A FAN'S BLOG: Devil Rays 3, Braves 2

The Braves winning streak ends at 1; all good things must come to an end. Running a little late, we arrived at the ballpark for yesterday's game at 7:15pm. I could tell the crowd was bigger than usual. I soon discovered it was "Turn Back the Clock to 1975 Night" and almost 27,000 others showed up for the fun. That may not sound like much, but it's a great crowd by Rays' standards. In fairness, the Braves traveled well. Since they don't come to Tampa often, a good number of Braves' fans were on hand who likely made the easy drive from South Georgia or Northern Florida for the game. In order to properly turn back the clock, stadium employees wore curly afro wigs, the teams wore retro 1975 jerseys, Tommy John, Dave Kingman, and George Foster were on hand for autographs, and we were all treated to a lot of ABBA between innings.


As we approached the stadium lot, we noticed a policeman directing traffic away. After all the bragging I did about free parking there wasn't enough space for my Corolla! Apparently the policy, and indeed the ballpark, were designed with typical crowds of 10,000-20,000 in mind. Once attendance reaches 25,000 the Trop's meager parking lots are swelling. This is because there is absolutely ZERO public transportation to the game and everyone must take a car. The setup makes the Braves' own Marta access look as good as the NYC subway by comparison. So we paid $10 and had to make the 15 minute walk. At least we soon discovered our Upper Deck tickets would be only $5 each on this special night.


There's not much to say about the game. The Rays won 3-2 and looked sharp in their red Tampa Tarpons minor-league uniforms. There were no HR's, but we saw some great defense by the home team. The Braves lineup looked anemic and made an unknown kid look named Tim Corcoron look dominating in his first start. On the other hand, I think the D-Rays could finish .500 and the organization seems to have very good things on the horizon.





So we had a fun time and did pretty well with our budget too. Anna and Jimmy appreciate the buzz of the crowd and the many alternate forms of entertainment (such as the drunks) as much as I enjoy the game. And Dana comes along merely to keep me happy like the good wife she is. Next stop for us will probably be a minor league game in the Florida State League. Maybe later in the summer we'll head over to Miami for a Marlins game too.