‘It was pure magic’
Twenty-four years later, Hatters of a certain vintage still talk about the time the Toronto Blue Jays played at Athletic Park.
They’ll be talking about what happened there Thursday night for a long time, too.
More than 2,500 people watched the Medicine Hat Mavericks win a Western Major Baseball League title over the Regina Red Sox, a monumental Game 5 in the best-of-five finals that turned positively festive once the home team pulled away in the middle innings.
All day the phones kept ringing at the Mavs office. Hundreds lined up for tickets. When they were gone, the team released another 200 standing room tickets. They finally had to call it a sellout, but fans had an option: The berm built following the 2013 floods saw the occasional fan set up a lawn chair, but on this night it was the best, last choice as upwards of 300 got a beautiful vantage point without spending a dime.
Someone tried starting the wave, which for once could’ve gone around the park with everyone lining its circumference. Didn’t go so well.
There were lots of other things that did work.
Ice cream sold out at the concession. The 50/50 jackpot was $3,755. The patios built down the third-base line over the past few years were packed.
“I told a couple of the guys, especially the graduated seniors, top of the first, you take 30 seconds to just look around,” said head coach Andrew Murphy. “This doesn’t happen ever in these guys’ career.
“Especially where these guys go to college, they’ll maybe get 100, 200 fans. This is why summer ball’s so great.”
A big lead let them soak it in too. As fans sang “Sweet Caroline” after the eighth inning, Mavericks players joined in. Cellphones in the stands and out on the berm were lifted high in the air for effect, mirroring the mayflies glistening in the stadium lights as if the stars themselves had descended for a moment. It was pure magic. The rookie league Medicine Hat Blue Jays never played in front of such a crowd. It was June 6, 1994 when the two-time World Series champion Toronto Blue Jays brought their crossCanada tour to Medicine Hat, with the News reporting that 9,023 fans came out to watch the National Baseball Institute Blues earn a surprise win with three Gas City prospects on the roster. To be fair, the Jays used an NBI player to pitch for them.
Bleachers were set up to accommodate the huge crowd. Tales of batting practice feats – numerous balls into the South Saskatchewan River – still resonate.
One of the hometown players who starred for NBI that day was Greg Morrison. Ten years ago Morrison, his pro career finished, returned home to buy the then-struggling Mavericks. And there he was Thursday, technically also the team’s general manager this season with regular GM Taylor Swannack on maternity leave, lapping up the atmosphere.
He was in the press box when Colton Wright hit a solo home run to make it 6-0, letting out a primal scream. Winning never gets old.
“I’ve never been part of a team this good,” said coach Murphy afterwards. “Honestly, they didn’t need a coach. They did it themselves. They hold each other accountable; it was unbelievable.”
They did though, and Murphy’s level, calm demeanour was perfect for a group of excitable young men.
They hit .319 in the playoffs, .311 in the regular season. Their pitchers had a 4.26 earned run average in the post-season after a 3.71 the rest of the summer. Their fielding was among the league’s best too.
After seemingly every home game, you’d have to push through a throng of players signing autographs or just chatting with fans near the Mavericks dugout. On Thursday, the scene was the same but on the field, and with empty champagne bottles to avoid on the grass.
As they sang O Canada atop the left-field wall, a handful of kids took turns throwing from the pitcher’s mound while another threw a ball in the air and hit it into the backstop.
Perhaps they were already thinking of playing for the Mavs someday too.