John Healy saw Ted Williams play left field at Fenway Park in the 1950s. He watched his beloved ‘Sawx’ end the Curse of the Bambino in 2004. But on Sunday, Sept. 27, he watched something he never could
have imagined he would see.
Sunday morning, Healy got up early and drove the two hours from Ft. Myers to St. Petersburg and watched the Red Sox play Game 162 from an aisle seat five or six rows behind the dugout at Tropicana Field. He paid $32.
"It can't be any more fun than this," Healy said.
The game was supposed to be played Saturday night at Fenway. A nor'easter weather pattern heading for New England changed that, and Major League Baseball moved the game to St. Petersburg. It was the first time the Red Sox played a home game anywhere but Fenway since the 2019 London Series. The Cubs have been through this before, back in 2008, when Hurricane Ike pushed two games of their series in Houston to Milwaukee’s Miller Park.
The Red Sox were still the home team. They just dressed in the visitors' clubhouse and used the visitors’ dugout that they are used to as the Rays division rival.
"I'm sure Tampa maybe doesn't want us in their locker room," Red Sox manager Chad Tracy said with a laugh.
Tracy said the Red Sox knew early last week this could happen. They'd made their peace with it. It still felt off."It's still strange," he said. "You're at the Trop. You're the home team."
The Rays' clubhouse staff had some fun with it.
They turned the Rays’ digital clubhouse sign into a welcome sign for the Cubs that featured the team logo and Wrigley Field ivy. The note on it read, "Hope you enjoy your short stay at Tropicana Field." The video scoreboard, new this season, was Fenway green and showed the score in the old-school fashion of the iconic Boston ballpark. The scoreboard played the traditional “Coming to America,” “Tessie,” and “Sweet Caroline” in the middle of the eighth for Red Sox fans.
Still, nothing was normal about this Game 162.The Cubs and Red Sox team planes landed in Florida early Saturday morning. For the Cubs, who face a cross-country flight to San Diego for the wild card round, it was “not great,” said right fielder Michael Conforto, “but what can you do?”
He had packed for this road trip his fall clothes for Boston and a potential wild card game in Philadelphia or San Diego. The Cubs didn’t pack for the beach, so the unexpected off-day on Saturday was spent resting at the hotel.
While the players rested, Rays head clubhouse manager Tyler Wall was supposed to be in Philadelphia with his team over the weekend. When word started spreading that the game might land at the Trop, he asked his staff if anyone had plans. Then he flew home before the Rays played Friday to get the place ready.
They cleared out every locker. Everything the Rays players left behind went into boxes or racks.
"The biggest part of it was honestly flipping our clubhouse, emptying it out, just to make it a blank slate," Wall said.The Cubs brought their home clubhouse guys and a bat boy. Their truck backed in around 2:30 a.m. Saturday. The Rays' crew was still unpacking it close to 5.
"The Cubs would have done this for us. The Red Sox would have done this for us," Wall said. "So we're happy to help."
Before the 3:05 p.m. first pitch, the Rays clubbies and Cubs clubbies posed for a “team picture” together out on the field to mark the occasion.
It was a fun atmosphere, as Red Sox and Cubs fans brought their signs and chants. Healy, who works at the Red Sox spring training facility, bought his ticket the day the move became official. He'd seen something about it online first and didn't believe it.
"I'm going, 'wait a minute, they're not going to Florida. Come on,'" he said. "Then they made it official, and I immediately said, 'where can I buy tickets?'"
Healy and a lot of fans found those tickets quickly.
The announced crowd was 20,411. That was better than 58 of the Rays’ 81 home games this season. They averaged 17,469 fans per game this season and two of their biggest crowds came against the Cubs and the Red Sox.
“The players after the game were talking about how many 'W' flags they saw,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It was a pretty good crowd.”
With the traditional W from Wrigley flying in the stands at Tropicana Field, Bregman felt the energy.
“It was sweet,” Alex Bregman said of the Cubs fans that showed up. “Cool.”
That crowd saw Bregman, a week after suffering facial fractures, hit two monster home runs to lead the Cubs to a 6-2 win.
That meant Chicago finished 88-73 and Boston 87-75. It had no impact on the playoffs and was just a weird stop on their way to the wild-card series. Boston hoped it was a sign of things to come.
The Red Sox had celebrated clinching a playoff berth on this same field at the Trop last Sunday. If they win the Wild Card Series in New York, and they could be back next weekend.
"If everything goes according to how you want it to, it can end up being three weekends in a row," Tracy said. "So it's strange, but the weather's nice here."
The Cubs left Sunday night to fly off to San Diego to face the Padres and the Red Sox hopped on a plane and headed to the Bronx.
The Rays' clubhouse crew had one more long night ahead putting the clubhouse back together as their team left it. Tampa Bay has pitchers scheduled to throw on Monday and the American League Division Series to prepare for on Saturday. By then, Tropicana Field and the Rays clubhouse will be back to normal.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Game 162 in Florida: Ivy for Cubs, Fenway Green for Red Sox
