Extreme Makeover: Baseball Edition is about to premiere. On March 23, the Tampa Bay Rays staff will launch a 120-hour transformation of Steinbrenner Field, the New York Yankees' spring training facility in Tampa, for the Rays' season in exile from storm-damaged Tropicana Field. By the time the Rays host their March 28 opener against Colorado, more than 3,000 unique signs and advertising boards will have been installed. The 10-by-9-foot "Y-A-N-K-E-E-S" letters above the first- and third-base stands will have been covered with Rays markings, along with the interlocking "NY" hanging from the ceiling in the center of the clubhouse. The team store will have been emptied of pinstriped gear and restocked with Rays apparel.
"Building the plane while you fly it," says Bill Walsh, the Rays' chief business officer. "At times really, really exciting, and at times, obviously, just incredibly frantic and stressful." Tampa Bay is one of two big league teams whose home games will be in minor league stadiums this year. The Athletics moved to Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California, for at least three seasons while a stadium is built in Las Vegas. After playing indoors at the Trop in St. Petersburg since the franchise took the field in 1998, the Rays needed a rental after Hurricane Milton tore off the roof panels on Oct 9. They won't exactly be slumming it at Steinbrenner Field, the open-air, 11,026-capacity spring training base of the Yankees, which the AP reports is more lavish than most regular-season facilities.
There's a two-story weight room with floor-to-ceiling windows, indoor and outdoor stretching areas, a Ping-Pong table, a barbershop, eight beds in a trainers area, massage rooms, and a SwimEx, along with hot and cold tubs with TVs at water level, sauna red-light therapy, and four batting cages. Each player locker has a safe along with USB and USB-C ports. A made-to-order open kitchen is near a 2,400-square-foot picnic patio with 18 tables for dining and a long counter.
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George Steinbrenner's statue and the retired numbers commemorating Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and other Yankees greats near the entrance must remain untouched, along with the late owner's name above the video board. All other signage will change—and the new ones would stretch a mile if laid side by side. Five companies, 50 installers, and at least 80 Rays staff will carry out the conversion. "We absolutely have kind of day-by-day, in some cases kind of hour-by-hour schedules for various installations," says Walsh. (More Tampa Bay Rays stories.)
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