TAMPA, Fla. — Throughout the hockey season, Tampa Bay 28 has been highlighting the Bolts’ super fans. Vinny Bartolomeo says, becoming a Lightning fan meant becoming a part of the community.
“I moved down here about five years ago, and I had to give something to the hometown in order to feel like I belonged here,” said Vinny. “Going to hockey games has always been one of my favorite things to do, so I committed 100 percent to the Lightning.”
WATCH: Lightning fan spreads joy of hockey throughout the arena
From a vast collection of hats, to sticks, to jerseys, Vinny has become the face of the fans.
“It’s all a very tight-knit organization, and being able to see familiar faces when I go to a game is always nice, walking through the crowd and somebody yells your name, ‘hey, what’s going on,’ it makes you feel more at home,” said Vinny.
Vinny always seems to find himself in the middle of the action, from playing ski-ball during intermission on center ice, to winning $10,000 in the 50/50 raffle, to proposing to his wife in front of the entire arena.
“I had it set up for us to flip the breaker, and turn on the Tesla coils, and I waited for her to look up at the Jumbotron to see if we were on the screen, and I turned and went down to one knee,” said Vinny. “One of my favorite things, I said, ‘will you marry me,’ and she said, I ‘hate you so much,’ you could actually lip read it in the video, but then she came in for the kiss so I knew we were ok.”
Vinny carried the electricity of the proposal right into the wedding.
“My wedding gift to my wife was a custom-made jersey with our name on the back with the number 25, the year we got married, I actually have it right here, and I actually got the entire team to sign the jersey,” said Vinny proudly, holding the jersey up.
Vinny’s latest project is making homemade Stanley Cups with his co-workers, even catching the attention of our own Denis Phillips as he carried a cup made of empty ZYN containers through Thunder Alley into a game.
“I was just happy someone else was holding it for once because that thing gets heavy after a while,” said Vinny. “I didn’t make it to my seats until halfway through the first period because everybody was stopping for photos, so we brought it back a few times.”
When he isn’t behind the glass, Vinny is behind the bar serving drinks at Pete’s Place in Tampa.
“So we definitely have some loyal fans that will come in and watch the games,” said Vinny.
There’s even a debate about who has the stronger shot: Vinny or Kucherov?
Vinny is optimistic there will be a game seven against Montreal, and he’ll be there.
“I’m hoping to win the next two for sure. We already won one in Montreal, I don’t see why we can’t do it again,” said Vinny.
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