Hey,
Today, in honor of Father's Day, My dad and I did something that we have done many times, go up to St. Pete and see the good old Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Sadly, a group of church goers and other "concerned citizens" thought the word Devil was horrible. Even though its named after a fish, even though it makes the team unique, and even though everyone calls them the Rays anyway, the new Rays management took Devil out of the title. They even changed the meaning of Rays from a Manta Rays (which would have been a better name) to Sun Rays. Yes, the sunshine state so they're rays of sun. Not sure how a Sun Ray would defeat an enemy, considering it's mostly an inanimate concept created by humans, but I digress. They will always be the Devil Rays to me.
With those thoughts in mind, my dad and I took our vouchers (not gonna say how I got them other than the word incompetence, as I want to continue to get them) up to the stand to get tickets. At the Trop (Tropicana Field), in order to get tickets, one must wait in a Disney labyrinth in order to actually get up to the ticket windows, where you are then divided up and told which window to go up to. Before this system was in place, with the old management, people divided themselves into lines, which doesn't seem like hard of a concept. But people complained that people were unfairly getting cut in line, ignoring the fact that they sounded like elementary school children, and so the current set-up was born.
Once you wait ten minutes on line to get your already paid for tickets (sigh...), you enter the Trop, and the Disney feelings continue. Walk to your right, and you get Center Field Street, a nicely themed bazaar of snack stands and an impressive cigar bar that has been there since the park opened. It's subtle and fun to go through. Once you get past it and into the seating area however, it starts to get a little strange. There are stands for trivia game shows, little kids drawing things, and a setup for getting to touch actual MLB baseballs and bats. These would be interesting if not for the fact that the team paid and constructed big stands for each of these exhibits that have nothing to do with baseball, and as the years go on they seem to get more gaudy.
But thats not all! In addition to useless activities, they set up a Mountain Dew sponsored EXTREME game room. So you can play MLB video games in a baseball stadium during a real life baseball game. This brings backs haunting memories of Farenheit 451. I am a gamer, but I would never accept a virtual substitute for something that is actually offered in the flesh. Thats like buying a bootleg version of Pokemon when Pokemon Diamond is staring at you in the same case, its ridiculous.
Other amazing amenities include weird themed lamp posts with the mascot Raymond's disembodied hands as posts. When you have to go to the john, your are greeted with wall length plasma screens that not only ruin baseball games for people watching on TiVo (My dad caught that the Yanks were winning 3-0, making his surprise less) but also run mini versions of Access Hollywood, as if that needed more exposure.
I have spent my entire childhood going to that stadium. I went to the second ever game played there, back when it was called the Ice Palace and hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning. I went to at least one game of every season since then, and I have never felt more uncomfortable than I have today. My dad said it great when we were talking, he said it's almost as if the management want you to be a part of something, the new Rays experience, instead of just hanging out. It just all seems so corporate. Everyone knows that Baseball is the most passive sport ever created, and watching it should be just as such. You shouldn't have to be included in the festivities, you should just cheer for your team. And my team is the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
May you always passively fight the man instead of getting involved
-Pudge
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