ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tampa Bay Rays catcher Jose Lobaton makes a living at home plate. And now he’s made his marriage vows there, too.
That’s where the 27-year-old from Venezuela wed his fiancée, Nina Dominguez, in an impromptu ceremony Monday morning beneath a large white canopy — otherwise known as the roof of Tropicana Field. First baseman Carlos Pena and his wife, Pamela, stood in for the bride and groom as they walked joyfully down a red carpet to the plate.
One thing’s certain: Lobaton couldn’t have come up with a bigger diamond for the special occasion.
“We were engaged one year and were supposed to get married in Venezuela but (couldn’t) because I was playing,” he explained.
So the couple made plans to get married Monday at the courthouse in St. Petersburg instead. But Pamela Pena urged them to change the venue to home plate, and suddenly plans were in the works in spite of Lobaton’s initial reluctance to give it a try on such short notice.
Rays vice president of communications Rick Vaughn got involved in the spur-of-the-moment planning and located a notary who could perform the honors. And just like that, the notary was pronouncing Jose and Nina husband and wife shortly after 10 a.m. Monday.
“Home plate, I get to see it almost every night, but not like this,” Lobaton said with a smile.
The couple has no immediate honeymoon plans because of the demands of the baseball season. “But after the season, we might go to another country or something,” he said. “Maybe after the World Series, we’ll have a little more money.”
Lobaton, who met his wife in Venezuela, isn’t the first member of the Rays to turn home plate into a site of holy matrimony. Rays senior adviser Don Zimmer wed wife Soot there as a minor leaguer in Elmira, NY, in 1951.
“It was really nice,” Lobaton said. “Red carpet. It’s something we’ll always remember.”
There was even a present that made the day even more special: a Rays comeback victory over the first-place Yankees on Monday night, with Lobaton back behind the plate where his most unusual wedding unfolded 12 hours earlier.
