2023 Rays Opening Day game

 Ever since going to a Rays game in 2018 and seeing how they celebrated the teams 20th anniversary (even inviting back players from the 1998 team), I have wanted to to go to a game in 2023. I have followed the Rays since they became a team in 1996, and went to about 3 games in 1998, and probably 50 or so games since then. 

I ended up getting tickets to Opening Day this year, and had high hopes that the entire 1998 Opening Day team would be back. 

The Rays raised their Wild Card banner, and that was cool to see. I’ve seen a number of places making fun of it, but why did nobody make fun of the Bankee$ for having a banner after losing the Wild Card Game to the Red Sox 2 years back?  People love to hate the Rays, but if they can stay healthy this year, they could pull a Phillies this year or a ‘19 Nationals and ride a hot streak to a title. 

On the way in Kyler saw Raymond and DJ Kitty. 

He got a picture with DJ Kitty, and got Raymond to sign the picture of the two of them from 2 seasons ago. You can kind of see Raymond signing it in the background. Later in the game, the pair were in the centerfield stands, and Kyler went over and got DJ Kitty to sign a '22 Topps custom I made and Raymond to sign his '21 Topps Opening Day jersey card. I still have like 15 cards of Raymond, and hopefully over the next few years I will knock them all off, maybe 1-2 per game. 

After getting into the ballpark, there was a guy on stilts, and Ky got his picture with him and got a fist bump. 

Me, Karen, and Kyler in our seats. 

Shane McClanahan warming up. While I applaud the Rays brass on having them wear the '98 unis, I was really disappointed that it was about the only lengths they went to that honored the original team during the game. While they had guys like Quinton McCracken and others come back during the 2018 season, they didn't have any show up at the Opening Day game, even when their closer from that team, Roberto Hernandez, lives just a few miles away. You can't celebrate a 25th anniversary without honoring the history of the original team. 

Kyler was playing on my phone in the car on the way up, and I forgot he had it, so I didn't get very many pictures at the game because Karen had it and still had to do some work stuff with it. We still got some nice picutres. I had wanted to take a picture of the first pitch, but Karen and Kyler had left to go get food by then. Former Ray James Shields threw the first pitch. He wasn't even drafted until 2002, but I guess since he won the first World Series game for the Rays it was a good call. 

As far as autographs, I got Raymond on the jersey card and a team issued card from 1997 or 1998 which I think is his rookie card. Next is the DJ Kitty custom, and 2 customs I made of Rays reliever Ryan Thompson. A few weeks before, MLB Trade Rumors had a chat with him. It worked out that I've taken lunch during a number of them, including ones with Thompson, former Cub/Met pitcher, and Cubs GM Ed Lynch, former Tigers/Yankee$ pitcher Humberto Sanchez, and Indians 2B Jason Kipnis. During Ryan's chat, somebody asked him if he knew if he was getting any baseball cards and why he wasn't on any. Ryan said he didn't know and wish he had some. I made all of the missing Topps cards (2020 Update, 2021, 2022, and 2023), a few days before the game and started printing them out. I had planned to make 1 of each for myself and give Ryan a few copies, but of course my printer ran low on color ink and made the gems you see above. I got basically 1 useable copy of each and 1 bad copy of the 2023 and 2022 cards. I put the good versions in a penny sleeve and wrote the card year and my blog URL on the backs, and put the other 2 copies of the cards for myself next to them and got them in my box to take to the game. With just a few minutes before the game to start, Ryan comes out to the bullpen and started to throw a few handfulls of gum to the crowd. I went up and he saw my cards, and motioned for me to come after he got done with the gum. It was pretty loud (and I am famous for mumbling), and I told him that I heard he needed some cards from the MLB Trade Rumors chat so I made him some and that the ones in the sleeve were for him. He took the 4 cards for him in the penny sleeve, took the top one (2023 Topps) out of the sleeve and signs it, and then took my version of the 2023 Topps card and signed it. I started to take the last card for me back, and he says 'you still have one more' like he wanted to sign it, and I said something like 'no, those are for you', and then I think he got what I was saying, and he said thanks and went back to the bullpen. I think he ended up with the 2020 Update, 2021 Topps, and 2022 Topps for him, as well as the dying ink version of the 2022 Topps that I was going to keep. I got both versions of the 2023 Topps custom after all was said and done. I hope he enjoys them. I'm not sure if the game had started or not when he signed, because when I got back to my seat, I looked, and at least 1 pitch had went by. 

The game was pretty good, but it was bad timing a few times. I took Kyler to meet Raymond, and Jose Siri hit a HR. I guess the jumbotron showed our seats when me and Kyler were gone, so Karen got on it at least. We left the game in the 7th, and were just out of the tunnel when Manuel Margot made an amazing catch in RF which we would've got a good view of. We did have some nice luck, though.

 Some people behind us found a ball under their seats (maybe one hit under there during BP), and they gave it to Kyler. Kyler was starting to get tired, so with Miguel Cabrera coming up in the 7th, I asked if we could leave after Miggy hit, and Karen and Kyler agreed. We stayed, and watched him hit a double, so we'll always be able to say we saw him play in person and hit a double. 

After we got home, I found the prize from Johnny's Trading Spot in the mailbox. Remember those Bowman Julio Rodriguez's he mentioned in my last post? Well, he sent me a few along with some cool Rays cards from the latest 2 Chronicles sets. I have always been a Brent Honeywell fan. He is one of the few pitchers nowdays with a true screwball, and I figured he would've been a mainstay in the Rays rotation by now. A few Shane Baz rookies, a Vidal Brujan rookie, and those Julio Rodriguez Bowman's. Thanks, John. Perhaps I'll make it my way to your place before June and have some more stuff for you. We'll see how our schedules are. 

It was a fun Opening Day. Only way that would've made it better was if the Yankee$ would've lost and the Tigers could've also won. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy