It was not the baseball history I wanted to see but I was glad to just be in the stadium after what happened Saturday. Tom called his customer about the bogus tickets we used Saturday to try and get into the Whitney Bank Club at Tropicana field. His customer is a business man, and had forgot that he had forwarded those tickets to an associate. He felt bad about what happened, and forwarded new tickets for the Sunday game for us. Cool! We were on our way. This game was the Sunday Night Baseball game on ESPN; It was an eight o'clock start and I figured it would end about eleven.
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| The view from the Whitney Bank Club |
We parked in the same lot we had Saturday, and were very happy to find out our $175 tickets were good! We were in...How Cool Is That! You enter the Whitney Bank Club through a private entrance where the staff begin waiting on you hand and foot. After the elevator ride up to the club, our tickets were scanned again and we found a good table by a window with a great panoramic view of the field.
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| Me watching the game |
We feasted on prime rib, jerk chicken breast, vegetables (we eat healthy), scallops and much more. They even had Chicago style hot dogs which we ate during the game while we washed all of this down with boatloads of beer...All of this is free if you have a tickets. I can't tell you how wonderful the food was, and how many trips we took to the carving station. We were indeed in hog heaven. We were not, however, prepared for what we were about to see during the game.
The starting pitchers Josh Becket and Jeff Neiman pitched eight lights out innings and left the game with the score tied at 0-0. Tampa had their chances with many long shots that almost went out for home runs. Boston had left 14 men on base at the end of nine innings. By rights, they could have easily won this game. It was by watching this, that I saw how good a defensive team the Rays are. They don't miss a beat. Sam Fauld ran down many long shots with terrific speed, and Johnny Damon got two hits and plays at a high level for a 37 years old dude; Even Longoria got a nice hit to break his streak (he is coming back from injury). Neither team gave an inch and the game went extra innings. It seemed that nobody was going to score. The Red Sox loaded the bases twice, but hit into double plays both times. The Rays could not get a man passed second base the whole night.
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| Tom on our private balcony |
The highlights of the evening were when a Boston fan ran out into the outfield and was chased by security who tackled him and beat his ass, and when Joe Madden got ejected from the game (defending a player that was attacked by a chowder head player who broke a bat).. We finally left about 1:00 a.m. and went home. I found out in the morning that Boston finally won after 16 innings. This was the longest game in Ray's franchise history. Most of the people were gone before it ended. Of course, many people have to go to jobs on Monday morning and who would have expected this game to go on for almost six hours. What was strange was watching Alex Cobb getting in some pitching practice in the bull pin after midnight. A very strange experience.
One thing I noticed was that the majority of the crowd were Tampa Bay Ray fans. Years ago in a Boston series, that would not be the case. I am glad to see the trend is turning. Friends of mine know my opinion on this. If you are going to live in the Tampa Bay area, support our teams. If not, go back too where you came from. Its as simple as that.
I am going to miss this place as I head back to the 'cheap seats' were taxi driver should be at anyway. A hot dog still taste good there. However, if you can swing it, the experience you will have at the Whitney Bank Club is well worth. it. Just having privacy was worth it for me.
