ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Not many people can have a vintage baseball memory associated with Tropicana Field, unless you're Chris Sale.
The left-hander will be making his first Opening Day start as a member of the Red Sox Thursday afternoon (Rick Porcello started last year) in a place that actually has special meaning to him -- Tropicana Field.
It is the place Sale saw his first ever baseball game.
Growing up in Lakeland, Florida the closest MLB team is the Rays, so on March 30, 1998, a day after his ninth birthday, Sale's uncle brought him to Tropicana Field to see major league baseball live for the first time. (It was also the first game in the history of the Rays franchise.)
"I remember I was sitting right just to the left of [section] 144," Sale said. "I had a Rays jersey on, whoops. My uncle bought me a polo, like for Rays colors, the blue and green and white, and I got mustard on it. So, that's where the jersey came from. Yeah. And I actually have a panoramic picture at my house of the first pitch being thrown here."
Sale is expecting a large group of family members at the game since he currently makes his home in the Fort Myers area.
For his career, Sale is 3-3 with a 2.25 ERA in eight games at Tropicana Field and against the Rays, he is 8-5 with a 3.29 ERA in 16 games.
The 28-year-old isn't taking starting Opening Day for granted.
"It fun. It's exciting. I've done it a couple times before. This would be obviously my first one here, which is special," Sale said. "Boston, obviously, is a great city for sports, a great city for baseball, and to be named Opening Day starter for this organization is not something I take lightly and I'm actually really excited about."
Like everyone else in baseball right now, Sale's goal is to win the World Series.
"That's, like I said, that's being the last team standing," he said. "Anything other than that is -- obviously you can have progress, but that's the end goal. That's what you shoot for. That's what you work hard for. That's what you grind for. This isn't easy. This is a long season. You guys know, I mean, you guys have been around for a long time. You know what it takes. You've gotta grind for it, and that's hopefully where we're going to be come November."
