{"id":433483,"date":"2026-10-20T23:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T23:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/433483\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T23:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T23:56:16","slug":"st-pete-community-reacts-to-tampa-bay-rays-making-it-to-world-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/433483\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete community reacts to Tampa Bay Rays making it to World Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Two years ago, we weren\u2019t sure what the future held for the home of the Tampa Bay Rays … but now Tropicana Field will be hosting the World Series.<\/p>\n

Watch report from Casey Albritton:<\/p>\n

St. Pete community reacts to Tampa Bay Rays making it to World Series<\/p>\n

“It was a hard thing for us to go through,” said Maryann Renfrow.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Two years ago, the unimaginable happened.<\/p>\n

“It was surreal to hear that we lost the dome,” said Renfrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all kind of wondering, \u2018What does the future hold for us here at the Rays stadium?\u2019\u201d said Keli Thomas with The Carpenter\u2019s Daughter Boutique.<\/p>\n

Hurricane Milton tore the roof off of Tropicana Field.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“I live right next door to the Trop and it was insane to see that every day,” said Cathy Andersek with Zaytoon Grill.<\/p>\n

And over the last two years, it\u2019s taken a toll on the community.<\/p>\n

“Honestly it was pitiful \u2026 the sales weren’t there \u2026 it was everybody on Central. We all went downhill fast,” said Mary Khalel with Zaytoon Grill.<\/p>\n

Cathy Andersek is what you would call a mega-fan. She wears a Rays shirt almost every day to work at Zaytoon Grill and said seeing the Rays succeed has been more than just exciting.<\/p>\n

“It brought life back to St. Pete, honestly \u2026 to see the streets full of people again, going in and out of the businesses, shops, having a great time,” she said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a real-life rags-to-riches story.<\/p>\n

Tropicana Field is now center stage for the World Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really devastated and took out our legs for a while, but to have them come back, it\u2019s almost kind of our little beacon in the sky of hope,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n

With the Tampa Bay Rays playing in the World Series, MaryAnn Renfrow said it’s an accomplishment worth waiting for.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think the doctor could have ordered a better medicine for us to heal,” said Renfrow.<\/p>\n

With only a couple years left of the Rays playing in St. Pete, Renfrow said she\u2019s enjoying every minute, and hoping the team brings home a win.<\/p>\n

“I think this is awesome \u2026 it’s helping us to heal, to recover, to be inspired to do the work that it takes to come back as a better community than we were before,” said Renfrow.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Casey

Casey Albritton is dedicated to telling your stories throughout South Pinellas County. From St. Petersburg to Largo, she\u2019s there to share the triumphs and struggles of the community she calls home. So, let Casey know about the stories that matter to you.
.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pasco County mom of 5 takes in 3 children left without food or power whose mother faces neglect charges<\/p>\n

Jasmine Young, a mother of 5, opened her home to three neglected girls as their mother faces child neglect charges for leaving them without food, power or water.<\/p>\n

Pasco County mom of 5 takes in 3 children whose mother faces neglect charges<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Two years ago, we weren\u2019t sure what the future held for the home of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3816,5026,596,107032,23181,202,204,203,199,201,200,5910,3670,3815,8125],"class_list":["post-433483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-baseball","tag-milton","tag-pinellas-county","tag-pinellas-news","tag-rays","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay-28","tag-tampa-bay-local-news","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tropicana-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}