I am not close to being the baseball fan of  years past, but the  unique style of play of the Tampa Bay Rays has rekindled my interest. It helps that they’ve been a highly competitive team recently, at least up until very recently.

Like most Tampeños, I’d love to see the Rays leave their horrible ball park and relocate to a perfect spot in Ybor City, Tampa’s fabled  historical district.Until that happens, the only way to see a live game is to make the traffic-laden trek across the Bay to a not-so-centrally-located part of St. Pete. Nothing against St. Pete or this part, but it’s just not where you put a ballpark if you want fans from all over the Tampa Bay Area  to show up. The site was once an African-American community, and 800 homes were demolished to make way for the stadium. It was not the wish of the local people to have their neighborhood converted to a baseball field, and the location was fine for residences.  The Ybor City stadium would be built on an old and unused rail depot.

Aside from  location, Tropicana Field suffers from numerous flaws. Tropicana is a domed stadium with a  series of circular catwalks hanging from the ceiling, low enough to be hit by some fly balls. the American League had to create special rules for this situation, and the result will be different depending on  which catwalk ring is hit; it could range from a foul ball to a home run. This isn’t how the game was meant to be scored. The roof and the dim, unnatural  lighting create a very un-baseball like feeling. I saw a plan for a park in Ybor that had a translucent roof and no catwalks. (I certainly understand why owners want fans to have climate-controlled games in the Florida summer.)

I attended the Rays-Yankee game last night, and while top players on both teams were not in the lineups due to injuries, we were treated to three home runs by Rays shortstop Isaac Paredes as our team squeaked past the Bronx Bombers 5-4. Even the bleachers are full when the Yankees are in town. Their spring training is in Tampa, at Steinbrenner Field. That, plus all the New Yorkers in Tampa, means there might be almost as many Yankee fans in Tampa as there are Rays fans!