After a 4-3 victory over the Royals in the Yankees series finale, the Yankees jumped on a flight back to their second home.
It’s not their second home, it’s left to start the 2025 season, so it’s not visible.
The Rays currently occupies the field at George M. Steinbrenner in Tampa, Florida. This is because the home stadium in St. Petersburg in the Tropicana field was severely damaged by Hurricane Milton in October.
The Yankees returned to Tampa for their first four-game series with Division rivals this season, and Aaron Boone said they would feel the excitement from the team and see a new vibe.
“I think you’re excited to be off the plane and jumping into the warm air tonight, and that’s going to be fun,” Boone said before Wednesday’s victory. “It’s interesting. I’m interested. I’ve seen it on TV and it looks good and everything. So I look forward to getting back there. Unfortunately, we need to go to the visitors’ side, but I’m sure it’s a bit different.
The stadium was then transformed. The “Yankees” lettering on the high wall along the first baseline was replaced.
The clubhouse has the “Rays’ Home” sign with a combination of blue and yellow colours, and the circle logo above the outfield scoreboard is on “TB”.
Early statistics show that George M. Steinbrenner Field is more like a batsman’s park.
On the same dimension as Yankee Stadium, it is currently the 11th most offensive, favorable stadium with a 6% advantage over others, according to Baseball Savant’s Park Factor Metric.
As seasons change in Florida and the weather warms, numbers can increase.
On Tuesday, Boone said he believes the ballpark is still grasped by all teams when asked if he had heard what it was in the major leagues.
“Whenever you’re at a new ballpark, you make sense,” he said. “Oh, does the ball pop out? Isn’t it? Really? Not? I think people are probably trying to formulate them. You see a lot of home runs hit in a day, you think, ‘Oh, that’s going to happen.’ …Well, we might do that, but we’ll see. ”
