Sky is falling: Game postponed in Toronto
TORONTO >> Even moving indoors couldn’t get the Blue Jays back on the field.
Toronto postponed Monday’s series opener against Kansas City after chunks of ice crashed down from the nearby CN Tower following a weekend of freezing rain, including one that punctured a hole in the Rogers Centre roof.
Andrew Miller, the Blue Jays’ executive vice president of business operations, was standing in the infield with two colleagues around 7 a.m. PDT Monday, examining existing damage, when a falling piece of ice tore a hole about 3 feet by 5 feet in the PVC roof over right field, sending ice and pieces of insulation crashing onto the turf.
“We saw it happen,” Miller said. “It was pretty frightening. It was really loud. It sounded like fireworks or some kind of explosion going off.”
It’s the first postponement at Rogers Centre since a game against the Royals was called off following a collision between two panels of the stadium’s moving roof on April 12, 2001. The teams will play a doubleheader today.
“If you come to a dome and get banged, something ain’t right,” Royals manager Ned Yost said about an hour before the game was called.
Monday’s starters, Kansas City left-hander Eric Skoglund and Blue Jays lefty Jaime Garcia, will start Game 1 today. Game 2 will also feature a pair of lefties, with Kansas City’s Danny Duffy going against Toronto’s J.A. Happ.
Weather also wiped out Toronto’s game at Cleveland on Sunday, one of six games around the majors to be postponed.
The Blue Jays completed a twoyear, $10 million mechanical upgrade of the retractable roof before the 2017 season, and this year are looking at replacing the roof cover, which dates from the stadium opening in 1989. The stadium’s artificial turf surface, one of two such fields in the majors, does not have drainage.
On Monday afternoon, light could be seen coming through the hole above right field, while tarps and batting practice screens surrounded the area on the turf below. Workers went on the roof and patched the hole around 1 p.m., and the Blue Jays said they still hoped to play. About an hour later, the game was postponed.
“We didn’t want to put players at risk, we didn’t want to put fans or employees at risk,” Miller said. “We just thought more information and more time would help us.”
Most of the outfield was cordoned off, and tarpaulins and buckets on both the infield and outfield were being used to catch leaks and drips.
Batting practice was also called off, but players from both teams played catch on the areas of the field that were still accessible.
The postponement came hours after a post on the Blue Jays’ official Twitter feed boasted the Rogers Centre was immune to weather woes. The since-deleted tweet, which included a winking emoji, read: “Weather update: Due to our stadium having a roof, today’s game will be ... Played as expected.”
The Minnesota Vikings, who dealt with multiple roof collapses at their former home, the Metrodome, later tweeted a message to the Blue Jays saying “Been there, done that @BlueJays. We’re here if you need any support.”
Falling ice also made for a scary arrival in Toronto for the Royals, who flew in from Kansas City late Sunday after their game against the Angels was among those postponed. While the team was en route to its Toronto hotel, a flying chunk of ice broke the windshield of a team bus, showering the driver in glass. Reliever Blaine Boyer grabbed the wheel and helped bring the bus to a stop.
Two other major league games were postponed because of poor weather: the series opener between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals and the final game of a fourgame series between the Orioles and Red Sox.
With light snow falling and the temperature around 30 degrees in Chicago, Monday night’s Cubs game was postponed about six hours before the scheduled first pitch. It will be made up as part of a split doubleheader on July 21.
The traditional Patriots’ Day game scheduled for Monday morning in Boston was postponed because of rain. The Orioles-Red Sox game will be made up May 17, which had been an off day for both teams prior to their next series at Fenway.