ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A mile and a half from the locus of baseball surrealism is a monument to the master of the medium. The Dalí Museum, home to more than 2,000 works by the Spanish artist Salvador Dalí, makes a fitting neighbor for the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Dalí collection is a testament to the joys of challenging reality and bending expectations, of hiding curious visions in plain sight. A woman staring at the sea becomes a portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Images of the Venus de Milo meld into a toreador. A weathered, craggy cliff turns into an old man’s face.

“He always took great risks,” the museum’s website says of its muse, “and proved how rich the world can be when you dare to embrace pure, boundless creativity.”

Dalí died in 1989, a year before the unveiling of the domed stadium now known as Tropicana Field, where baseball executives, coaches and players strive to see beyond the obvious. It was a marvel, at least to a 12-year-old second baseman from Tampa who played Wiffle ball there at the opening ceremony.