ST. PETERSBURG, FL – One of the first things the Milwaukee Brewers did when the World Series moved south was to set up a pitching machine at home plate to spit balls toward the Tropicana Field roof.
The dome is translucent, supported by dozens of spokes. Four concentric rings hold lights, speakers and a catwalk. The outermost rings hang approximately above the warning track, so any of them could produce an odd bounce.
It would be a confusing background even if the roof weren’t roughly the color of a baseball. But it is.
“It could be a factor,” manager Pat Murphy said a couple of hours before Game 3 against the Tampa Bay Rays on Oct. 26. The Brewers won the first two games at home at American Family Field.
“If you go to Wrigley, you’ve got to deal with the wall and the basket, the small foul territory,” Murphy continued. “Here you've got to deal with foul territory; the [bullpen] mounds are on the field. You've got to deal with a different color background, different color ceiling, catwalks.
“That could come into play, but these guys are baseball players. These adjustments are the types of things that they can make. I’m not saying it’s easy, but I think they can do it. But I thought we needed to practice that.”
The Brewers entered the night having played 14 games at the Trop but none since 2023. The roof was rebuilt after Hurricane Milton in the 2024-'25 offseason, although it is not substantially different from the original.
First baseman Jake Bauers spent his first season in the majors with the Rays in 2018, both at first and in the outfield, for a total of fewer than 50 games.
“It never got easier for me when I was playing home games here,” he said, “but I think it goes to as long as you don’t take your eye off of it, you’re going to be all right.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Tropicana Field's roof is the color of a baseball; Brewers prepared to adjust