Rays Baseball!!

Who is Ray and why do we have his baseball??

After hearing the chant "Rays Baseball, Rays Baseball!!" for a few hours, that question rang in my brain.

Matthew just celebrated his 11th birthday and in continuing our tradition of incorporating baseball into our lives, we scheduled a trip to St. Petersburg to take in a Tampa Bay Rays game. From our house to the stadium it was a two hour drive. First pitch was scheduled for 12:10 which was great, since we could leave just after breakfast and be home for dinner.

I loaded up the boys and left the girls at home. The drive over was rather quiet; I don't think the boys were 100% awake, even at 9am.

We stopped at a Panera Bread near the stadium for a quick lunch break. The workers kept asking us if we were going to the Rays game. I can't figure out why, maybe it was all of us wearing Rays jerseys?? Well, all except Titus. After lunch, we arrived at the stadium and the first order of business was to buy Titus a jersey. He wanted one with a number on the back and we found one he liked.

First pitch was nearing and we headed out to find our seats. I feared we would have to walk around to the other side of the stadium to get to the outfield, but thankfully, the entrance we came in was just by our seats. We located our section and sat down just before first pitch. The first 5 innings were very quiet, baseball wise. It was "Parks & Recreation Day" at the ballpark and the stadium was filled to the brim with kids. It made for a very loud experience with boisterous kids and constant activity in the aisles as kids needed food and bathroom breaks. Also, the freebie of the day were noisemakers - inflatable cheer sticks. The kids loved them. Each package came with two and had to be blown up. They are basically long cylindrical balloons which make a loud noise when banged together.

The Twins tied up the game in the top of the 6th and we needed some drinks and snacks. I went down to grab something and Titus and Jared tagged along. Our timing was very poor as the Rays hit back-to-back home runs, one of which was hit very near to our seats! In the replay, I can just see Lance as he watches the ball come in and he points towards it. Very cute.....

The game really came alive after that and the last few innings were much more exciting. Thankfully, the Rays held on and won 4-3.

The drive home was much more lively, with the boys using the cheer sticks as swords and having many, many battles in the car on the way home.