On Friday we had planned to visit the Winter Haven facilities of the Cleveland Indians to see them play Boston. About 20 minutes before the game it started raining lightly. It continued to increase in intensity and rained hard for the next 50 minutes. Because of the lakes in the outfield the game was cancelled. We stayed for awhile because exiting the parking lot is a disaster. We exchanged our tickets for the game on Tuesday. Bob Feller was signing autographs, so Jim purchased a baseball and got it autographed.

On Saturday we drove to St. Petersburg for the game between the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The spring training stadium for Tampa Bay is in the Progress Energy Park on Al Lang Field. This ballfield is in downtown St. Petersburg not far from Tampa Bay's home at Tropicana Field. The weather was hot and sunny, but we were able to find seats in the shade. There wasn't much as homeplate is in the NE. We saw Lou Piniella, John McLaren, Lee Elia, and Matt Sinatro--all ex-Mariner coaches doing their coaching jobs. Lou, according to the papers we have been reading, has not been very happy with the Devil Ray team this spring. Today he was happy as his starting pictcher had a great six innings and the final score was D Rays-8 and Pitt-2. The box score was Pittsburgh-R-2, H-5, E-0 and Tampa-R-8, H-13, E-0. The stadium was rebuilt in 1976. The field lines are RF & LF-323', RC & LC-380', and CF-400'. The food and drink selection at the concession stands is limited. The team practices at another facility. This is the first time we saw a mascot, who I think we will see again at Tropicana Field. Seating except for the first maybe 6 rows is all bleacher back seating. I would estimate that there were 5,000+ fans today.
Food Costs
Ticket Costs
Attractions