You can see all the opening day impressions here.
Michael Korte, Designated Driver for the Devil Ray Bandwagon, attended the home opener in Tampa Bay.

41,755. SOLD OUT. Devil Rays.
Many of us were under the impression that the Devil Rays couldn’t fill the stands if the tickets were free and each seat had its own beer fountain. But tonight they filled the stands with people, and doubled the ticket prices too!
I was planning on going to the game 1 hour before, but 2 hours before I was flipping on the local news and people were already streaming in. It was a laid back batting practice, with everyone filling the first rows of the seats as the Yankees hit shot after shot out of the park.
Before the game started, I was concerned that fans wouldn’t attend…like last year….and the year before…..As they were introducing the players I would estimate that 1/4th of the seats were filled, which would be an improvement over last year, but a disappointment for an opening game.
It became clear real fast that a big chunk of New York City had made the trip down to St. Pete, because the biggest cheers in the intro went to Don Zimmer, Tino Martinez, Jeter, and Torre. By the opening pitch, to my amazement, the stands were 90-95% full. STUNNING.
The game opened up as expected….Two Homers in the first inning from the Yankees (Arod and Sheffield), 4 runs on 2 hits, with everyone screaming for Zambrano’s head. Little did we know the Yankees wouldn’t score another run, and would only get 2 more hits.
It was ALL Rays from then on. Lugo, Crawford, Cruz Jr, Zambrano….they were all HUGE. Mussina was yanked in the 5th, another shelling to add to his season. I don’t feel like doing a win share analysis on him, but I will say this: Mussina looked like crap, and so go the Yankees.
I came to see how Danny Baez would hold up as the closer. He did not disappoint. 1-2-3 final inning. With the entire crowd standing and clapping with 2 outs and Arod up, Baez strikes him out swinging, and the game was over.
I really hope this is a sign of things to come for the Rays, not only the winning but also the exciting atmosphere of a full dome. My gut feeling is that 30% of those people were there solely for the Yankees, but the buzz this game is likely to create, people will come. People will most definitely come.

It was a good day for Florida baseball. The two franchises drew almost 100,000 people. I don’t know how long it will last, but beating the Yankees in that fashion should indeed generate some buzz.
And of course, people are wondering what’s wrong with Mussina.