Feeling at home at the Trop
Fans wait for the start of ALDS Game 1between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Yankees on Saturday at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. Credit: AP/Chris O'Meara
When the Yankees play games at Tropicana Field, the crowd, while not entirely on their side, generally has been about a 50-50 split.
Not that the influx of Yankees fans provides too much of an attendance boost: Yankees-Rays games over the years here typically draw in the 15,000-20,000 range.
With the Rays doing something rare for this series – opening up the thousands of tarped-over seats in the upper deck, because there’s never really been a threat of those seats being sold – it was anticipated, from both sides, that Yankees fans may well outnumber those cheering for the Rays.
That decidedly was not the case in Game 1 when 40,542 packed the Trop, the largest crowd here since Game 5 of the ALDS in 2010, according to MLB.com
“Sometimes in this building, it can be kind of 50-50 and you hear a lot from the other side,” said Rays closer Bryan Baker, who grew up in Florida and attended Rays games in this building as a kid. “But, yeah, I heard a lot of Rays love, which is great to play in front of, and I think we embrace that. Seeing that top level being filled out and how good of a game it was, honestly, too. Just being in that environment, yeah, it's . . . if you can't play in that environment, I don't know, man. That's what it's all about. It's pretty special.”
Kevin Cash, who played eight years in the majors and is the longest-tenured manager in the big leagues having managed the Rays since 2015, said of Game 1: “That's the best crowd noise I've ever witnessed in any ballpark.”
Shortstop Taylor Walls, a Ray since 2021, characterized the crowd to reporters in the Rays clubhouse after Game 1 as, “absolutely electric.”
“I've never seen this place like that,” said Walls said. “Usually when the Yankees come here, even if it's a weekend series, it's really hard to tell what side's winning as far as the attendance goes. Tonight it felt like Rays fans were there.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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