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The Great Ballpark Chase: The Boss’s Place

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Steinbrenner Field
The view from behind homeplate at Steinbrenner Field. (Photo by Tim Russell)

When scheduling ballpark visits in the great chase, there are no set rules. It’s often called “Your chase, your rules.”

That brings us to the Tampa Bay situation.

As many know, Tropicana Field was damaged by Hurricane Milton, a Category 3 storm that hit the Tampa area in October 2024. That forced the Tampa Bay Rays to seek another place to play. There were several options, but it was finally settled that the Rays would use George M. Steinbrenner Field, while Tropicana is repaired.

The repairs are slated to be finished in time for the 2026 season at a cost of $55.7 million.

This was about as close as we were able to get to Tropicana Field, damaged by Hurricane Milton. (Photo by Tim Russell)

But that also causes a dilemma for ballpark chasers.

How do you count Steinbrenner Field? Do you wait for Tropicana to reopen before visiting the Tampa area? There is no real answer and a lot depends on how you count stadiums. Do you count just MLB stadiums or all stadiums?

For me, it was included in the Southern Slam tour with Coast 2 Coast Sports Tours, so it was an easy choice. I’ll likely go back for a weekend trip sometime in the next couple of years to knock off Tropicana as well.

I prefer to count any baseball stadiums, including MLB, MiLB, college, and independent league.

Some of the views around Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field which is being utilized by the Rays this season while Tropicana Field is rehabbed following Hurricane Milton. (Photos by Tim Russell)

But for now, it’s just Steinbrenner Field. Although we did visit a couple of minor league/spring training facilities for quick visits. We saw JetBlue Park, also known as Fenway South, home of the Boston Red Sox. We also saw Lee Health Sports Complex and Hammond Stadium, home of the Minnesota Twins. Both are located in Fort Myers.

The exterior of JetBlue Park in Fort Meyers. It’s the Grapefruit League home of the Boston Red Sox. (Photo by Tim Russell)

Steinbrenner Field, named for the longtime owner of the New York Yankees, underwent a few changes to get ready for the Rays. The field holds just 11,026 fans, which makes it the smallest MLB field. It also was stripped of many of the Yankee decorations to make the Rays feel more at home.

A life-size statue of Steinbrenner, as well as plaques honoring Yankee greats remain outside the stadium.

The regular tenants of Steinbrenner Field, the Class A Tampa Tarpons, were also displaced by the Rays. The Tarpons play their games on one of the back fields at the spring training facility.

The Tarpons also are the first team to hire a female manager in MLB affiliated baseball. Rachel Balkovec managed the team from 2022 to 2024. She is currently the Director of Player Development for the Miami Marlins.

Steinbrenner Field opened in 1996. The dimensions mimic that of both old and new Yankee Stadium. It has the scalloped grandstand facade (the frieze). It was also the first spring training stadium to include luxury suites.

But enough about the stadium.

Let’s talk about one of the most important people on these bus tours – the bus driver.

Not only are bus drivers entrusted to get you to and from each of the sites. Most of them have local knowledge that will help you find places you might not normally see.

This year, our bus driver was Greeker, who just had his first grandchild about a week before the tour started. Based in Dallas, Greeker had a few adventures getting the bus from Dallas to Miami.

It took him about three days to make the trek. While that isn’t a huge time, you also have to be sure the hotels along the way can handle bus parking.

One of his hotels assured him that they had bus parking, but apparently they didn’t tell him the lot was about a half-mile or so down the road in a deserted lot. He ended up having to catch an Uber to get to and from the hotel.

Naturally, it caused Greeker some concern being that far away from the bus. He even ended up going back to the bus during the night to check on it. The bus was fine, although Greeker did find beer bottles strewn around the bus door.

Greeker wasn’t too worried about any potential damage to the bus, since there are security precautions installed. But, suffice to say, his sleep wasn’t too restful the rest of the night.

The view from leftfield at Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field. (Photo by Tim Russell)

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