TAMPA, Fla. — The first thing fans noticed coming into Steinbrenner Field on Friday was a sign on the outside of the left center-field scoreboard with Tampa Bay Rays branding and a message thanking the New York Yankees.
Earlier Friday, Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg looked like a listing relic during a quick drive by with its skeletal roof and abandoned warehouse feel, destroyed last October by the ravages of Hurricane Milton.
The Rays needed a place to play this season, and the Yanks stepped into the breach by lending the rival Rays their spring training facility.
“It’s why we’re here. It’s fresh on our mind,” Erik Neander, the Rays president of baseball operations, said before a capacity crowd of 10,046 filed in for the game. “It’s the results of a storm of storms that did a lot of damage to our area. We needed a place to play, and the Yankees have been wonderful partners.
“I couldn’t have been more appreciative of them making opening day a reality.”
And what an opener it was, with the wind swirling and the Rays coming from behind to win, 3-2, on a walk-off homer on the first pitch of the bottom of the ninth by Kameron Misner, a 27-year-old rookie who was only in the game because Josh Lowe strained his right oblique and left for a pinch runner in the fifth inning.
Baseball is a game with a history of strange and esoteric firsts, and Misner’s homer was the first time a player’s inaugural big league homer was an opening day walk-off.
For the Rays, it was the first time they’d ever played a home game outdoors subject to the elements in the Tampa Bay area. Their only previous outdoor regular-season home games were near Orlando in 2007 and 2008.
It was something different, Rays manager Kevin Cash said.
“You’re talking about the wind. You’re talking about wearing sunglasses for the home opener,” he said during a media session. “It was a little strange early on. I had my notes and different thoughts on paper and the wind’s whipping in the dugout. Shadows we’re not accustomed to. We’ll spend hours now talking about how we can make it work to our advantage.”
As far as the environment was concerned, the Rays did everything they could to make the ballpark Rays friendly. More than 3,000 Yankees signs from the inner workings of the clubhouse to all reaches of the ballpark were replaced. Ergo, the Y-A-N-K-E-E-S individual letter signs about the first base and third base seats were replaced by R-A-Y-S.
It took a monumental effort by hundreds of Rays employees from the close of this past Sunday’s last Yankees home spring training game until Friday’s opener to give the stadium and home clubhouse a distinct Rays sensibility, Brian Auld, one of the team’s co-presidents, said in an interview.
“It’s incredible,” he said. “We didn’t even know we’d be here until what, mid-November? It looks like a Rays ballpark.”
It’s been reported the Rays are paying the Yankees $15 million this season for the privilege of signing a one-year deal. Auld declined to confirm or deny that figure.
He did say the Rays have not yet spoken to the Yankees about extending the deal in the event the Trop is not repaired in time for the 2026 season.
Right now, the Rays are progressing on parallel tracks: baseball and ballpark.
“It’s just all very complicated,” Nelander said in an interview. “Right now, I’m just worried about playing good baseball in March and April.”
The Trop repairs—at $55.7 million—are now on the St. Petersburg city council agenda for an up or down vote next Thursday. By terms of the Rays’ lease, the city is responsible for those repairs, whether that includes money from insurance, FEMA or out of the general fund. The city has a $22 million deductible on its insurance policy.
An up vote could mean a return to the Trop might be viable by 2026 and tie the Rays to the area for three more seasons. A down vote would put the entire situation in flux.
It’s no wonder at numerous points during Friday’s game fans loudly and repeatedly chanted for owner Stuart Sternberg to “sell the team, sell the team.”
That was a constant refrain last season in Oakland after A’s owner John Fisher announced the club was moving to Las Vegas. The A’s will play their first game at an interim home in West Sacramento on Monday night, weather permitting.
The sentiment of the fans didn’t derail the move there and probably won’t have any effect here, either. The Rays have a third-to-last Major League Baseball player payroll of $100.4 million.
“It’s just hard to know at this point what things are going to cost,” Auld said alluding to the stadium repairs. “I mean, what’s going to be the price of steel?”
About the season, he added: “We’re just going to have to win more games than the Red Sox and Yankees.”
At least on that front Friday was a good start.
