hop to the Trop

I love that name: THE TROP! I felt very hip just saying, "Beth, we're almost to the Trop!" And, "Beth! There's the Trop!"



...getting closer ...



...and closer!




There's the Trop, behind us. I can't tell you why we squatted for this photo. It was kind of hard to get up....





It's Tropicana Field, home of the Amazin' Tampa Bay Rays. Until I arrived, I thought an indoor ballpark in Florida was odd and how could I ever like such a thing? But it was very cool. The hallways reminded me of old-style brick ballparks, with unusual things on the walls. (I read on the Rays website that the 8-story entrance to the Trop was modeled after Ebbets Field in Chicago, using 1913 blueprints!) Then there's the ray tank, where you can actually pet the "cownose rays."



Rays fans pet the rays....


The roof of the Trop is a truly magnificent sight: it "features the world's second-largest cable-supported domed roof (Georgia Dome is the largest). It's made of six acres of translucent, Teflon-coated fiberglass and it virtually supports itself with 180 miles of cables connected by struts." (thank you, tampabay.rays.mlb.com) Don't you just love superlatives? I do and I was humbled to watch two World Series games under the big Trop Top!





Of course the highlight was being with David, meeting his peeps in the media area, and then spotting him in the front row of the press box. I was quite bold in trying to photograph him "on the job" and one security man warned me that "security across the park" were watching with binoculars. Am I that suspicious-looking?



See the blue wall behind the guys at the desks? That's the press box and David's in the front row, about second from the far right. (click on pic) Yes, I promise you, that's my son!



OK, here's a better photo ... David's in the foreground there in the press box.



David and me before the start of game one. David's busiest time is the hours before the game ... during the World Series, about 500-600 media people were in the stadium!