It remains wild that a group of engineers and architects came up with an indoor baseball stadium that still isn’t even suited to host normal baseball games. But that’s the story of Tropicana Field.
The Rays’ home park is consistently mentioned among baseball’s worst stadiums, and its low ceiling full of catwalks is a big part of that. Like, umpires have to apply a special set of rules just to account for all the obstructions at the stadium.
On Thursday, those catwalks were on full display.
During Randy Arozarena’s at-bat in the third inning against the Yankees with two outs and a runner on second, the Rays outfielder skied a high pop fly straight up in front of the mound. The Yankees infield tried to camp underneath the pop fly, but the ball simply never came down.
Tropicana Field needs to be demolished immediately pic.twitter.com/J34V5ZjN6K
— The Baseball Newsletter (@bbletter) July 29, 2021
Why does this stadium still exist?
At first, there was some confusion as to how to handle the play. Arozarena was unsure whether or not he was supposed to run to first, and for a moment, it seemed like he just earned the cheapest RBI single you’ll ever see.
But that wasn’t the case.
The umpires would call the play dead, and Arozarena would end up striking out to end the inning.
Just a normal day at The Trop, I guess.
https://youtu.be/1Xu4-czKgVs