Last fall, Hurricane Milton ripped through the Gulf of Mexico and Central Florida, leaving 35 dead and causing billions of dollars in damage to property. Most notably, Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, had its roof blown off, rendering it unusable for the 2025 season. The Rays had to find another home and a few options were floated, but in the end, they chose the simplest, playing out of the Yankees spring training venue in Tampa. Although I had been here for minor league baseball in 2001 and 2012 and saw the Jays win a spring training game in 2014, I needed to return as this was now a Club 124 venue, albeit temporary.
As Monday was a school holiday in NYC, I brought my daughter on the trip, and we enjoyed dinner at nearby
Riveters before taking a bus to the stadium (it's only a mile walk and I would have done that had I been alone). I had bought tickets the day before, a smart move as prices rise considerably as game time approaches. Capacity is officially listed as 11,026 but for the Rays, a sellout is considered 10,046 as some changes were made to bring the facility up to major league standards. As such, get your tickets at least a couple of days beforehand: when I checked on Thursday the cheapest was $12 on TickPick; it was $29 by game time.
With such a small crowd, entering is a breeze, with no lines at security. As we were walking through the concourse, I turned to say something to my daughter. When I turned back, I felt a looming shadow approaching and was stunned to see Tike, a fellow sports traveler who lives in California and who was staying in Orlando as part of his annual baseball fantasy draft. He and two buddies had driven up (forgoing the Orlando Magic game!) and I had no idea he would be at the ballpark, so it was quite the pleasant surprise.
To continue the coincidence, his seats were just two rows behind ours in Section 206 (view below). I like the fact that the netting was not blocking the view this high up.
The main change since my last visit is the addition of seats along the outfield fence and a couple of party areas above left and right field. You can walk around the entire outfield, which we did near the end of the game.
This is a shot from the deck in right field, which has a few rows of seats with tables below it.
The deck continues almost all the way to center field, and then you can walk down some stairs and stand next to the batters eye.
Moving over to left field, you are almost at field level with these seats and the players are easily within shouting distance. I don't think there is another major league park with seats like this so close to field level and there were many fans standing just behind in the hope of catching a home run ball.
Late in the game, the accessible seats right behind the plate were open so we stopped here for a batter. There are ushers but nobody seemed to mind, treating this more like a minor league park.
It is not clear how long the Rays will play here as the team hopes to be back at the Trop next season. If you enjoy major league baseball in the confines of a smaller venue, make a trip to Tampa this year to see a game here.
The Game
The Pirates were in town to open a three-game set and sent Carmen Mlodzinski to the mound, while Tampa Bay went with Drew Rasmussen.
Both starters were solid early and we went to the bottom of the fourth still scoreless, when the Rays went single, double, single, double to plate two runs. After former Blue Jay Danny Jansen struck out, rookie Jake Mangum (batting below), who had hit first major league hit in the third, singled home two more runs. In the sixth, Mangum doubled and scored on a Jose Caballero double to make it 5-0.
Rasmussen left after five shutout innings, yielding just two hits. His bullpen was equally stingy, though Mason Englert did allow a run in the 8th. In the bottom half, Jansen walked, Mangum singled again and Yandy Diaz hit a sacrifice fly that finished the scoring.
The game took just 2:25 and saw a bit of baseball history as Mangum was the first player to have at least 4 hits, 1 run, 2 RBIs and 2 stolen bases in one of his first 5 career games, and he did it in his second.
Notes
As I have already seen the Blue Jays here, there is no need to revisit the stadium to see them again; their two visits this season are over the Memorial Day weekend and in mid-September, neither of which are particularly appealing anyway.
In the longer term, the franchise recently ended plans to build a new stadium in St. Petersburg and could move when the lease at Tropicana Field expires after 2028 (if the ballpark is not ready, the lease would extend by another year). Who knows, maybe they will end up in Montreal after all.
This is the Rays fifth ballpark in which to play a regular season home game as they played in Tokyo in 2004, Champion Stadium in Orlando (now the Stadium at the ESPN Wide World of Sports) in 2007 and 2008, and also had a home series moved to Citi Field back in 2017 due to Hurricane Irma.
Best,
Sean
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