Twenty years of Tropic thunder for Sox
Rays’ home field scene of sweet Boston memories
Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., was Fenway South before there was a JetBlue Park — or even a JetBlue Airlines.
The Red Sox return to the Original Fenway South tonight for the 20th season of Major League Baseball in St. Petersburg, Fla., as they face the Rays to begin a four-game series. Red Sox games at the Trop have become a home-away-home for players and fans.
The Devil Rays/Rays have been both a pushover and a pest for the Red Sox since their inception in 1998.
Tropicana Field — believe it or not — was modeled in part after Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. It remains one of baseball’s most persistent punch lines. The Devil Rays/Rays would not win more than 70 games in a season until 2008.
Citizens of Red Sox Nation transplanted to Florida or just visiting it have made Tropicana Field their own beach house. On game days, Red Sox caps are outnumbered only by Tom Brady jerseys and Fbawmbs.
The Red Sox clinched their initial 2004 and 2007 playoff berths at the Trop.
It was there where firstballot Hall of Famer Mike Carp hit a pinch-hit grandslam in the 10th inning on Sept. 12, 2013, that gave the Improbable Dream Red Sox a 7-3 win and a 9 1⁄2- game lead in the A.L. East.
David Ortiz hit his 175th, 499th, 500th and 541st home runs at the Trop — along with 31 others.
Ted Williams never played at Tropicana Field, but you damn well better pay your respects at the Ted Williams Hitters Hall of Fame before every Rays game.
It’s a mini Cooperstown and Ted is taking attendance.
Then there was Pedro Martinez.
On Aug. 29, 2000, Pedro took a no-hitter into the ninth after drilling Gerald Williams to start the bottom of the first. Some 17,450 fans were in attendance (myself included) and 17,451 of them were members of Red Sox Nation or its various factions.
This would be the night that bad blood between the Red Sox and Devil Rays/ Rays first flowed.
The only Tampa Bay players who came close to hitting Pedro that night were Williams — who rushed the mound after Pedro plunked him in the left hand with the game’s fourth pitch — and John F. Flaherty, who singled to lead off the ninth.
In between, Martinez retired 24 straight batters. He fanned 13 Devil Rays, and 71 of his 110 pitches were strikes. He denied hitting Williams on purpose but we all know he did.
The night was littered with brushbacks, beanballs and brawls. Eight Devil Rays were ejected as Tampa Bay threw at Brian Daubach all night.
Boston second baseman Lou Merloni suffered a concussion after he was kneed in the head during the night’s first fight. He watched Flaherty’s hit from the hospital.
Pedro was never better, never filthier, never nastier, and never more Pedro than he was that night in St. Pete.
But the Rays might be enjoying the biggest laugh.
Thanks in part to Carl Crawford, the Rays beat the Red Sox in seven games to win the 2008 ALCS. David Price got the save in Game 7. The Rays’ closer fanned three in shutting down the Sox to record the final four outs.
Like tourists swept up in the magic of Disney World — a mere 75-minute to four-hour drive from the Trop depending on traffic — the Red Sox were mesmerized by the success of Crawford and Price (in part) during their heydays in St. Pete.
Boston would sign Price and Crawford to deals worth a combined $359 million. The results have been mixed to catastrophic.
Thankfully, this weekend all the Red Sox have to do is win three out of four.