Sports
Rays Fan Fest Packs in the Crowds at Tropicana Field
Rays fans, apparently eager for the season to start, jammed the home of the Tampa Bay Rays for the annual Fan Fest Saturday.
ST. PETERSBURG - If the turnout at Tropicana Field Saturday is any indication, the locals are starved for baseball, specifically the Tampa Bay Rays.
Saturday, the annual Fan Fest, free to the public, may have recorded its largest turnout in franchise history. So many people packed Tropicana Field that Rays officials had to open auxiliary lots for the overflow crowd.
Inside, the place had the buzz of a playoff game. Future baseball Hall of Famers, barely able to walk, took their swings at wiffleballs in a batting cage. Others tried their arms out in pitching areas.
Dads -- and some moms -- ran the bases with their children. One dad held his little boy's hand, slowly guiding him through the basepaths as he was still learning how to walk straight.
Fans endured hours-long waits in line to get an autograph, take a picture, and perhaps a handshake from Rays players such as B.J. Upton, Evan Longoria and a local high school star and Rays newcomer Casey Kotchman.
The crowds were so massive that 45 minutes before the gates opened, there were long lines of fans waiting to flood Tropicana Field.
