A pretty good home away from the dome
The team is still living out of a hotel, but at least it’ll be the same hotel for half the season
BUFFALO—“This is fine. Everything is fine. It’s fine.”
That’s the new Blue Jays mantra, apparently. At least the legend revealed on the front of their workout jerseys. Which, hooboy, could never be confused with the peacock blue unis debuted Tuesday night — the “HOME AWAY FROM DOME” retro threads that were a throwback to Blue Jays circa 1977. The franchise’s pre big-boys-belt days to hold up their pantaloons.
Ken Giles had something to do with those polos, by the way, exchanged come game time for the baby-blues.
Pardon, we just got spellbound with the foppish fashion, when there was so much else happening at the biggest little ballpark in baseball. And by little, we mean triple-A. Although pretty Sahlen Field was doing a dandy impression of the Rogers Centre, less than three weeks removed from the Jays getting booted from their home park, leading to a 13game odyssey as itinerant ballers.
Knock-knock-knocking on visitor clubhouse doors, shapeshifted into pseudo home venues. But really just lodgers on the road in what has been a honkin’ huge shemozzle ever since the feds in Ottawa told the Jays to take a COVID-19 walk anywhere but Canada.
Between the homelessness, the cancelled series — waylaid out of Philadelphia in the coronavirus-positive wake of these very same Marlins (several players flown the lockdown coop tripped the light fandango, possibly in Atlanta, or maybe they brought the outbreak straight outta Miami) — and the vagabond life, living out of a suitcase, quarantined in hotels, it’s been pandemonium on top of pandemic.
But, say hey kids, at least now they’ve got their own ballpark, by gosh. And, by gosh, a 5-4, 10-inning win straight out of the QEW chute.
Sahlen Field was always a lovely yard but it was transformed into mini-Rogers in lickety-split time, right down to the scoreboard arch, blue and white bunting — sadly looped and fluffed by breezes throughout the empty stands — the Blue Jays’ brand and iconography throughout, and cut-outs of Rogers/Sportsnet broadcasters and reporters stuffed into the seats behind home plate. First they hold the Zoom sessions with the Jays hostage — eight being the record for most consecutive questions by a Sportsnet employee — and now their fibreboard images command the best view in the house.
A homey touch for the players, too, with some of the cutouts depicting their kids, greatly missed during this summer sojourn through baseball — Teoscar Hernandez’ wee boy, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s little girls. And in manager Charlie Montoyo’s office, framed photos of his sons, his bongo drums transported across the border as well. Probably jammed into the four trucks that made the trip from Toronto, delivering familiar weight room gear, training room gear, treatment room gear.
Best part: The softness of real grass, instead of knee-pounding artificial turf over ’ome.
Sweet part: The montage of messages on the big screen from players’ wives, girlfriends, parents and kidlets. Some of these players haven’t seen their loved ones in nine weeks, since intake for spring training 2.0 at Dunedin.
Don’t know what the Marlins made of all this, from their physically-distanced dugout, after emerging from their giant marquee tent visitors’ clubhouse — in the army, it’s known as a big-ass tent, for grunts — but the Jays certainly seemed pleased to finally have a place to roost, lining up for the two anthems, followed by a touching tribute to the racial equality movement borne of the killing of George Floyd. Black Lives Matter was writ large on the right field fence, alongside, uh, Rogers and Tim Horton’s.
Really, the Jays should take a knee and thank Buffalo, and the Bisons, for such hospitality. And vice-versa. Not for 135 years has the Queen City seen big-league baseball. Totally chuffed with it, was the city, including those who tried to get a gander at the field from various skulking vantage points.
“My reaction was, awesome,” enthused Montoyo, of the park where he’ll be hanging his cap for at least 27 home dates. That’s the word I’m going to use, awesome.”
Of course, Montoyo has a long-minor league history with this stadium. “I’ve been coming here for 30 years and to see the difference, how pleased the players are.”
The skipper actually came to the park on Sunday night, when the team arrived from Boston. “I couldn’t wait to get to this place and see what it looked like, before the players got here, so I could have my own opinion.”
He likes it just fine, full credit to the crew — from Toronto, from the Jays office, from MLB – that kicked the stadium into major league shape, in a breathless sprint. Montoyo came back on Monday, pretty late into the night, as the Jays outfielders were deployed to get the hang of the freshly upgraded lights.
“The first couple of days, it’s still going to feel like a visiting team,” Montoya figured. “Because we haven’t been here. Half the players haven’t played here yet. After the next few days, it’ll feel like home.”
Stiffened MLB protocols, and simply the uber-cautious Jays way of doing things in this bizarre season, means the players are still restricted to hotel and ballpark — a 10minute stroll between the two. But with no fans, no autograph hounding either. The players hang around the lobby looking at their phones, casually come and go to the park, almost like ordinary folk.
“Just like we did on the road,” Montoyo observed approvingly. “That’s good. We can all stay together.”
What struck Ross Atkins first about the home-away-fromdome field — and the GM first came here in 1997 as a minorleague pitcher — was the park coming into focus as he neared it. “The biggest mouth-opening, jaw-dropping experience I had was seeing it from the highway. What they did to brand it and make it feel like the Toronto Blue Jay home really is jaw-dropping, to see the significant difference.
Second-most impressive, how a contained space, shoehorned into an urban downtown neighbourhood, has been maximized for clever roominess and physical distancing, making use of concourses.
“The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive,” Atkins said of the players’ take on their new-old digs. “There’s smiles on guys’ faces.”
One particular smilee is Nate Pearson. The lip-smacking fire-thrower started three games with the Bisons last season, among 19 Jays who have come through Buffalo in their careers. The strapping rookie, who put out teasing posts on social media about being Buffalo-bound, was taken aback upon arrival.
“The whole locker room that we were in last year is now the coach’s locker room. We’re not even in that part of the stadium, which is crazy. What was the weight room last year is now the training room.
“It feels like I’m in a totally different stadium. They did a really good job. Everything’s nice and spacious.”
Recall that several Jays had publicly expressed their displeasure over Buffalo as an option, as other schemes — tenancy at major-league parks — fell by the wayside. “I know some of the guys that were skeptical about it are pumped up and ready to go,” Pearson said pre-game.
Pearson gets the ball Wednesday, his third major-league start in a debut season that will never touch Rogers Centre, fans denied the thrill of feasting their eyes on the 23-yearold in person. And he misses them too.
“I feel their support. We’re still playing for them even if we’re not there. Hopefully we have some success here in Buffalo.”