opening day

I went to see the Tampa Bay Rays home opener against the Seattle Mariners Tuesday. I'd never been to a MLB season opening game before, and it was quite an event. Tim scored amazing tickets only four rows up from the Mariners' dugout, which enabled us to take great pictures. There was a sell-out crowd of over 36,000 at Tropicana Field, arguably one of the strangest places to watch a baseball game. After months of UF baseball and spring training games outside, sitting inside the can-like stadium (although freshly painted in the Rays new light blue/dark blue color scheme) still doesn't feel baseball-y to me. A constant 72 degrees, I can imagine it's a great place to relax on a July or August afternoon, but in April I'm still craving warm sunshine and pretty sunsets. I'm really excited about their new waterfront stadium, which will hopefully break ground this time next year and combine good design, the outdoors, and -- most importantly in Florida -- shade.

Here are some highlights from the game:


The view from our seats. I can't say enough about how close we really were. You could see the expressions on the Seattle players' faces as they came into the dugout. Pretty cool.


The seats were so good that Tim snapped this pic of recent Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Dick Vitale (who graciously signed autographs before the game's start) without moving from our seats. Apparently Vitale is a Rays regular.


In the most exciting event of the game, the third-base umpire threw out Rays Manager Joe Maddon in the bottom of the seventh inning over the disputed out of B.J. Upton as he slid into third base (he was clearly safe from my view.) After Maddon was thrown out, Rays fans booed the umpire for upwards of an entire extra inning. I was surprised by their anger and tenacity, not to mention some of their colorful language.


While the Rays lost the game 6-5, I was still happy to see one of my fantasy baseball players pitch his first winning game of the season. Erik Bedard's been nursing a minor hip injury, so it was good to see that it didn't seem to bother him during the six innings he pitched.

There are a lot more pictures of the action here, if you are so inclined to view them. I really had a great time and look forward to enjoying a few more games at the Trop this season.