Article: Red Sox Road Trip No. 2: Chi-Town to Minor League Florida

[Steve Trefz]

After their first homestand of the 2025 season, the Red Sox will back their bags again for a 3,497 mile trip through the South Side of Chicago to the temporary outdoor home of the Tampa Bay Rays. Six games against two of the 2024's most disappointing teams, in some of the easiest venues to get close to the action. What awaits the Sox and their fans?

Boston tests its road chops again with this mid-April trip to the Midwest and Florida Gulf Coast. Cold and warm will greet them; will the Red Sox get hot or go cold on the trip? Can Red Sox fans survive Rate Field in Boston gear? Can they even get a ticket to the tiny field that the Rays now call home? Let's see how these series shake out.

Chicago White Sox - April 11-13
Rate Field - Capacity 40,615
2024 Attendance: 1,380,733 (Averaged 17,931, 13th out of 15 AL parks and 27th overall)

Boston split a four-game series in June 2024 in their last trip to Rate Field. After opening the series with a resounding 16-2 victory, their offense went cold before finally salvaging an extra-inning victory in the finale. This mediocre result against a terrible club reflects the nature of the South Side road trip. Overall, the Red Sox have taken more than they have given in their trips to Rate Field, winning 70 of the 134 contests on the Pale Sox's turf since 1991. While Chicago can't claim a home-field advantage, they have held their own consistently as the teams have traded series victories over the decades.

The artist formerly known as New Comiskey Park, The “Cell,” and Guaranteed Rate has been around since 1991, but South Side Chicago baseball has been cooking since 1910. While the new stadium resides in a residential area, it carries a “big” stadium vibe compared to its North Side counterpart. Sharing an owner allows you to also buy Bulls gear at the ballpark, which works for me.

The upper deck leans into the “upper” definition, and while the bleachers get hot…they probably won't in April. In the 2000s, a person could shower on the outfield walkway. I’m not sure who thought that was a great idea, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t try it out one blistering August afternoon myself.

Lake Michigan, Soldier Field and the Museum campus, Sears Tower, and the Magnificent Mile. The smell of the L-Train platforms wandering in the Lake Shore breeze. The early-season angst of White Sox fans. It is a weekend series, but since it's April I’m guessing there should be quite a few good seats available.

Getting to Rate Field most likely involves a car and parking, and sneaking to the South Side before rush hour is a “mandatory” event. An L-Train ride is always an option as well on the red line. If you want to get from Chicago to Tampa in time to catch the next game, however, an airplane is your only chance.

Tampa Bay Rays - April 14-16
George M. Steinbrenner Field - Capacity 11,026
2024 Attendance (at Tropicana Field): 1,337,739 (Averaged 16,515, 14th out of 15 AL parks and 28th overall)

The Red Sox went 4-2 at Tropicana Field in 2024, sweeping a May series and dropping two of three in September to their divisional rival. The 2024 success sticks out like a sore thumb for a Boston squad that had gone a stunning 1-15 in their previous 16 games at the Trop! Overall, the results are slightly more average, with the Red Sox winning 116 and the Rays winning 120 in their contests at Tropicana Field since 1998. The results also skew tremendously streaky, with several multi-year winning and losing streaks mixed into the records. This history obviously gets tossed partly out the window with this season's contests taking place in an outdoor postage stamp.

Major league baseball in Tampa Bay made sense on paper. As the Yankees' spring training home, it already houses a major league team for two months each year, so why not put an actual franchise in town? In 1998, the Tampa/St. Pete metro area got its own ballclub: The Tampa Bay Devil Rays. They celebrated by losing at least 90 games in each of their first 10 seasons!

Then after a 2008 name change to the Rays (think “sunshine,” not “seafood”), the tide turned in many respects. Their first World Series appearance and a constant stream of small market success stories defined the next decade. Attendance, however, never followed suit except for the occasional playoff run.

Tropicana Field boasted the notorious label of being “unattractive” and “nondescript.” A concrete dome, with Astroturf (which even the Astros stopped using), optical illusions from the seating arrangement, and catwalks that giveth (Jason Kubel in 2010) and taketh away (Miguel Sano in 2015). But apparently, the game experience itself could be a lot of fun. Dancing grounds crews, a live ray tank in the outfield (think “seafood,” not “sunshine”), a Ted Williams and Hitters Halls of Fame, and plenty of room to roam made the Tropicana experience a good buy. If you could time the series right, you can also catch a few minor league games in the area while you were there.

Tropicana Field embodied quirky baseball, but thanks to hurricane-force winds and a stadium dispute that strangled any motivation for repairs, it now stands roofless, leaving more questions than answers about the future of the franchise in the area. That leads the Red Sox to George M. Steinbrenner Field, the Spring Training home of the rival Yankees, and the minor league home to the Yankee's single-A Tampa Tarpons. Why didn't the Rays go with their own spring training site in Port Charlotte? Too far to travel, and worse amenities, supposedly. With a capacity of less than their average attendance in 2024, and with a ballpark that is (finally) easily accessible to citizens of Tampa, the Rays look to raise some prices, make some cash, and most likely vacate town. 

The landscape and tourism industry of Tampa took a hit with Hurricane Milton for sure, but the Salvador Dali Museum, the Sunken Gardens, and the Florida Aquarium still are worth the trip, and the Big Cat Rescue also is pretty sweet. Hopefully, you can find a way to get your tickets early, because it looks like these games will be sold out by February and the Boston tax might be high on re-sale.

After traveling 3,497 miles on this zig-zag road trip, the Red Sox will return home to face the White Sox again for the last time this season, then meet the Mariners for the first time. How do you think the Red Sox will be faring in the standings by the time they finish this road trip? Are you planning on making the trip to either game? Do you have any advice from prior trips to Rate Field or the Tampa area, or even Steinbrenner Field? Let's get talking, Sox fans!

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