For the Tampa Bay Rays, last season felt less like baseball and more like a long, strange detour through Florida folklore. After Hurricane Milton shredded the roof of Tropicana Field and briefly turned the Trop into the most depressing open-air stadium in America, the Rays spent all of 2025 playing outdoors at the Yankees’ spring training home in Tampa while repairs dragged on. Now the team is heading back across the bay to St. Petersburg to resume life in their freshly patched but very much not-new ballpark, a return that has inspired more sighs than excitement. And as if the Trop didn’t already carry enough weird energy, recent reports suggesting there may be graves beneath the stadium parking lot have players quietly wondering whether the franchise has been operating under a curse all along.
*** Now chatting in #RaysPreseason ***
KevinCashFlow: alright guys
offseason meeting
good news is we’re returning to tropicana field
*** PepiotLePew has entered the chat ***
PepiotLePew: the roof place?
KevinCashFlow: yes the roof place
the roof is repaired now
*** YandyDandy has entered the chat ***
YandyDandy: wasn’t the roof… gone?
KevinCashFlow: hurricane milton
small incident
*** JuniorMintCondition has entered the chat ***
JuniorMintCondition: small incident???
it turned the trop into a convertible
*** ArandaGrande has entered the chat ***
ArandaGrande: honestly steinbrenner field wasn’t bad
sunshine
grass
people
*** TayTayWalls has entered the chat ***
TayTayWalls: yeah
returning to the trop feels like going back to your old high school gym
KevinCashFlow: contractually obligated nostalgia, gentlemen
*** LeaveIt2Cleavinger has entered the chat ***
LeaveIt2Cleavinger: uh guys
have you seen the news about the parking lot
KevinCashFlow: what about the parking lot
LeaveIt2Cleavinger: apparently there might be graves underneath it
*** entire chat pauses ***
JuniorMintCondition: graves
like… people graves?
LeaveIt2Cleavinger: yes
people graves
ArandaGrande: so the stadium roof blew off
and now the parking lot is haunted
TayTayWalls: cool cool cool
cool cool cool
YandyDandy: are we sure the franchise isn’t cursed
PepiotLePew: explains the attendance
KevinCashFlow: nobody panic
this is just offseason speculation
*** GhostOfParkingLot has entered the chat ***
GhostOfParkingLot: hello rays
JuniorMintCondition: NOPE
*** pr0FF3ss0r_F4rnsw0rth has entered the chat ***
pr0FF3ss0r_F4rnsw0rth: i knew it
the trop always felt like a haunted bowling alley
now we have confirmation
*** WORDUPTHOME has entered the chat ***
WORDUPTHOME: HEY GUYS THIS IS JI
JIM THOME
DON’T FEAR THE SPIRITS, SPORT
BASEBALL IS A GAME OF HISTORY
PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
AND SOMETIMES PARKING LOT ANCESTORS
OLD JIMBO BELIEVES THEY JUST WANT GOOD FUNDAMENTALS
GhostOfParkingLot: bunt more
KevinCashFlow: see? constructive feedback
*** MLB_NewsBot has entered the chat ***
MLB_NewsBot: UPDATE: Rays to return to repaired Tropicana Field after 2025 season at Steinbrenner Field.
Team reportedly “not fully excited.”
Local reports suggest possible graves beneath Trop parking lot.
ArandaGrande: cursed roof
haunted parking lot
distant stadium location
PepiotLePew: rays baseball is back baby
*** KevinCashFlow has left to sage the clubhouse ***
*** PepiotLePew has left to ask the ghosts for lineup advice ***
*** JuniorMintCondition has left to park three blocks away ***
*** TayTayWalls has left to google “ghost ERA” ***
*** GhostOfParkingLot has left to attend batting practice ***
*** WORDUPTHOME has left to bless the infield ***
*** pr0FF3ss0r_F4rnsw0rth has left to challenge a ghost to a fistfight ***
