Nice Crowd For Stadium Workout

Posted Feb 23, 2009 by Marc Lancaster

Updated Feb 23, 2009 at 01:27 PM

PORT CHARLOTTE—I’d guesstimate a couple of thousand people are on hand for today’s open workout at Charlotte Sports Park as the Rays give their new stadium a test drive.

Hitters are in the midst of batting practice at the moment, and the pitchers scheduled to throw bullpen sessions already have wrapped things up. I missed Jason Isringhausen and Troy Percival but they did throw as scheduled, with pitching coach Jim Hickey saying Isringhausen looked good.

I did see Jake McGee’s first mound session since undergoing Tommy John surgery last summer (pictured here). The lefty certainly wasn’t airing it out, but he didn’t appear to have any problems during his time on the hill.

Also throwing bullpens today were James Shields, Matt Garza and Grant Balfour, among others.

The stadium itself looks great. They have added large banners bearing photos of various Rays on the sides of some of the buildings and everything looks just about ready to roll for Wednesday’s opener against the Reds.