BLUE JAYS FINALLY HAVE A SHINY, NEW HOME
Team impressed with renovations in Buffalo as lengthy road trip is over
If home away from home is where the heart is, the Blue Jays surely would have had a lump-inthe-throat moment here Tuesday afternoon, some three hours before a historic first pitch in a bizarre baseball season.
Booming over the PA at Sahlen Field as players prepared for batting practice, a team employee implored them to take a break and look at the big scoreboard “for a message from your biggest fans.”
What followed was cheery, teary faces and passionate voices of encouragement from family members young and old from their real homes. As easy as it is to be cynical and dismiss the trials of a team that finally got to play an official home game, it was a touching reminder of this sporting sphere like no other.
The vagabond Jays entered Tuesday’s contest with the Miami Marlins with a 5-8 record, the imbalance toward losses at least in part a result of some sloppy play, blown leads and icecold bats.
But a team that has been away from its families for nine weeks sure needed a welcome wagon. And after two sleeps in the border city and a look at the terrific renovation to the triple-a stadium, the comforts were well appreciated.
“The reaction has been great, overwhelmingly positive,” Jays general manager Ross Atkins said on a Zoom call prior to the game. “You can see it on their faces.”
Part of the feeling is relief, of finally having a stadium to call home after a three-week road trip preceded by three more weeks of quarantine camp in Toronto.
In the interim, the team had been denied a home in Major League Baseball ballparks by three governments: the Canadian federal variety and state authorities in Pennsylvania (to nix Pittsburgh’s PNC Park) and Maryland (denying Camden Yards).
So it was off to Buffalo by default, which at first blush seemed like another loss in a frustrating season, a sentiment shared by some Jays players.
And then team president
Mark Shapiro enlisted a strong team headed by vice-president of business operations Marnie Starkman to transform the stadium into as close to big-league standards as possible. So play ball, it was.
Until new Jays ace starter Hyun-jin Ryu made the first pitch a strike at 6:41 p.m. ET, the most famous baseball act at the stadium was by Roy Hobbs (portrayed by actor Robert Redford) in the 1984 film The Natural.
And the modern-era naturals that showed up for non-fiction ball were impressed. When the players arrived at the stadium, several we spoke with were blown away with the transformation. Many had spent some time here with the triple-a Bisons and remembered the quaintness/ deficiencies.
“I’ve been coming here for so many years and to see the difference and how pleased the players are . ... I think they did a great job,” said manager Charlie Montoyo, who was a regular visitor to Buffalo in the eight years he managed the Durham Bulls. “I know the people I work for and I knew they were going to make it look close to my workplace.”
Changes and upgrades to Sahlen Field ranged from the subtle to the superb. Four truckloads of gear were hauled from the Rogers Centre, big-league quality lighting was installed and a fairway quality infield installed.
The guts of the place, built in 1988, had grown tired. So the
Jays renovated the clubhouse with attention to social distance spacing and added as many creature comforts as possible. Down the first-base line, for example, injured Jays watched in comfortable lounge seats. Blue Jays branding was omnipresent inside the stadium and out.
“It feels like I’m in a totally different stadium,” said rookie pitcher Nate Pearson, who will get the start on Wednesday. “Everything is clean and spacious. We have everything we need. I know some of the guys that were skeptical about it. They are all pumped up and ready to go. I think we’re going to have a lot of success here.”