Baseball At The Trop & Manny's Last At-Bat

I got bored on Wednesday so I asked Brendan if he was free and wondered if he'd like to join me watch a ball game at the Trop. The Rays were hosting the Angels and off we went. He lives close enough to Tropicana that I dove to his place and then we walked to the park. I probably paid more for the tickets than I should have, but, damn it, how often can you go see a game with your kid? We had the entire row to ourselves so were able to stretch out and not worry about people around us. The Rays lost but we had a good time, saw a good game (2 HR's and a couple SB by Fuld), AND because Hellickson, the Rays pitcher struck out 10 pitchers, we got a coupon for a free pizza from Kane Furniture.

Jared Weaver and a top 10 pitcher in the bigs this year. Don't ask me about the girl in the clown hat.

Since this is Florida these two are the King and Queen of the Senior set.

Nice swing.

Maddon and his coaching staff are in for a long year.

Fun day at the park.

I took this guys picture because I like the stockings ala vintage baseball. Guys just don't wear them like this anymore, but I like it.

An announced 11,000 people on this Wednesday afternoon at the Trop.

Johnny Damon popping up.

Manny Ramirez quit after is game and so, this was his last Major League at-bat. He came up in the 9th as a pinch-hitter. He failed a drug test and was facing a 100 game suspension and just decided to take his money and run. At one time he was BIG and his luster had faded a bit the past few years. But Manny slugged 550 some home runs but because of his many failed drug tests he probably won't make the Hall of Fame.

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