Originally named the Thunder Dome, Tropicana Field sits only a couple of miles from the Bay in St. Petersburg.

But little did I know how difficult this trip would be when I left Atlanta. My method of travel for this trip was my car, which went into the shop for a new automatic transmission the day before the Atlanta series. Since the repair was major and time consuming, I had no choice but to miss the first game of the series, as Tim Wakefield took a no-hitter into the ninth inning before Randy Winn singled. The Devil Rays then scored four times as the game almost slipped away from the Red Sox, who escaped with a 5-4 victory.

My car was returned to me on Tuesday afternoon, just hours before the game started in St. Pete, so I decided to head down to Florida on Wednesday morning, though I was disappointed I had missed the excitement that Wakefield would provide in the first game.

My car completes the final 85 miles of the journey to St. Petersburg from Atlanta.

As for my car, I was assured it would "get me to California" if need be. My '91 Dodge Shadow convertible may no longer be of Pedro Martinez caliber, but it would fit nicely into any rotation, and I felt as confident of it's abilities as Boston fans do of their team's chances of winning when the Red Sox have a 5-0 lead and Pedro on the mound.

That said, I left Wednesday morning for Tampa around 10:15 and was ahead of schedule after driving 393 miles when my new transmission went out near Ocala on I-75 about 4:30.

Stranded alongside the road, it didn't matter that the transmission was under warranty for 12 months or 12,000 miles. All I knew is that within 25 hours and 400 miles after having it replaced I was still 85 miles away from St. Petersburg and I had no way to drive myself there.

The Steinbrenner-owned Ramada in Ocala.

One of the ironies of where I broke down was that it was only a few miles past the "Yankees Ramada" hotel in Ocala owned by George Steinbrenner, which reinforces my belief that the Yankees are somehow everywhere. I found out about the Steinbrenner connection when I decided to stop by because I couldn't figure out why a Ramada hotel would have a Yankees logo on it. Just in case you're curious, the rates there are normally $70 per night, but the guy at the counter told me there currently was a special price of $40. The other hotels nearby charged in the $26-$30 range. Not long after departing the Ramada, my transmission would burst.

Shortly after the curse of the Bambino landed me in the emergency lane, I was on my cell phone talking to my insurance company, a tow truck was heading south from to Tampa and saw me and pulled over. This literally happened the instant the car insurance representative had informed me that they were calling a tow truck. Through a quirk of fate my car was quickly upon the apron of the flatbed truck. Not having anywhere to tow the car and unable to find a transmission shop before closing time, I told the tow truck man to take me to Tropicana Field, where I was to meet a friend for the game.

The tow into Tampa was an interesting one with Finch, I believe his name was that, of Stepp's Towing providing an interesting companion. Like most people living in the Bay Area, he had never been to Tropicana Field to see a Devil Rays game in person, although he was an avid sports fan. While on the way there we talked about his ten children as we drove by his doublewide trailer that he bought with the proceeds from winning $47,000 in the Florida lottery.

But Finch was a real nice guy, although I couldn't understand half of what he was saying, and when you've been in the car towing business for 18 years it must mold the kind of person that you become. His most famous client to date, he said, was Jose Canseco when he played with the Devil Rays in 2000.

After stopping for gas, then suffering through a couple of traffic jams caused by a torrential downpour, we arrived at Tropicana Field not too long after the first pitch.

Whereas parking is a problem at Fenway Park due to a lack of it, there is no such problem at "The Trop." Since I didn't have the option of picking the cheapest lot that I felt safe in, I was towed into the $10 lot right next to the ballpark. Luckily the girl at the gate couldn't understand Finch much better than myself and that misunderstanding resulted in my car being dropped off in the lot for free.

With the money I saved from not having to pay to park I was able to afford an $8 tip for Finch. The only other bills I had were twenties and being unemployed doesn't exactly lend itself to being overly generous to a man that continues to play the lottery long after he'd won it. For comparison purposes, Finch said Canseco tipped by $100.

I showed up outside the ticket window where I was supposed to meet my friend at 7:35, which was well outside of the 6:30-7:00 window I had told him and would've easily beaten if not for the transmission problem. Since he is one of the few people in the free world without a cell phone, I had no way to get in touch with him to tell him of my dilemma.

After walking around the stadium for an inning I gave up on finding him and bought my ticket and went in. As for the ticket, the Devil Rays have some sort of promotion for virtually every home game, and Wednesday's are dedicated as "Website Wednesday's," with coupons for that day's game printed from the website. Having checked the website before I left in the morning, I used my coupon for a $10 lower reserved seat (regularly priced at $23).

Less than three hours after my car problem occurred nearly 100 miles away, I was sitting on the 3rd base side in the third inning of a scoreless game. An inning later my friend spotted me and came over, cutting down my worries to dinner, the game, and getting my car back to his place in Bradenton, 35 miles to the south.

Dinner came in the form of a box of Cracker Jacks, and the Red Sox pulled out the game with a six run eighth inning to beat the Rays 8-2. Dante Bichette capped a 3-hit game with a three run homer, his fifth, to put the game away against the woeful Devil Ray bullpen. David Cone pitched solidly until allowing a Fred McGriff home run in the sixth to tie the game at 2.

The announced crowd was 12,520, which I believed to be accurate. The scene was like a high school football game at a neutral site, with all the Red Sox fans on the 3rd base side and all of the Devil Rays fans sitting along the 1st base side. Red Sox fans made far more noise than their hometown counterparts, as chants of "Let's Go Red Sox," "Manny," and even "Yankees Suck" could be heard throughout the game.

Despite a difficult day, I left "The Trop" happier than when I arrived, courtesy of an 8-2 Red Sox victory.

Getting my car towed backed to Bradenton proved to be more difficult than getting it brought to the game. After struggling to understand the details of my insurance policy, I was informed that towing was only free for up to 20 miles, and that any additional mileage after that was to be paid by me at $3 per mile, which wound up amounting to $42. How I got towed for 85 miles for free I still don't understand and neither does my insurance company, but I got my car where it needed to be and was promised reimbursement of the towing charge by the guys in Georgia who were supposed to have fixed my car initially.

While I prepared myself to see Pedro Martinez pitch on Thursday night, I spent the afternoon hours dealing with the problems that had arisen from my car the previous day. After consulting with my mechanic back in Georgia I took my car to Aamco Transmission in Bradenton, where the work to rebuild the transmission (again) would be done at no cost to myself.

Having done all I could with the car, I turned my attention towards the final game of the series. After parking the car without the use of a tow truck, I was surprised to see long lines, and plenty of them, outside the ticket windows as the game was getting ready to start. My friend and I had to wait ten minutes in line and we missed the first inning while buying our $8 upper level general admission seats.

Nestled directly above home plate, the seats were good and the game would turn out to be great, but I was surprised at the low turnout of 15,603 fans considering the large walk up outside. The Devil Rays have sold about 11,000 season ticket packages, or so I would assume since their average crowds for the past month hover around that mark during weekday games.

Despite the small crowds I was very surprised at how long it took to buy tickets, and even more surprised when I was in the stadium and it took another 10 minutes to buy a Pepsi at the concession stand. Slow service takes away from the great value of attending a game down here, which might be another reason, in addition to having a terrible team, which makes it difficult for Tampa Bay to draw many fans. I say great value because the cost of attending three games and parking at Tropicana Field would be about the same as the cost of an average ticket for one game at Fenway Park.

The grounds crew performs their ritual dance to Jimmy Buffett's "Fins" after the sixth inning in front of a sparse crowd.

Having missed the Devil Rays score a run off Pedro while standing in the ticket line, I then had to watch Shea Hillenbrand's home run in the third inning on a television monitor next to the concession stand while I waited for my drink. And that was all of the offense until the eighth inning, despite Pedro being lifted as a precautionary measure after throwing 89 pitches.

Martinez wound up throwing only 5 innings, allowing one run on four hits. He walked one and struck out six. Three different groups of Red Sox fans, two factions in left field, the other in right, marked each Pedro K until Tropicana Field personnel made them take the K's off the wall. Undaunted, the Sox fans merely placed them on the many vacant seats in their surrounding vicinity.

Boston's top half of the eighth began against a pitcher making his big league debut. For reasons that defy logic, the Devil Rays sent down left-handed pitcher Jeff Wallace and his 0.93 ERA to make room for a guy named Victor Zambrano. Trot Nixon smacked Zambrano's first pitch into center field for a single and Carl Everett followed with his ninth home run of the year to right field. Before Zambrano could even record an out to be eligible for an ERA the Red Sox had a 3-1 lead.

In the stands, the large Red Sox contingent loudly chanted "Let's Go Red Sox" on their side of the stadium, while the Devil Ray fans booed loudly, with the Red Sox fans winning the "We got spirit, yes we do, we got spirit, how 'bout you?" war.

But in the bottom of the inning, Rolando Arrojo issued a game tying home run that barely cleared the fence in left field. Ben Greive's opposite field 331-foot chip shot came one batter after Jose Offerman had trouble turning what could've been a rally-killing double play.

With Arrojo heading to the showers, Rod Beck came in and promptly walked Aubrey Huff, who scored the go-ahead run when John Flaherty line a double past a diving Carl Everett, who limped off the field following the play with a bruised right knee.

After Beck finally retired the side Rays closer Esteben Yan quickly retired Chris Stynes and Scott Hatteberg in the top of the ninth, or as the Devil Rays' Website would say the next day, "Yan, who hadn't pitched in seven days, recorded two quick outs to bring a small group of fans to their feet with the promise of victory just one out away."

Down to their final out the Red Sox turned to pinch-hitter Troy O'Leary. Although Red Sox pinch-hitters started off 0-for-30 in 2001, they have begun to get the job done and O'Leary laced a single to center field. Offerman followed with a single of his own and Trot Nixon walked on five pitches to load the bases with two outs.

Appearing dead by the Bay just three batters earlier, Everett's replacement, Darren Lewis, was scheduled to bat, but Jimy Williams opted to pinch-hit for him with Mike Lansing. It was then I shouted to my friend that Boston had three options in which to tie the game. One was for Lansing, a .215 hitter, to be hit be a pitch, and the other two options were a wild pitch and passed ball.

Yan's first two pitches almost hit Lansing, who scurried out of the way, defiant of option number one. But after Yan rebounded to throw two strikes, Lansing fouled off a pitch to stay alive before Yan fulfilled the prophecy of option number two and uncorked a wild pitch as O'Leary raced in from third to tie the score.

Yan than completely lost control, walking Lansing to reload the bases and bring up Manny Ramirez, who unloaded them by smacking a 1-1 fastball for a 3-run double, or as Tampa Bay's website would put it, "Ramirez, 0-for-4 with three strikeouts before the at-bat, laced a bases-clearing double down the left-field line for the game-winning hit, sending the majority of the 15,603 fans into euphoria."

Boston swept the three game series from the Devil Rays with a come from behind 7-4 victory on Thursday.

After watching Derek Lowe retire the stunned Devil Rays 1-2-3 in the ninth, Boston had managed to survive with a 7-4 victory, improving to 9-0 against the Devil Rays in 2001.

The come from behind win was the second amazing Red Sox victory I had seen on the six game road trip, the first being the improbable extra-inning affair in Atlanta to start the road trip six days earlier. Despite missing Wakefield's near no-no to start the series and losing the services of my only mode of transportation for up to a week, I felt lucky to witness Boston's latest miracle.

With my car in the shop, the Red Sox left town with three victories and a four game lead over the Yankees. Just as Sox fans have learned to trust in Pedro for a championship, I am trusting Glen, my mechanic, to help resolve my situation here in Florida and get my car back on the Sox On The Road trail.

In the meantime, I remain in Florida hoping that it will eventually stop raining so I can forget about my worries at the nearest beach, since the Red Sox don't come back until September.