Since 2010, the Yankees have a 30-44 record at Tropicana Field. That is their worst record of any ballpark in the A.L. The Yanks went into the weekend series (June 22-24) with the best record in baseball, but continued their losing ways in Tampa by getting swept in the 3 game series by the Rays. The most frustrating loss came in the third game on Sunday afternoon, when Clint Frazier hit a potential game winning, pinch-hit home run in the 9th inning, only to be robbed when the ball hit a speaker hung from the roof in fair territory. Oh yeah, the ball was caught by the Shortstop for an out. The ground-rules at the Trop make perfect sense .. right? This is only one reason why I call Tropicana Field a DUMP. There are the cat-walks up on the roof with equally ridiculous ground rules attached to them. And lets not forget the WHITE roof. A white roof for a game that is played with a WHITE ball. Again, makes perfect sense .. right ? As bad as the speakers and cat-walks are, the white roof is far worse. Why? Because it is an absolute safety hazard, especially for visiting teams. Think back to April of 2014, the Yankees and newly acquired Carlos Beltran got off to a hot start. Carlos was playing RF and a fly ball was hit down the RF line. Beltran was running full speed and drifting into foul territory, but couldn’t take his eye off the ball to see where he was because he knew once you take your eye off the ball at the Trop you can’t find it again because of the WHITE ROOF. Well, Beltran ran full speed into the half wall in foul territory, flipped over it going head-over-heals. Thankfully he didn’t break his neck. Amazingly he stayed in the game, but soon after went on the DL and never fully recovered in 2014. There was another incident last year where Aaron Judge nearly had a terrible collision with a teammate because they couldn’t take their eye off the shallow fly ball for the same reason ..the white roof.
The Rays are “celebrating” the 20th anniversary of Tropicana Field. MLB always eventually rewards teams by allowing them to host the All-Star Game at their new stadium. MLB has never allowed TB to host the mid-summer classic .. AND THEY NEVER WILL. Do you need to ask why?
UN.SPEAK.ABLE LOSS: Clint Frazier should be the hero of a dramatic, hard fought, come-from-behind win for the Yankees, instead it’s a SPEAKER that is the Star of the Game for the Rays. Makes perfect sense ..right?
