http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/sep/22/tvs-ghost-hunters-check-st-petes-vinoy-resort/

TV's 'Ghost Hunters' Check In To St. Pete's Vinoy Resort

By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - The Renaissance Vinoy Resort & Golf Club in St. Petersburg will be featured on the Oct. 1 episode of the Sci-Fi Channel's "Ghost Hunters."

The show's ghost-chasing hosts, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, visited the historical resort in July.

A film crew was granted permission to check in to the empty fifth floor for 10 days to try to record evidence of ghosts.

For decades, stories have circulated that the elegant resort, where major league baseball teams stay while in St. Petersburg, is populated by ghosts.

Among the ballplayers who have been spooked at the Vinoy are Jim Fregosi, Cito Gaston, Billy Koch, Gerald Perry, Jay Gibbons and Brian Roberts. Some Pittsburgh players reportedly were so frightened that they checked out of the hotel and stayed with a teammate's family when the Pirates were in St. Petersburg five years ago.

In 2003, Scott Williamson, then with the Boston Red Sox, told of a run-in with a spirit or apparition in the hotel.

"I was asleep on my stomach, and all of a sudden, it felt like someone was pushing down on my back and I couldn't breathe," said Williamson, a pitcher. "I thought maybe it was a cramp or something, but then I rolled over and looked over at the window and there was this guy standing there."

Williamson said he blinked his eyes to make sure he wasn't just imagining it.

"I looked away and looked back quick, but he was there," he said. "It was a guy wearing old-fashioned clothes, like something you might see in the 1930s or '20s. He had a top hat … and he was just looking right at me. It was almost like he was trying to get a point across to me or something. I jumped up and turned on the lights, but he was gone."

There have also been stories of an apparition of a woman dressed in white floating down hallways.

There's no word on what, if anything, the "Ghost Hunters" crew found at the Vinoy.

The program will also "star" several employees of the resort, who explain on camera some of the mysterious "goings on" there since the 1920s.

The hourlong episode is scheduled to air at 9 p.m. Oct.1.

In honor of the "Ghost Hunters" episode, the Vinoy's Promenade Lounge is offering a "Ghostini" drink in October.

The "Ghost Hunters" crew also visited the Seven Sisters Inn in Ocala for the episode.

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813 259-7654 or wbelcher@tampatrib.com.