Home Opener

Monday evening my son, Gabe, along with my best friend Tim and his brother Kevin, attended the home opener of the Devil Rays against division rivals Baltimore Orioles. Under new ownership and management the franchise is revitalized and we're gladly basking in the honeymoon phase. The talent is still lacking, but the commitment from ownership, for the first time in team history, is solid.

A simple idea of how things are different under this new ownership can be found in the bathrooms. The previous ownership would go out of their way, it seemed, to be anti-customer friendly. The stadium was always dirty and by the end of the games, the bathrooms were awful. Today, there was a janitor continually cleaning the bathrooms throughout the game and, as you left, would go out of his way to say "Have a great time at the game today!" A janitor pushing customer service. Boy, things are different in DRay land.

The new owners also offer free parking, discounted concession stand prices, the repainted the entire stadium, gave away goodies as you entered the stadium, greeted fans, etc. They did everything they could to show that things were different now. And the fact that it was only the fourth sellout in team history supports that assertion. The fans were ready to have some fun.

The team is full of exciting, young players. We have no allusions of competing with the big market teams every year... MLB still hasn't fixed disparate revenue streams for the teams in the league... but the DRay fans think that we have enough talent that a magical run could happen at some time.

We got to the field early. I had owed my son a hot fudge Sunday for hitting a home run Saturday, so we got that first. We then watched the DRays batting practice, during which, Mark Hendrickson, one of the Rays starting pitchers, threw Gabe a MLB ball. As the crowd started to fill out I was most impressed by how many 20-somethings there were in attendance. That is the fan base the new ownership needs to attract and they were there in force.

During the game time caught a spongy ball and a DRay t-shirt thrown into the stands and gave them to Gabe. During the game a dad in front of us bought one too many Carvel Dippin' Dot ice creams and gave the extra one to Gabe. And, though the DRays ended up losing, Gabe was able to watch Toby Hall hit a two run homer. Hall has a special place in Gabe's heart because at the end of last season, we celebrated Gabe's birthday at the field and, due to a variety of circumstances, Gabe got to stand next to Hall on the field during the national anthem.

Overall the evening was a lot of fun. The crowd was excited. My son had a great time and I got to spend a fun night with my best friend of 25 years. It's the simple things that offer the greatest rewards. Sure, it would have been great if the Rays would have won, but the evening was memorable for so many other reasons.