Recent eBay purchases

 I’m sure by now anyone who follows baseball knows that Tropicana Field had parts of its roof damaged by Hurricane Milton. This one really hits close to me for a number of reasons. First, because I live about 2 1/2 hours away. Second, because I’ve been going to games there since the Rays first season all the way back in 1998. Third, just because of the sheer amount of games I’ve been to. I would venture to say it’s at least 25, perhaps closer to 50. 

You can say what you want to about the stadium, but for me, since I grew up going the Trop at about 90% of the MLB games I’ve attended, I just really don’t think it’s that bad of a stadium. The dome served a purpose that overrode how bad or “unbaseball” it made the stadium seem. It kept the rain out. Starting in April some years, you will get rainstorms pop up out of nowhere in Florida, and it can go on until early fall. Not everyday, but some years it has hit close to 60 or 70 percent of the days, more if you are along the coast, which St. Pete is. Without the dome, there would be a number of rainouts, and it would wreak havoc on the schedule. All of the minor league teams in FL just have open stadiums, because let’s face it, MLB doesn’t care if a minor league team has 20% of the games on its schedule either cancelled or made up as 2 7-inning double header games. 

I will say that the area around the Trop just didn’t welcome you or even let you know you were near a baseball stadium. Aside from a billboard for the Rays along Interstate 275, no Rays-branded signs are near the ballpark. The signage only starts once you enter the main parking lot, and that should be expected. I can only hope the Rays do better with marketing the club with the new stadium. I’ve been to games in Pittsburgh and Washington DC in 2023, and with both clubs out of contention, they still had vendors selling team merch blocks away from the park, team signs everywhere, and just a whole different atmosphere blocks before you get to the ballpark. Perhaps if $ternberg would sign a player to an extension, a player would be recognized as the face of the franchise, and people would want to risk selling some jerseys outside of the stadium. 

With all that said, there is a potential that the stadium that is hated by many baseball fans and loved by me will have seen its final game hosted there. Even if the roof is fixed, the field needs to be drained, as nothing is keeping even more rain and who knows what from entering the stadium. There aren’t drainage systems because with no rain and artificial turf, it just wasn’t needed. I’m sure there is a small drainage system, because they do have hoses that spray the infield dirt before the game, but it’s not enough to handle rain that flooded many areas nearby. Who knows just where the rainwater ended up and if there are mold and mildew problems starting to develop. It might just be a better idea to play home games at nearby Al Lang Field across the Howard Frankland Bridge in Tampa, at the Blue Jays’ Spring Training stadium in Dunedin about the same distance away, or give them the best solution, and let them play at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando?  Orlando would attract more fans from the booming Orlando area, it’s still close to Tampa, so you would still get a number of them, and you would get the tourists coming as well. Orlando doesn’t have nearly the amount of retired people as the Tampa area, so you wouldn’t get the fans coming that lived somewhere else until they were 60 and aren’t Rays fans, you would have a number of more true Rays fans who don’t have other allegiances. With each of these parks, I think there would have to be some kind of artificial roof made in order to keep the rainouts from occurring so frequently. At least in Orlando you are away from the coast. 

If the Trop has indeed hosted its final game, I really wanted to see if I could somehow get a piece of the roof, as I have seen a number of people on various Rays sites post pictures of getting some from around the park. I didn’t really have a decent chance ar leaving the house for 6+ hours to potentially find a piece of the roof, but there was one listed on eBay that was about these and price that I was looking for, so I pounced on it. It showed up in the mail today. Actually 2 pieces, and both are maybe the size of my hand. I have a box in my garage of baseball memorabilia, posters, and other things that I want to hang up in my man-cave if I can ever get one, and in it is a piece of artificial turf used at the Trop, so I took a picture of the roof pieces with the turf piece. 

I don't know if I'll get the cave in this house or not. We've talked about adopting, and if that happens, I'm sure the guest room will serve as another kid bedroom, but at some point, if we are in this house long enough, I think the guest room will eventually become mine. If this blog is around in 10 or so years, you might just see pics. 

I've kind of been on a Rays-heavy quest when I've been looking on eBay ever since the Trop got hit with the hurricane. I've been wanting a few team photos. Number one, of the inaugural 1998 team, number two, of the 2008 AL Championship team, and number three, of the 2020 AL Championship team. There is a photo of the '08 team on eBay, but at 25 bucks, I feel it's a little steep. I'm willing to go about 10 plus shipping for a photo. The '20 team, surprisingly, has no photos except of the team celebrating, and I just want one of the entire team posed and sitting like on the '50's through '70's Topps sets. The '98 team has one that I would like, but it has autographs on it of 4 guys (Dennis Springer, Bobby Smith, Rolando Arrojo, and one other guy). Nobody even remotely memorable, even to a Rays fan, and the guy is asking 50 bucks for it. Sorry. 

I did find a way around it, and was able to find one item, which I'm not even sure of what it is. The front has the team photo, and the back just says its a raffle ticket for a MD charity. I have a feeling it is maybe smaller than a baseball card, so not quite what I am looking for, but it was 8 bucks, and I got it. I also found an old Rays magazine from 1998 that had a team picture in it that I am pretty sure I will be able to take out of the magazine, so I got that as well, and maybe that will be able to go up in the future man cave. 

Other than that, I got the 2024 Topps Update set. That gives me runs of Topps complete sets (with my yet to be shipped SportLot box) from 1980-2001 (with Traded), 2004 Topps, 2006 Topps .  Traded, 2016 Topps Update, and 2019-2024 Topps (with Update). I think I might focus on the missing ones in between the runs I have going so I can get a run from 1980 to now. I’m missing some of the key cards from a few of the sets, but do have some of the key ones like Betts (base), deGrom (base and Rookie Debut), Scherzer, Ohtani, Soto, and Acuna (all base), and some other guys like Verlander and Kershaw that I have an equivalent rookie from  another brand that I could probably use to trade for the Topps version. Maybe I can accomplish that in a few years. 

Hopefully the Trop can get a few more games in before it closes in a few years. If not, at least my last few eBay purchases

 helped me feel close to it and relive some memories. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my latest post. 

-Jeremy