If you attended the Rays’ opening-day game in St. Petersburg today, you might have noticed two subtle changes to the Trop that honor last season’s playoff-clinching, extra-inning win over the New York Yankees.
↵The first addition is the “162 Landing,” directly behind the left-field wall that Evan Longoria’s 12th-inning home run cleared to give the Rays the 2011 AL wild card. The second is the Dan Johnson Seat, which has been painted white. It’s the seat in the front row of Section 140 where the Great Pumpkin’s pinch-hit home run with two outs in the ninth landed to tie that game at 7.
↵Given the Rays’ ability to celebrate the most obscure, arcane things about themselves (see also: DJ Kitty mascot), you knew they would find an appropriate way to remember a game that has already earned a lasting place in franchise history.