Tampa Trip Part II, Reds Outfield...

Today, I'm hoping to finish up on my trip to Tampa, so sit back and enjoy the ride...or something.

So I left off with landing at TPA and getting a Pacifica. One of the things I had planned to do was to drive from Clearwater Beach (the hotel's location) to Orlando for an Orlando Magic game...after driving from the airport to the hotel. I don't especially like basketball, but LeBron James and the Cavaliers were in town, so I decided to go. One thing I really missed was getting to see Jordan play in person. Man, that was a heck of a drive, but traffic wasn't too bad, save for a bit of obligatory construction on the way. I got to the arena just in time to buy a ticket near center-court (but in the nosebleeds--I'm still not rich), and about all I missed was the opening tip-off. I took more pictures here, but most of them are too blurry and dark to make out anything. I think I got a couple with LeBron shooting a free throw or something. The Cavs won that game, but ended up missing the playoffs by a game. Hey, there's always next year. The drive home was marred by DisneyWorld traffic and active construction. I pulled off a couple exits later and scarfed down some breakfast food at a Denny's, since they were just about the only place still open. Soon I was back on the road, getting very tired and knowing that I had to be awake the next morning for the seminar's opening.

The next morning (Tuesday, April 12), I awoke to a beautiful day, then realized that I had to get dressed for an all-day meeting about the company's software. The morning session was filled with mostly stuff that I couldn't easily follow, considering I have very little experience with the package. At lunch I realized that there would be no meals served without seafood, so I grabbed a plate of tortilla chips and skated off to my room to watch SportsCenter. After lunch, some more presentations about the software that didn't really apply to me. Later that evening, there was some sort of "Beach Olympics" team-building event where they also supposedly served dinner. No, thanks; you lost me at "team-building"...actually, you lost me at "Beach Olympics". So I sat in my room and hooked up my laptop to the ($10 per 24-hour period) high-speed Internet connection. Later, I realized that I had not eaten dinner, so I drove up the Sand Key and found an Outback, just before closing. Bacon burger + cheese fries = w00t! Or whatever.

The next day we were scheduled for separate breakout training sessions, and I was in the IT classes. These were actually somewhat interesting, since they focused more on what I will be doing at this job. Again, lunch was some sort of seafood casserole type crap, so I skipped it again.

After the classes were over for Wednesday, I decided I would head over to Tropicana Field to see a Tampa Bay Devil Rays game. They were playing the Orioles, so I would at least get to see Sosa (again--booooooo!) and Miguel Tejada play. Interestingly enough, this was the last game that Alex Sanchez would have to sit out for using steroids. Tropicana Field is sorta hard to describe. It's one of these places that really seems to be a nice, top-of-the-line, new-school type of stadium. You walk into the rotunda and there's a pretty blue/teal/green mural above you. They even have an arcade for those who like to pay for a ticket to go play some video games...odd that they have to divert attention away from the product that they put on the field. I mean, I love me some games, but I'm at a baseball stadium to see baseball.

Anyway, you scratch a bit below the surface, and Tropicana kinda becomes a dump of sorts. Supposedly their capacity is somewhere around 45,000 but I just couldn't see how. But then, there were only 9,226 people at the game I went to. There really aren't any outfield seats, and I was right behind home plate, so maybe I couldn't see the other 20,000 seats behind me or something. That reminds me...when fewer than ten thousand people show up, why do the ushers still hassle me? Was it because I had my hat on backwards, or simply because I walked in from the side of the section? I mean, this old usher in a Hawaiian shirt asked to see my ticket TWICE! "Sir, are you SURE you're in the right section?" What, you mean you didn't really do your job the first time you looked at my ticket? So now you have to hassle me while I'm trying to fill out my scorecard? Jerk. I would honestly say that even the section I was in ($35 seats, mind you) was only 60% full. At least Great American always fills up in the good seats.

Eventually, the game began. No runs scored until the bottom of the fifth...Tampa Bay 2B Jorge Cantu (who?) reached on a fielder's choice, allowing SS Julio Lugo (who?) to score the only Devil Rays run. I only recognized a few guys on the team: Carl Crawford, Aubrey Huff, and Eduardo Perez (Tony Perez's son). The Orioles came back and scored 1 in the sixth and 4 in the seventh to win the game. I fully expected to go see an AL game and see lots of runs piling up, but most of the game was foul balls and singles (21 total hits, 18 singles). This was probably the longest 9-inning game I've ever seen--3 hours, 25 minutes. Kline gets the win, Hendrickson gets the loss.

That made the 5th team's stadium I've been to in my somewhat short life: Reds-Riverfront/Cinergy/Great American, Mets-Shea Stadium, White Sox-New Comiskey/U.S. Cellular Field, Indians-Jacob's Field, Devil Rays-Tropicana Field. I would eventually like to get to Wrigley, Fenway, and Yankee Stadium. Well, back to the trip...I drove back to the hotel, stopping for a quick dinner at Taco Bell. More sleep.

I think that's an OK stopping point for now, as far as the trip is concerned...I'll finish that in my next post.

Now, regarding the Reds outfield. It's hard to watch Wily Mo Peña hit so well and realize that he's not a "starter" for this team. The ballots for the All-Star game were just released, and I HAVE TO WRITE IN the team leader in homeruns. How screwed up is that? Now, I realize Austin Kearns is a pretty good fielder, but Wily Mo is at least serviceable for patrolling right field. And as much as it pains me to say it, perhaps Griffey should be the odd man out? Also, Freel should be the starting second baseman, at least right now, right? It's good to see that the starting pitching is putting in some quality work, but can't we get that to happen on the same night that the hitters are hitting?

Enough rambling...see you next time.