On the catwalks

Note: This originally ran in the early editions of the Red Sox notebook, but was condensed to more fully cover Mike Lowell playing through hip pain. So the folks in Maine may have already read this.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The roof of Tropicana Field is made from eight acres of Teflon material, held up by architectural marvel. Four circular catwalks, hanging high above the baseball diamond inside, give the roof the vertical support necessary to prevent the building, literally, from collapsing.

“It’s really a masterful concoction of stress-supported steel and cabling and wires,” Rick Nafe said. “It’s just not great for baseball.”

Nafe has been the vice president of stadium operations for Tropicana Field since 1997, a year before the Tampa Bay Rays began playing. His park could come under more scrutiny than ever this fall, when the Rays will likely play their first playoff game and those catwalks could help determine the fate of the postseason – a fact reinforced by Jason Bay’s home run into one Monday night.

The four catwalks, all shaped like rings, hang above the field, lettered A, B, C, and D from inside to outside. (The letters have no meaning – they could just as easily be numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4.) There have never been discussions about removing the catwalks, Nafe said, and there never will be. They support the building’s massive structure and lighting.

Tropicana Field was built in 1989 as part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg area’s push to land a Major League Baseball team. Organizers decided their stadium needed a roof because of the unpredictable and scorching climate. That the catwalks would ever impact a baseball game was never considered.

“I remember reading somewhere the architects said they should not be in play at all,” Nafe said. “Maybe back then, we didn’t have the type of guys hitting like we do now. I walked through, looked up, saw it, and said ‘We’ll see.’ ”

The Rays did not even have ground rules for the catwalks in place, Nafe said, until Frank Thomas blasted a ball off a catwalk days into the maiden season. Quickly, they created them: The A Ring and B Ring are in play – balls that bounce off are live, and balls that remain stuck in them are ground-rule doubles. The C Ring and D Ring are not in play – balls that strike them are home runs or foul balls.

For years, the catwalks have been a pesky quirk. Now, with the Rays contending, they could become the center of controversy.

“It could impact any game,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “There’s definitely a chance it could impact something. It’s part of the game when you play in this building.”

Small slats of yellow plastic are attached to the catwalks at the points where the catwalks hang over the base paths.

“The erroneous thing about that is them being called the foul pole,” Nafe said. “They offer the umpire a little guideline. It’s more of an optical assistance to the umpire.”

The catwalks have contributed several strange moments. The most recent came May 26 this season, when Carlos Pena flew to center. The ball seemed destined for the glove of Texas Rangers center fielder Josh Hamilton. Instead, the B Ring gobbled it up, and umpires initially rewarded Pena with a home run before changing the call, correctly, to a ground-rule double.

“It’s unnatural,” Maddon said. “I used to hate the Metrodome for the same reason. We lost a game there a few years ago – Mo Vaughn hits a speaker, it turns about to be a double. So, I’ve never liked the unnatural components of playing inside, when there are parts of a structure that are put in play that shouldn’t be. We don’t like it, but that’s what we got.”

Bay’s home run Monday night lodged into the C Ring and stayed there devoid of controversy – no park in the league would have held it, anyway. What if, a month or so from now, one of the catwalks swallow a pivotal, debatable hit in a playoff game? A World Series game?

“Usually the home runs off the catwalk, they're not balls that are mis-hit,” Sox third baseman Mike Lowell said. “They're balls that are pretty much annihilated so I don't really think it's a big issue.”

Nafe, for one, isn’t worried, either.

“It’s the same for both teams,” Nafe said. “It’s what we have. It’s what our home is.”