Tropicana Field Featured On GMA For Best Ballpark Food

When you go to a Major League Baseball stadium the food options these days are well beyond that of the traditional fare of hot dogs and soda. Good Morning America has been running a segment called Best "7th Inning Snacks" and they recently paid a visit to Tropicana Field.

Ginger Zee from ABC's popular morning show has been road-tripping across America this summer in an effort to find the best ballpark food. The segment started with an on-field party featuring a DJ, some kids dancing along, and some Rays' player cutouts. Zee then calls the food options at Tropicana Field, "hit after hit."

Here are the food partners GMA featured on their show.

This is certainly a unique baseball park food pairing. Daddy's serves extra large donuts, often topped with sweet treats. The monster (topped with M&M's) was shown as was a custom "GMA" donut that was frosted in the show's signature blue and yellow colors.

Introduced as the "largest independent coffee roaster in Florida," this boutique coffee company is based in the area. Owner Raphael Perrier explained, "We feel that the coffee was a necessity almost in the stadium. As much as you want to drink some beer in here, it's also fun to have another drink, and coffee is a big one."

This is the food stop Zee called the "home run," due to their Hawaiian and Japanese culinary mash-up. They make something special at Tropicana Field called the "Rays Up Roll." This sushi item is not available at any of their stores.

Tropicana Field chef Kevin Riley was then live with Zee at the end of the Good Morning America segment. They discussed the stadium's infamous pretzel dogs. This is a footlong hot dog stuffed inside a pretzel bun. Riley explained the stadium only sells 98 of these per game. This pays tribute to the 25th anniversary of the team (the Rays debuted in 1998). However, the footlong tater tot is also topped with everything you would see on nachos.

Finally, we can't forget the other staple item found at a baseball game. Ervin Whitehead, the "Popcorn Master," explained how he gets to the stadium at 3 am for home games in order to make enough popcorn for everybody in attendance.

At Tampa Bay's annual food fight competition earlier this year, the Rays were named "Most Foodie Sports Team." With Tropicana Field's segment on Good Morning America this week, it is clearly a worthy title.

If you missed it live, you can watch the full feature on GMA's website.

The Tampa Bay Rays started in Major League Baseball in 1998. Originally called the "Devil Rays," the expansion team opened at home 25 years ago today (March 31, 1998), taking on the Detroit Tigers at Tropicana Field. Coincidentally, the Rays opened their season yesterday at home, beating the Detroit Tigers at Tropicana Field. Though the club has had numerous all-star players over the years, the Tampa Bay Rays retired numbers are slim. The group contains only one person who was a player on the team.

Over the years, Tampa has been a breeding ground of great baseball players. Rays legends such as Fred McGriff and Tino Martinez are from Tampa, as is the team's current manager, Kevin Cash.

The retired numbers are displayed inside the park on a wall that is to the left of the center field scoreboard. One of these numbers represents a manager who ended his career as an advisor with the Rays and was a Tampa, FL resident. The other two numbers reflect players, but again, only one of them actually played for the Rays. He too, called Tampa home.

The Rays will sport numerous uniform options this season. They will pay tribute to their anniversary with the throwback Devil Rays look on Friday home games (in addition to opening day). Over the course of the season, they will call up various players from their minor league system. These players, like the current roster and coaching staff, will immediately have three numbers unavailable to them regardless of the colorful uniform combination.

Here are the official Tampa Bay Rays retired numbers.