Blue Jays marvel at new digs while trying to find way
Opening day, the home opener for the seemingly wayward Blue Jays, is personal and emotional and forever full of stories.
Like that first day of school, it’s a memory you bank in your own account. Just like that first day at university or college away from home. Just like that first date.
Opening day is full of discovery and intrigue and hope, always hope — everything that makes baseball special. Baseball isn’t just a sport, it’s a daily conversation, forever meandering.
And the Blue Jays began the home portion of the conversation Monday night against the Seattle Mariners in the newly renovated, rather opulent, somewhat overdone Rogers Centre.
The Blue Jays’ new and oversized clubhouse is so enormous that Bo Bichette admitted he’s already been lost a few times and that’s just on the first day of work. I’m not going to tell you the Jays’ clubhouse is gigantic in size and scope, but it looks something like a luxury cruise ship, without the boat.
You can sign up for facials, massages, hot tub any time you’d like and food is available all hours of the day. Any kind you want.
“I’ll be lost walking around here for a few days,” said Ernie Clement, celebrating his second bigleague home opener, his first in Toronto. “I think we all are.”
Sitting in the new clubhouse was Davis Schneider, sort of a Jays rookie, celebrating starting his first bigleague season rather quietly. He calls the new clubhouse “pretty wild.” He calls his first full season in the big leagues “pretty amazing.”
There is a lot of looking around right now, baseball mouths opened wide, even for a kid who has lived through home openers before — they just happened to be in South Jersey, Dunedin, Bluefield, Vancouver, New Hampshire and Buffalo.
None of them had clubhouses anything like this one.
“A lot of years and a lot of work getting here,” said Schneider, who received giant applause when introduced in the starting lineup.
He’s not a kid in age, just in terms of big-league experience.
Schneider was 10 years old when teammate Justin Turner made his major-league debut and 12 when Turner played in his first home opener with the New York Mets. All Turner remembers from that day is noise.
“The planes kept flying over (Shea Stadium). Man that place was noisy to play in. The rest, I don’t really remember.”
That’s what happens when you play 14 big-league seasons, when you play 1,549 games for the Orioles, Mets, Dodgers, Red Sox and now Blue Jays. One home opener blends into another.
But at 25, Schneider looks up to the 39-year-old Turner with a built-in admiration. He yearns to become what Turner has been. An everyday player. A productive player.
Turner, like Schneider, didn’t race to the big leagues. His first home opener was in 2011, six years after he was drafted by Baltimore. He was 25 when he started playing regularly in the bigs. Same age Schneider happens to be.
And Turner still gets a kick out being part of a home opener, knocking the first extra-base hit in the new Rogers Centre with a second-inning double, even if the years tend to blend into one another over time.
Mostly he is thrilled to be off the road and finally home. “The 10-day road trip,” said Turner, “felt more like a month.”
When asked about the excitement he feels in Toronto now, knowing how much this city looks forward to baseball every year, Turner wasn’t certain what to say.
“I’ve been here for 14 hours so far and all I’ve seen on TV is hockey highlights,” said Turner, a hockey fan, when asked about the Blue Jays buzz in the city.
He then was told that Kawhi Leonard once complained there was too much curling on TV when he lived here.
“Yeah, I saw some curling highlights, too,” Turner said.
For the record, though, Turner is thrilled to be playing at home. He may be part of his own TV highlights on Tuesday. He got giant applause after crossing the plate with the Blue Jays’ first run at home, after knocking the first extra-base hit of the home season.
So another season of baseball begins in Toronto, a juxtaposition as wide as the difference in the careers of Turner and Schneider.
The renovated ballpark looks fabulous. The team, we’re not so sure about.
But Turner warns: Pay no attention to the outside noise.
“The outside noise is the outside noise.” He has played in real baseball markets like Boston, Los Angeles and New York in his career and understands genuine angst. “We believe in playing good baseball. That’s what we have to do. We know that. The rest, we don’t pay attention to.”
A new season has begun. There is optimism. Who knows about tomorrow?