TAMPA, FL = My homie Eric Colon and I recently caught a game at The Trop. The Tampa Bay Rays were hosting the Cincinnati Reds and it was Eric’s first game at the dump with the new roof. I decided to show him the artifacts at the ballpark. As I was looking for the Wade Boggs display in the lower level, it was nowhere to be found. Then I searched for the Rays Hall of Fame room, until I asked an employee of its whereabouts. She didn’t have a clue of its existence.
Eric and I wound up in the bleachers where I was looking for the “yellow seats.” The seats are the color yellow to show where the 1st Rays franchise home-run landed on March 31, 1998. It was hit by Hall of Famer Wade Boggs in the 6th inning off Detroit Tigers’ pitcher Justin Thompson.
As we were walking thru the right-field bleachers, I asked an usher, “Where are the yellow seats?” He looked at me as though I had two heads. That usher knew nothing about a yellow seat, or a Boggs homer landing there.
We finally found the seat and it was sitting there empty among a few fans. I tested a guy sitting nearby what the significance was with this yellow seat. He had no clue, even though a small plaque was on the seat’s back giving all the details.
The search continued for the other “yellow seat.” That was where Boggs homered for his 3000 hit. That came on August 9, 1999, a 2-run homer off Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) pitcher Chris Haney. It was three sections over toward the right-field foul pole.
When Eric and I got there, it was deja-vu. I again tested a fan in a Tampa Bay jersey, “What’s up with the yellow seat?” He shrugged his shoulders and answered the predictable Generation Z response of, “I don’t know.” When I explained to him that it was the landing of Boggs 3000th, he responded, “It doesn’t matter, that was before my time.”
Another artifact that’s a thing of the past is the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame, which was run by Dave McCarthy. Once located inside The Trop, it has since been replaced by a gathering space for the ANALytic geeks who have ruined this once great game.
We are living in a time where the new generation protests about everything, except what they actually should be protesting about. Things of the past are just that – The Past! Every piece of information from back in the day is available on everyone’s I-Phone, but nobody cares. What seems to matter is the number of views on Instagram and TikTok.
It’s only a matter of time when this new generation of clueless morons will guess that Babe Ruth was a hooker from the past, and Ty Cobb was her pimp.
