AS RANDY AROZARENA leans against the padded fence at the top of the Tampa Bay Rays’ dugout, he tells me a story. It’s about growing up in Cuba, loving soccer, but choosing baseball instead.
He sometimes looks distracted as he talks. His eyes make contact for a short time before wandering. To the empty blue seats around Tropicana Field a couple hours before Tampa Bay plays Pittsburgh. To the left field where he shines as one of baseball’s most transfixing stars. To the seats behind it — sections 141 and 143 — which become Randy Land during Friday home games. During those games, fans wear Arozarena T-shirts and wave oversized cutouts of his head. If he hits a home run, everyone in those sections gets a free drink.
His eyes return to me as he continues his story.
“It’s a sport I still love,” he says of soccer, in Spanish, smiling now. He was a forward who scored…
