This has never been what you would call a standard house of horrors. Nobody has ever thought to give it a nickname. No “Death Valley.” No “House of Pain” or “The Swamp” or “The Pit.” Not even something cool like “The Sombrero,” which used to hold court on the other side of Tampa Bay and the Howard Frankland Bridge, 21 miles northeast. 

It’s just “The Trop,” short for Tropicana Field, and let’s be very honest: It’s not even anywhere close to the best atmosphere in a building ever named for orange juice. That would be the former Minute Maid Park — now Daikin Park — in Houston. 

The Trop? 

The Trop could mostly pass for study hall for most of its existence. Even when the Rays have been good — and they’ve been good an awful lot since 2008 — the locals were indifferent at best and apathetic at worst.