TAMPA, Fla. — Junior Caminero opened the slim white door in his new spacious locker and the Tampa Bay third baseman found a bat Giancarlo Stanton left behind.
Down the row at the different prestigious nook stall, pitcher Shane Baz had no concept he was in Aaron Decide’s spring coaching abode.
“I have never discovered something but,” the Rays pitcher mentioned. “I am going to take something.”
Left homeless after Hurricane Milton destroyed the Tropicana Field roof on Oct. 9, the Rays started their season as renters at Steinbrenner Field, the New York Yankees spring coaching headquarters, taking part in the Colorado Rockies on Friday in the closing main league opener.
The Rays changed greater than 3,000 indicators and pictures in the 11,000-capacity ballpark throughout a 120-hour makeover after the Yankees’ closing house spring coaching recreation ended Sunday at 3:33 p.m. By the time of Friday’s first pitch shortly after 4 p.m., banners spelling “R-A-Y-S” coated the “Y-A-N-Okay-E-E-S” indicators above the first- and third-base stands and enormous photographs of Shane McClanahan and Taj Bradley have been on the again of the scoreboard, seen to vehicles driving in.
An interlocking “NY” chandelier in the spacious Rays clubhouse was coated with a sq. canvas highlighting the Rays yellow, Columbia blue and white starburst with “House of the Rays” written on either side. The reproduction of the Yankee Stadium frieze above every stall was hid, too, and a mat with white “TB” letters was on the ground resulting in the showers, obscuring tile the learn “The Bronx” and “New York,” meant to emulate a subway.
Clubhouse workers discovered a touchpad and adjusted the 12 skinny ceiling lights imitating Yankees pinstripes from white to deep blue.
Misters have been put in in the dugouts and bench padding was changed together with the bat and helmet racks.
However there have been reminders this was a ballpark constructed for spring coaching’s expanded rosters — most Rays had two lockers. Simply 39 of 77 stalls have been occupied, together with 25 of the 51 ringing the partitions.
“New York Yankees govt workplaces” was etched in the doorways of an workplace entrance and the statue of late Yankees proprietor George Steinbrenner and the show of New York’s retired numbers outdoors the ballpark remained unaltered. Yankees logos have been in place at the finish of every row in the seating bowl and whereas “TB” changed a Yankees signal atop the scoreboard, the letters “George M. Steinbrenner Field” remained beneath.
Their locker room repurposed as the customer supervisor’s workplace, umpires have been moved to a trailer greater than 100 toes past the left discipline nook, close to a metropolis avenue.
Rays gamers luxuriated in amenities way more lavish than the ones they have been accustomed to in the Trop: a two-level weight space, three remedy swimming pools with TVs at water stage, sauna red-light remedy, 4 batting cages and an indoor/out of doors eating space.
“It’s virtually an excessive amount of,” mentioned pitcher Zack Littell, prepping for his begin Saturday. “There’s a lot house. I feel if you happen to needed to complain about one thing, you need to stroll a extremely lengthy approach to get locations.”
Some gamers switched their season leases from the St. Petersburg facet of the bay to the Tampa flank, shortening their commute. Rays supervisor Kevin Money mentioned his 10-minute trek to the Trop was now a 30-minute drive.
When he opened a drawer in his new desk, Money got here throughout a handwritten observe from counterpart Aaron Boone.
“He simply mentioned: `Get pleasure from it. You guys, hope to have good well being,'” Money recounted, expressing appreciation.
“This one was fairly elegant. Some of the issues that Tito leaves shouldn’t be so elegant,” he mentioned, referring playfully to new Cincinnati supervisor Terry Francona.
Whereas the guests clubhouse is cramped, it’s not uncomfortable. Further house was created by shifting the coach’s room to what had been space for storing.
“They’ve accomplished the whole lot they’ll to make this really feel like a giant league park,” Colorado’s Kris Bryant mentioned.
Tampa Bay has performed 2,148 video games at the Trop, together with the postseason, in keeping with the Elias Sports activities Bureau. The Rays earlier out of doors house video games have been a pair of sequence at Kissimmee, Florida, in 2007 and ’08, video games towards the Yankees moved to New York’s Citi Field in 2017 and in San Diego throughout the 2020 neutral-site postseason.
Final 12 months’s schedule at St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field averaged simply 16,515, twenty eighth amongst the 30 groups, and opening day was the solely sellout. The Rays withdrew this month from a deal for a proposed new ballpark on a web site adjoining to the Trop, and Main League Baseball will probably be watching carefully the place there can be an attendance benefit to a brand new stadium on the Tampa facet of the bay, comparable to a proposed Ybor Metropolis web site.
“I feel the followers have all the time sort of wished baseball over in Tampa Bay as a substitute of St. Petersburg,” Littell mentioned.
Given the intimate environment of the one-deck, 34-row ballpark. the Rays expect fireworks — precise fireworks are to be set off following house runs throughout evening video games.
“I do know a a lot smaller capability right here however it should really feel like a much-more packed home,” Rays infielder Taylor Partitions mentioned. “We’re excited to play in entrance of our followers right here, in entrance of the followers of Tampa, possibly even Orlando that now get an opportunity to commute to the recreation.”
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