It's exactly .9 miles from our hotel to the entrance of Tropicana Field. Along the way, we walk west on Central Avenue, a funky half mile of bars, restaurants, second hand shops, and more greeting the locals of this town as we make our way.
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I'm not expecting much out of this one, which...on TV and from the outside...looks like a dump. I'm expecting an Oakland Coliseum type of experience. If you look at our list, you'll see the home of the A's firmly occupying the bottom of it.
A vast, almost empty parking lot surrounds the park as we make our way in. Tropicana Field is the last fixed-dome stadium and one of only two that still used artificial turf with the cold climate home of the Toronto Blue Jays being the other.
After making our way through security, tickets scanned, we head to the team store so Tim can get his obligatory t-shirt. Just beyond that, we find our seats in section 118...the lower level right about at first base.
We are greeted by a couple of very nice and friendly ushers who show us our seats. I notice that their shirts say "RAYS...Ready At Your Service." They really were, too. Great staff here at the Trop.
Tim and I notice that we have completely unobstructed views of the field. As wheelchair seating on the lower level of a lot of stadiums are at the top of the section, we frequently find we can't see the scoreboard or track a lot of fly balls because the deck above us blocks the view, as it did last week in Atlanta.
There won't be a ton of fans here tonight. Official attendance was around 15,000. Discount the season ticket holders who didn't show up for this Tuesday night game and 10,000 seams more about right. Most of those who were here seemed to be rooting for the visiting Braves.
There's a food court out on the primary concourse behind us on our level (there's a secondary open concourse with no vending and then the primary closed one). I go to get our snacks for the game.
An employee is standing in front of one of the snack bars hawking the food, "our hot dogs are only two dollars! Get some now, no waiting!"
Don't mind if I do get one...or two...or three. They're great hot dogs and even a little bigger than the versions we had at the Varsity in Atlanta and nearly as good. I get six altogether so we can each have two.
A refillable bucket of decent popcorn was only $7.50 and a refillable soda only $5 in a souvenir glass. Beer was at more normal ballpark prices (but still significantly less than in Miami...more on that later) but with such cheap food and soda, I didn't mind at all.
Oh yeah, like the guy said, no waiting. It took me three innings to get our food in Atlanta. Less than ten minutes here, and that was going to three food stands and dropping off my goodies at our seats between each one.
The game starts and it's a good one. Tampa, with it's roof, has a unique obstacle. The catwalks that hold the PA speakers and lights are in play so if a ball deflects off of one, it's still live.
We got to see one carom off of a catwalk, sending all the players on the field into a scramble when the ball didn't go the way they expected. Unfortunately the shortstop, Adeiny Hechavarria, hit his eye on something in the confusion and had to leave the game.
It turned into a pitcher's duel with the Braves barely edging out the home team 1-0.
While we were expecting the worst, it turned out to be a beautiful place to watch a ballgame.
Smiles were plastered on our faces as we made the mile walk back to our hotel.
Darryl Musick
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Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved
