A 94-year-old Palmetto woman is heading to Game 3 of the World Series thanks to a surprise from the granddaughter she’s spent decades sharing baseball with.
Audrey Mahoney, a lifelong Tampa Bay Rays fan, will attend Monday night’s game alongside her granddaughter, Sarah Bolin, after Bolin flew home unannounced and revealed the tickets in person. The two have been bonded by the Rays since the franchise began in 1998, and they spent years going to games together before life pulled them apart.
When Bolin’s husband joined the Army, the routine changed from trips to Tropicana Field to long-distance updates over the phone and through text messages, including during key moments in Rays games. Mahoney still follows every pitch and stays locked in during the biggest swings of the night.
"We text back and forth when something goes on," Mahoney said. "When Diaz gets up and hits a home run or when a pitcher just doesn’t do his job."
Bolin said she tried to prepare her grandmother for the news, but Mahoney didn’t catch on.
"I’ve told her six times over since we clinched," Bolin said. "I told her 6 times we were going to the World Series, she thought I meant the Rays were going to the World Series."
"Sarah was telling me we are going to the World Series," Mahoney said. "She was so positive about it."
The real reveal came when Bolin arrived home after five years away. Mahoney had no idea she was coming.
"The other night she came home," Mahoney said. "I did not know it. She shocked me to death."
Bolin presented her grandmother with a Rays jersey and told her the two of them would be wearing it to Game 3.
"You are not serious," Mahoney said with tears in her eyes.
For Bolin, the moment carried extra meaning because of how the season has played out between them.
"I wouldn’t choose anybody else to do this with, especially because this whole season has been us talking about the Rays and getting angry with decisions and getting pumped up when they’re winning," Bolin said. "It has definitely been a roller coaster of emotions this year and a couple of years."
The trip also connects Mahoney to a family memory from a different era.
"My mother went in 1940 to a World Series in Cincinnati, and I get to go," Mahoney said. "It’s just beyond words."
"It’s a once in a lifetime experience for both of us," Bolin said. "Seeing the look on her face when we walk through the doors and the game, there’s going to be a lot of secret pictures and reactions."
The pair will sit in Section 124 along the third-base line. From those lower-level seats, they’ll watch the Rays and root for current favorites Taylor Walls and Chandler Simpson while also thinking back on franchise names like Kevin Kiermaier, Evan Longoria and Wade Boggs.
They’ll be among about 40,000 fans at the ballpark for Monday’s matchup, taking in the moment together after years apart.
In Other News...
Rays Kept Their Season Alive But Game 5 Just Got Tougher
The Rays kept their season alive with a 12-inning win in Game 4, trimming Milwaukees series lead to 3-1 and buying themselves at least one more chance to keep this thing going. Nick Martinez was a big part of the rescue effort, giving Tampa Bay two scoreless innings on the kind of short turnaround teams usually try to avoid, while the bullpen handled the rest of the heavy lifting in a game that demanded just about every available arm.
Kevin Cash made it clear afterward that the victory came with a price, because getting through an extra-inning playoff game meant leaning hard on pitchers the club may need again immediately. Game 5 now shifts from a simple elimination test to a planning exercise for Tampa Bay, with the staff having to sort through who can still answer the call and how far the Rays can push the group that just helped them survive. [Read more 🡒]
Rays World Series Pregame Took A Weird Turn Before Game 4
The pregame stage for Game 4 of the World Series took an odd detour before the first pitch, when FOX Sports analyst David Ortiz told the broadcast crew he had been stuck in an elevator. Kevin Burkhardt, Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter all wound up talking through the hiccup on air, turning a routine lead-in into a surprisingly memorable aside before the biggest game of the season.
Ortiz said he was not claustrophobic, but the situation still rattled him enough to become a topic on the set. For a national broadcast built around the matchup on the field, the unexpected delay gave the production a little extra drama of its own and added one more strange note to a night already carrying World Series pressure. [Read more 🡒]
Rays Keep World Series Hopes Alive After Wild Extra-Inning Escape
The Rays were staring at the end of their season in Game 4 against the Brewers, and instead got the kind of chaotic night that can swing an entire World Series. With multiple lead changes and big relief innings from Nick Martinez and Bryan Baker, Tampa Bay kept itself close long enough for the game to spill into extra innings, where every pitch felt season-defining.
Ben Williamson eventually supplied the finish, lining the walk-off hit that sent the Rays home with a win and pushed the series to a Game 5. For a club that needed every out just to survive, the victory was equal parts bullpen grit and late-game nerve, the kind of escape that can change the mood of a series in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]