoffs (Marlins, D-Backs, Rockies being the other three) and are one of only four teams to have never played in the world series (the others: the Nats, Mariners and Rangers). But that was the past. That was the Tampa Bay DEVIL Rays. They dropped the devil, dropped the neon colors (which I actually thought were pretty cool) and also dropped their losing ways. They are now simply the Tampa Bay Rays. Instead of a manta ray, their logo is a sunburst. Owner Stuart Steinberg said that the new Ray logo represents "a beacon that radiates throughout Tampa Bay and across the entire state of Florida." How special? But tell me this, would you rather have this logo:



Or this?



I rest my case. Still the change of name has added a burst of sunlight to their play, and the Rays currently have a Top 5 record in the MLB. And wouldn't you know it, on my first trip to the Tropicana Spaceship, the Rays handily defeated the Bronx Bombers. Scott Kazmir was lights out. The Yanks couldn't touch him--only 3 hits in 6 innings. And while the Rays cruised to victory, the Jar took in the ambience of a pro ball game in Tampa (with some pictures to prove it!):

Tropicana field kind of looks like a spaceship. Or maybe a slightly tilted toilet. Fitting that my picture of the stadium has a port-a-potty in front of it.

This about sums up the typical Rays fan. The most flip flops that I've ever seen at a stadium too.

Still it was nice to have some Rays At Your Service (the acronym for ushers). The nice lady in our section kept bringing the Jar free beers.

You would think that a team named the Rays, as in ray of sunlight that brightens everyone's day and blah blah blah...wouldn't play in a dome blocking the rays from getting in. Guess not

And why is the turf discolored? They are playing in a dome!

Does this make you want some orange juice?

And of course, they had mascot race...though not with brats...this one was sponsored by Pepsi. The Pepsi bottle won naturally.