A Good Time and Place for a Cigar

Among the new features at the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ new home, Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, is a Cigar Bar. It allows customers to light up a stogie, sip a brandy or down a brew and relax in a comfortable, oversized leather chair.

A fan can also order a bottle of Dom Perignon 1990 for $180 or enjoy a domestic beer at $4.

Owner Greg Haddad said, “We’re the first cigar bar in the major leagues.

“We have a large selection of the most-sought after brands--huge for a cigar bar.”

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Protesters and uncertainty greeted the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday when they made the first of what would-be owner Don Beaver hoped would be many appearances in North Carolina.

Tuesday was the expiration date for a letter of intent Beaver signed last year to buy the Twins from Carl Pohlad and move the team to North Carolina. Beaver said he remained confident the deal would be completed.

“Today’s the deadline? That tells you what I think of the deadline. The deadline’s nothing that I’m too concerned about,” Beaver said.

Later, Jamie Ogden’s bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth lifted the Twins to a 9-8 victory over the Montreal Expos at Winston-Salem, N.C., in the final game of 1998 spring training.

People filing into the game were met by about a dozen protesters who walked a line outside the park. They carried signs and called for the defeat of a proposed restaurant tax that would help fund a new stadium for the Twins in the Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point area.

A referendum is scheduled for May 5 on the proposal, which would increase taxes on prepared foods and tickets in the region to pay for $140 million of the stadium’s estimated $210 million cost.

A poll conducted last week showed voters in the area oppose the measure by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.

The game was attended by 8,551.