Globe Life Field a neutral site? It didn’t feel that way for Game 1 of World Series
The game’s outcome aside — it wasn’t particularly close — the opener of the 2020 World Series marked a baseball first.
And, with any luck, a baseball last.
This Fall Classic, the 116th since the first was played in 1903, is the first to be played at a neutral site, which just happens to be Globe Life Field.
Even with Game 1 mostly lopsided with the Los Angeles Dodgers rolling to an 8-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, things weren’t entirely neutral.
The thing that stood out most was the decidedly pro-Dodgers crowd.
“Dodger fans, they travel so well. They’re everywhere,” said left-hander Clayton Kershaw, the winning pitching pitcher after allowing one run in six innings.
“For as much as a home game we would have liked it to have been and be at Dodger Stadium and have 56,000 chanting, after everything that’s gone on this season to have 10,000 or 11,000 people in the stadium and have every bit of them being Dodger fans is pretty cool. It definitely helps us to have that support.”
Most of the 11,388 fans were rooting for the Dodgers well before they started solving Rays pitching in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, and “Let’s go Dodgers!” chants were heard often.
The Dodgers were also playing for the 14th time this season at the new home of the Texas Rangers, who first hosted Los Angeles for three games in late August. The past 11 Dodgers games have been at the $1.2 billion ballpark with the retractable roof, which has been open for every game.
Tampa Bay was playing its first game at Globe Life Field.
Rays catcher Mike Zunino said there was an adjustment period after their past 12 games were held at Petco Park in San Diego. The Rays were busy Monday night after arriving at their new venue, attempting to learn everything from where to go in the clubhouse to adjusting their eyes to the field.
“Just coming in, checking your sights out,” Zunino said. “Being able to check out the lighting, check out the backdrops. There are a few differences. I thought we did a good job covering it yesterday.”
Game 1 also marked the first time the Rays played in front of fans this season that weren’t made of cardboard. There were still a few of those in select spots, however.
About the only thing that might have made the Rays feel at home was the artificial surface. Though different in many ways, Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said Rays fielders felt the turf was similar to what they play on at Tropicana Field.
“Walking on the turf it feels like our turf,” Cash said. “Hitting ground balls, they all said it’s very, very similar.”
Two World Series have been canceled, in 1904 because of a personal snit thrown by New York Giants manager John McGraw and in 1994 because of a player strike, but the previous 115 were played at the home ballparks of the champions of the National and American leagues.
The series wasn’t skipped even as some of the game’s best players served in World War I and World War II. The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic didn’t stop the series.
The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t either, though it has dramatically altered the entire 2020 operation. Only 60 regular-season games were played, the postseason was expanded, and fans weren’t allowed into any game at any ballpark until here last week.
And the COVID-10 fears pushed the World Series to a neutral site for the first time.
It didn’t feel all that neutral in Game 1.
This story was originally published October 20, 2020 at 10:45 PM.
