NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball switched a pair of series involving the Tampa Bay Rays to the first two months of the season in an attempt to avoid summer rain at open-air Steinbrenner Field, their temporary home following damage to Tropicana Field.
Tampa Bay is scheduled to play 19 of its first 22 games at home and 37 of 54 through May 28, then play 64 of its last 108 games on the road. The Rays are home for eight games each in July and August.
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FILE - The roof of the Tropicana Field is damaged the morning after Hurricane Milton hit the region, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
FILE - Fans arrive at George M. Steinbrenner Field for a spring training exhibition baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Pittsburgh Pirates in Tampa, Fla., Saturday, March 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
FILE - A sign welcoming baseball fans to George M. Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the New York Yankees is shown Tuesday, July 13, 2010, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)
FILE - The roof of the Tropicana Field is damaged the morning after Hurricane Milton hit the region, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson, File)
FILE - The New York Yankees host the Detroit Tigers during their home opener spring training baseball game at George M. Steinbrenner Field, Sunday, March 20, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
FILE - Signage at the entrance to the parking lot of Tropicana Field where the roof was torn off during Hurricane Milton on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson, File)
FILE - The New York Yankees host the Detroit Tigers during their home opener spring training baseball game at George M. Steinbrenner Field, Sunday, March 20, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
FILE - The roof of the Tropicana Field is damaged the morning after Hurricane Milton hit the region, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson, File)
A series scheduled at the Los Angeles Angels from April 7-9 will instead be played at Tampa, Florida, from April 8-10, MLB said Monday. The second series between the teams will be played at Anaheim, California, from Aug. 4-6 instead of at St. Petersburg, Florida, from Aug. 5-7.
Minnesota's first series against the Rays will be played at Steinbrenner Field from May 26-28 and the Twins' second will be at Target Field in Minneapolis from July 4-6.
Tampa Bay heads into the All-Star break with a 10-game trip to Minnesota, Detroit and Boston, and has a 12-game trip to the Angels, Seattle, Oakland and San Francisco from Aug. 4-17.
Tropicana Field, the Rays’ home since the team started play in 1998, was heavily damaged by Hurricane Milton on Oct. 9, with most of its fabric roof shredded. The Rays cannot return to the Trop until 2026 at the earliest, if at all.
Tampa's average monthly rainfall from 1991 to 2020 was 2.25 inches in April and 2.60 in May, according to the National Weather Service, then rose to 7.37 in June, 7.75 in July and 9.03 in August before falling to 6.09 in September.
The Class A Tampa Tarpons, the usual team at Steinbrenner Field, had six home postponements, two cancellations and four suspended games this year from June 21 through their season finale on Sept. 8.
The Rays are now scheduled to play their first six games at home against Colorado and Pittsburgh, go to Texas for a three-game series, then return for a 13-game homestand against the Angels, Atlanta, Boston and the New York Yankees.
The Tarpons will play their home games on a back field.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/
FILE - The roof of the Tropicana Field is damaged the morning after Hurricane Milton hit the region, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
FILE - Fans arrive at George M. Steinbrenner Field for a spring training exhibition baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Pittsburgh Pirates in Tampa, Fla., Saturday, March 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
FILE - A sign welcoming baseball fans to George M. Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the New York Yankees is shown Tuesday, July 13, 2010, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)
FILE - The roof of the Tropicana Field is damaged the morning after Hurricane Milton hit the region, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson, File)
FILE - The New York Yankees host the Detroit Tigers during their home opener spring training baseball game at George M. Steinbrenner Field, Sunday, March 20, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
FILE - Signage at the entrance to the parking lot of Tropicana Field where the roof was torn off during Hurricane Milton on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson, File)
FILE - The New York Yankees host the Detroit Tigers during their home opener spring training baseball game at George M. Steinbrenner Field, Sunday, March 20, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
FILE - The roof of the Tropicana Field is damaged the morning after Hurricane Milton hit the region, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden kicked off his final holiday season at the White House on Monday by issuing the traditional reprieve to two turkeys who will bypass the Thanksgiving table to live out their days in southern Minnesota.
Biden welcomed 2,500 guests to the South Lawn under sunny skies as he cracked jokes about the fates of “Peach” and “Blossom” and sounded wistful tones about the last weeks of his presidency after a half-century in Washington power circles.
“It’s been the honor of my life. I’m forever grateful,” Biden said, taking note of his impending departure on Jan. 20, 2025. That's when power will transfer to Republican President-elect Donald Trump, the man Biden defeated four years ago and was battling again until he was pressured to bow out of the race amid concerns about his age and viability. Biden is 82.
Until Inauguration Day, the president and first lady Jill Biden will continue a busy run of festivities that will double as their long goodbye. The White House schedule in December is replete with holiday parties for various constituencies, from West Wing staff to members of Congress and the White House press corps.
Biden relished the brief ceremony with the pardoned turkeys, named for the official flower of the president's home state of Delaware.
“The peach pie in my state is one of my favorites,” he said during remarks that were occasionally interrupted by Peach gobbling atop the table to Biden's right. “Peach is making a last-minute plea,” Biden said at one point, drawing laughter from an overflow crowd that included Cabinet members, White House staff and their families, and students from 4H programs and Future Farmers of America chapters.
Biden introduced Peach as a bird who “lives by the motto, ‘Keep calm and gobble on.’” Blossom, the president said, has a different motto: “No fowl play. Just Minnesota nice.”
Peach and Blossom came from the farm of John Zimmerman, near the southern Minnesota city of Northfield. Zimmerman, who has raised about 4 million turkeys, is president of the National Turkey Federation, the group that has gifted U.S. presidents Thanksgiving turkeys since the Truman administration after World War II. President Harry Truman, however, preferred to eat the birds. Official pardon ceremonies did not become an annual White House tradition until the administration of President George H.W. Bush in 1989.
With their presidential reprieve, Peach and Blossom will live out their days at Farmamerica, an agriculture interpretative center near Waseca in southern Minnesota. The center's aim is to promote agriculture and educate future farmers and others about agriculture in America.
Separately Monday, first lady Jill Biden received the official White House Christmas tree that will be decorated and put on display in the Blue Room. The 18.5 foot (5.64 meters) Fraser fir came from a farm in an area of western North Carolina that recently was devastated by Hurricane Helene.
Cartner’s Christmas Tree Farm lost thousands of trees in the storm “but this one remained standing and they named it ‘Tremendous’ for the extraordinary hope that it represents,” Jill Biden said at the event.
The Bidens also traveled to New York City on Monday for an evening “Friendsgiving” event at a Coast Guard station on Staten Island.
Biden began his valedictory calendar Friday night with a gala for hundreds of his friends, supporters and staff members who gathered in a pavilion erected on the South Lawn, with a view out to the Lincoln Memorial.
Cabinet secretaries, Democratic donors and his longest-serving staff members came together to hear from the president and pay tribute, with no evidence that Biden was effectively forced from the Democratic ticket this summer and watched Vice President Kamala Harris suffer defeat on Nov. 5.
“I’m so proud that we’ve done all of this with a deep belief in the core values of America,” said Biden, sporting a tuxedo for the black-tie event. Setting aside his criticisms of Trump as a fundamental threat to democracy, Biden added his characteristic national cheerleading: “I fully believe that America is better positioned to lead the world today than at any point in my 50 years of public service.”
The first lady toasted her husband with a nod to his 2020 campaign promise to “restore the soul of the nation,” in Trump’s aftermath. With the results on Election Day, however, Biden’s four years now become sandwiched in the middle of an era dominated by Trump's presence on the national stage and in the White House.
Even as the first couple avoided the context surrounding the president's coming exit, those political realities were nonetheless apparent, as younger Democrats like Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Biden's Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg not only raised their glasses to the president but held forth with many attendees who could remain in the party's power circles in the 2028 election cycle and beyond.
First lady Jill Biden, right, walks with her grandson Beau Biden after receiving the official 2024 White House Christmas Tree on the North Portico of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. Cartner's Christmas Tree Farm from Newland, N.C., provided the Fraser fir that will be displayed in the Blue Room of the White House. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
First lady Jill Biden, second right, walks with her grandson Beau Biden, right, to receive the official 2024 White House Christmas Tree on the North Portico of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. Cartner's Christmas Tree Farm from Newland, N.C., provided the Fraser fir that will be displayed in the Blue Room of the White House. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
First lady Jill Biden waves as she walks with her grandson Beau Biden after receiving the official 2024 White House Christmas Tree on the North Portico of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. Cartner's Christmas Tree Farm from Newland, N.C., provided the Fraser fir that will be displayed in the Blue Room of the White House. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The official 2024 White House Christmas Tree arrives on the North Portico of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. Cartner's Christmas Tree Farm from Newland, N.C., provided the Fraser fir that will be displayed in the Blue Room of the White House. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Joe Biden, center right, departs with his grandson Beau Biden after pardoning the national Thanksgiving turkeys during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Joe Biden, center right, departs with his grandson Beau Biden after pardoning the national Thanksgiving turkeys during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Joe Biden speaks after pardoning the national Thanksgiving turkey, Peach, during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Joe Biden speaks and pardons the national Thanksgiving turkey, Peach, during a pardoning ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024, as John Zimmerman, chair of the National Turkey Federation and his son Grant, look on. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Beau Biden, grandson of President Joe Biden, is pictured with the national Thanksgiving turkeys, Peach and Blossom, after a pardoning ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Joe Biden is pictured with John Zimmerman, chair of the National Turkey Federation, from left, and Zimmerman's son Grant, after pardoning the national Thanksgiving turkey Peach during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Joe Biden pardons one of the national Thanksgiving turkeys, Peach, during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Beau Biden, left, looks at Peach, the national Thanksgiving turkey who was pardoned by President Joe Biden, during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. Grant Zimmerman, son of John Zimmerman, chair of the National Turkey Federation, watches at right. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Joe Biden stands with one of the national Thanksgiving turkeys, Peach, during a pardoning ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Joe Biden, right, stands with John Zimmerman, left, chair of the National Turkey Federation, his son Grant Zimmerman, center, and the national Thanksgiving turkey, Peach, during a pardoning ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The national Thanksgiving turkeys Peach and Blossom are pictured before a pardoning ceremony with President Joe Biden on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Beau Biden, grandson of President Joe Biden, is pictured with the national Thanksgiving turkeys, Peach and Blossom, after a pardoning ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Joe Biden is pictured after pardoning the national Thanksgiving turkey, Peach, during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
