Welcome to ‘Randy Land’ at the Trop

A previous version of this story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ST. PETERSBURG -- There are a few reasons Tropicana Field should be loud and crowded this weekend.

The Yankees are in town. The upper deck is open for regular-season games for the first time since 2018. The Rays are off to a historically strong start, matched in recent history almost exclusively by teams that went on to win the World Series.

And on Friday night, Section 141 became Randy Land. Yes, a cheering section at the Trop for fan-favorite outfielder Randy Arozarena. Fittingly, he homered in his first at-bat during the Rays' 5-4 victory.

The Rays officially unveiled their “Randy Land” seating section in left field for their series opener against the Yankees, a promotion that will continue for all remaining Friday home games. Tickets in the 360-seat section are $49 and include a Randy Land T-shirt; fans will also be provided with Fathead-type cutouts of Arozarena, Mexican flags and other signs to display throughout the game.

Arozarena was clearly touched by the promotion, calling it “a beautiful thing,” “very emotional” and “very exciting.” He always makes an effort to interact with fans, whether he’s responding to his name being chanted in the stands, taking selfies or going back and forth with his new, signature crossed-arms pose.

He feeds off the crowd, and now he’s got a cheering section designed just for him.

“It makes me happy to see that the fans get super excited when I go out there, because I like that happiness to be reciprocated. So if I go out there, and they know that I'm having fun, I want them to also get the same experience,” Arozarena said through interpreter Manny Navarro on April 22. “They help me play. They bring the energy out. And if I can do the same thing for them, if I can make an impact on every single one of those fans, then that's something I want.”

The Rays soft-launched Randy Land on April 21, surprising fans in Section 141 that night with shirts and other gear. But the real party begins on Friday. Every time Arozarena hits a home run during a Friday home game, all fans in that section will receive a voucher for a Budweiser, Bud Light, soda or water to be redeemed at the Fan Favorites stand in left field.

He’s already hit nine homers this season, and six of them have come at home.

“I'm hoping to hit a home run so that everybody drinks happily,” he said Thursday through Navarro. “First off, it's going to be the series against the Yankees, so I think there's going to be a lot of fans out there anyway. But yeah, I'm very happy that all the fans go out there and support me and have fun with me, and I'm very excited for that.”

The Rays will rotate through four different T-shirt designs, with each one given out three times. The shirt dates and details can be found here. Arozarena said after the April 21 game he was happy to see fans wearing their bright yellow shirts with “RANDY” in blue, although he joked Thursday he hopes he can stay focused on the game and not get distracted by the residents of Randy Land.

On a more serious note, it clearly meant a lot to Arozarena that he’s developed such a strong and passionate following only a little more than three years after the Rays acquired him from the Cardinals. Since then, he’s become a record-setting postseason hero, the 2021 American League Rookie of the Year, a rare 20-homer/30-steal/40-double performer in 2022 and a World Baseball Classic icon for Team Mexico this spring.

He’s happy with the Rays, secure in his role and comfortable in the Tampa Bay area. The way he’s started, this season could be his best yet. What’s next for Randy Land?

“One day,” he said, smiling, “it’ll be every day.”