Seattle Mariners vs. Tampa Bay Rays 4-8-08

Tropicana Field was sold out for opening day. It happens so infrequently that they weren’t prepared for the crowd. Too few ticket takers and security guys. It took us 20 minutes to get into the stadium. Once inside, it was hard to navigate the narrow walkways. But, once we got to our seats, it was ok. We sat behind 3rd base on the first level for $26. A bargain. The Trop is a domed stadium so it was nice inside despite it being a hot Florida night.

Nancy enjoyed the Ted Williams museum at the field and the aquarium filled with Stingrays (get it?)

The game was actually pretty entertaining. It was close all the way. A couple of questionable umpire calls riled up the crowd. We saw our first ejection of the tour (TB manager Joe Maddon for arguing an out call at 3rd base (BJ Upton beat the throw, but Adrian Beltre blocked the base – I thought he was out).

Seattle won 6 – 5. Here’s a link to the box score:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2008_04_08_seamlb_tbamlb_1

Here’s a link to our pictures (the non-baseball pictures are from the pier in St. Petersburg):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14772189@N03/

As for the hot dog – an “8”. We had a footlong with sauerkraut. Good taste. One extra point for the freshest bun ever.