Tropicana Field Should Be Destroyed

In the 9th inning of the Yankees loss to the Rays yesterday they should have taken the lead and probably won the game. Clint Frazier led off the inning, pinch hitting for Neil Walker, and drove a 1-1 slider deep to left field. It wasn’t a question of whether the ball was deep enough to go out, but whether it was going to stay fair long enough to be a home run. After a few seconds it became clear it was going to be a homer, until…..

UNTIL IT HIT A MOTHERFUCKING SOUND SPEAKER!!! Listen I admittedly complain a lot, but you can’t tell me this can actually be a rule. For starters, why are there speakers in fair territory in possible threat of being struck with a home run ball? Oh I’ll tell you why. They’re there for one sole purpose and that is to pump in fake crowd noise because the Trop doesn’t draw more than 15,000 people on any given day. My next question is how in the world is it the rule when the ball hits the speaker it’s still in fair play and wherever it randomly bounces is how the play continues? I mean that’s just an insane, outlandish rule. This isn’t wiffle ball. All the credit in the world to Rays shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria for sticking with the play, tracking the ball somehow in the shitty backdrop of the Trop, and making the catch.

I may come off as a whiny bitch right now, but if a for-sure home run ball in the 9th inning hitting a speaker directly cost your team a win you’d be pissed too. You’ll probably say, “Oh don’t complain you play in Yankee Stadium.” Well I’ll ya what pal, it’s a normal fucking stadium with a short porch in right. Fenway park is a normal stadium with a giant wall in left. Every park has it’s little quirk to it where they toy with the height of the wall or dimensions, but nothing that can knock a home run ball to be a pop out to shortstop. You know what Tropicana Field is? It’s the clown hole in Happy Gilmore when Happy goes mini golfing.

Imagine we look back at how the AL East was won and lost and it comes down to one goddamn game? I may lose my mind and pull a Tony Stark.

Burn it to the ground.

Make sure to listen to a brand new episode of The Short Porch where Tommy and I break down this nightmare weekend and how much the Trop sucks.