Tropicana Field - St. Petersburgh, FL

We made the short drive from Orlando Friday morning and arrived in Tampa at about noon.  There was heavy rain and thundershowers most of the afternoon.  We left for the stadium at about 4:00 pm.  It took a little over an hour to get to the stadium in St. Petersburg as we had to drive through downtown Tampa during rush hour.

We parked at a stadium lot for $20 that was fairly close.  There was a little bit of a wait getting into the stadium.  There was a fairly large crowd since this game was against the Boston Red Sox.  Once inside the stadium we were handed an X-Large T-Shirt that was part of a promotional give away.  The main concourse was very crowded. On Friday nights they have these promo nights and $3 happy hour beers two hours before game time that seem to bring everyone out.

We had seats located in the first row of the top level, right behind home plate.  These were nice seats and they were among a large group of season ticket holders who all seemed to know each other and were pretty knowledgeable and passionate fans.  Unlike most other enclosed stadiums we have been to, they kept this place pretty cool.  Tina ended up using the give away t-shirts as blankets to keep warm. 

It seemed like there were quite a few changes at Tropicana Field since we were there 10 years ago.  That could be just due to the number of people at this game, but the stadium definitely had a much better feel.  The Rays beat Boston 9-6 in a game that lasted nearly 4 hours and had a total of 6 home runs including a grand slam by Tampa Bay's'Ben Zobrist.