The Yankees-Rays Game

Last night I got a free ticket to the Yankees-Ray game in St. Pete.  A friend had an out of town friend who treated them to the game, but their daughter had another commitment.  Enter the Cavman, who upon promising to not wear his Red Sox hat and/or shirt, received an invite to the game.

I thought we might be sitting in the bleachers or something.  When I saw my ticket and noticed the price, I realized otherwise.  We sat 6 rows behind the Rays’ dugout, friends.  These were great seats.  The downside of the seats was the Team Rays “dancers” most of who might have been 20 and wearing too-tight shorts and baseball jerseys.  This was the first time I’ve seen ‘cheer leaders’ at a professional baseball game.  But they would help lead the claps to the songs, dance with Raymond the mascot, and distribute trinkets to the crowd while shaking their booty.  Yeah …. David Stern is complaining about the pyrotechnics at basketball games.  I can complain about the blatant use of sexuality at America’s pasttime.

I was surprised by the lack of people at the game.  Afterall, 1. the Rays have been playing very well and 2. the Yankees are in town.  But there were lots of empty seats.  In my 3 trips to either the concessions or men’s room, I didn’t wait in line once.  Not once!

The game itself was very good.  Quite the pitcher’s duel.  But there were people playing with their blackberries.  The Rays were up 1-0 heading into the 9th with Troy Percival coming in.  This after Joba Chamberlain was able to get out of a jam.  Percival has had an outstanding year so far.  But last night wasn’t his night as Matsui pulled a ball into the right field seats to tie the game.  So it went into extra innnings.  In the 11th, the Rays scored off of Mariano Rivera (he of the previously 0.00 ERA).  So 2 great closers had issues last night.

Combined with the Red Sox loss, the Rays moved into first place by .5 games.  You would have thought they had won the World Series.  Lots of “Yankees s***” chants (that’s modeling some good sportmanship to the younger part of the crowd).  People took pictures of the standings with their cell phones.  It was so annoying (mind you, I love seeing the Yankees lose) that one announcer told the fans to “act like you’ve been here before.  Let’s have a little class.”  That’s because many of them acted like 5th graders- taunting Yankees’ fans (even taunting kids!).

Despite those distractions, it was a fun night.  Great seats to a great game at an even greater price.