The Guys Head to Tropicana Field for the Rays vs. Brewers
One of the many skills that Emily possesses is finding the perfect gifts for those in her life. This was yet another example of her expertise in this subject. For Father’s Day, she had looked ahead at the Tampa Bay Rays baseball schedule and found a home game on a Sunday where the Rays played my beloved Brewers. She got us three tickets so that Hunter, Colonel, and I could enjoy a Major League Baseball game together.
The day finally arrived and Hunter and I slapped on our Brewers shirts and new Brewers baseball caps Emily purchased to ensure we got heckled at Tropicana Field. Since Hunter and I were going to the game, Emily decided to take Sawyer for a special breakfast at the Contemporary and then for some fun at the Magic Kingdom.
We said our goodbyes and hit the road around 9 am, stopping to pick up Colonel before making the two hour trek to Tampa Bay. We knew it was going to be a long day when Colonel got into the car wearing his Tampa Bay Rays shirt and hat. This game would only be my second time ever visiting Tropicana Field and the first time for both Colonel and Hunter. The drive over was a relatively uneventful Sunday morning drive on the ever unpredictable Interstate 4. Our only stop was a bathroom break at Wawa just outside of Tampa Bay.
We were all excited to make the most of our visit, arriving at the stadium at 11:00 am, which put us there just as they were opening the stadium for the fans. Our first objective was to find the seats Emily picked out for us, on the third base line behind the Brewers’ dugout. It was still a couple hours before game time, so the players were doing some light warm-ups. Because it was a Sunday afternoon game after a Saturday night game, they weren’t doing batting practice before the game.
Looking out across the field, we could see there was quite a bit to explore, so we took a lap around the stadium to check it out. We worked our way back to center field where there is a stingray tank that overlooks the field. Since it was still well before game time there weren’t many people there yet, so we took the opportunity to check out the tank, which is a pretty unique addition to an MLB park. Just around the corner from the stingray petting tank is the Baseball Hitters Museum, which is a walkthrough experience showing stats and memorabilia from some of the greatest players to ever play the game. Oddly, I didn’t make the cut. After completing a lap around the museum, we continued our loop around the field.
We arrived back to our section with some time to spare so we got a traditional ballpark lunch of hot dogs, burgers, and fries (well, kinda traditional without the crackerjacks) and took it back to our seats to enjoy. I was lucky that they were letting people sign up for home equity loans right next to the concession stand so that we could afford our lunch. The hotdog and fries were not enough to curb the hunger of the growing Hunter, so I picked him up a soft pretzel just as the game was about start.
The seats could not have been better as we enjoyed what would end up being quite a pitchers’ duel between Jimmy Nelson of the Brewers and Chris Archer of the Rays. The Rays got off to a one run lead right away in the bottom of the second inning, but the Brewers answered with a run in the top of the 6th. That was the only scoring action until the bottom of the 9th inning when the Rays’ Steven Souza, Jr. hit a game winning solo home-run. Needless to say, Colonel was a happy camper.
Although the Brewers didn’t win, the game was a lot of fun. The Rays provided a lot of entertainment in addition to the game to make it quite an experience. I do have to say that although I don’t love games inside a dome, it really was the perfect way to watch a game in Florida in August. We stopped at the souvenir store on the way out of the stadium to pick up something to bring back for Sawyer, and we headed out to our car.
The drive home was not my favorite as the traffic story was quite different than the morning with, bumper to bumper traffic all the way up I-4. Hunter has taken an interest in cars over the past few months, so he enjoyed seeing a couple Teslas (one of his favorites) on the drive. We ended up making it home by 6:30, when we dropped off Colonel and said our goodbyes. It was a really fun day that I am glad I got to spend with my buddy Hunter and the Colonel.
