Our Mixed Review of Rogers Center - (home of the Toronto Blue Jays) 6/14

Michael and I spent our day just relaxing in our hotel room so we really didn’t get a chance to venture out and do much in Toronto.  We drove around looking for a place to take in some lunch and in the process of riding around downtown, I came to the conclusion that Toronto is a huge, bustling city that reminds me a lot of Chicago.  Except the traffic in Toronto is far worse than anything I’ve ever seen in Chicago.  Both cities are built on one of the Great Lakes.  Both towns boast the tallest building/structure in the Western Hemisphere, and both towns are very ethnically diverse.  Toronto, however, has a distinct European feel to it (even though I’ve never been to Europe I’m just guessing that’s what it must be like).  The one thing that I never get used to is hearing the Canadians speak.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, pronounces  “about” and “out” like “a-boot” and “oot.”  Even at the game, the announcer would say “two oot.”  I just find it funny and I don’t know why.  Even Michael commented on it.

Anyway, we drove over to Rogers Centre about an hour before the game to check out the stadium.  I remember that this stadium (formerly named SkyDome) opened back in 1990.  It was the first ever retractable domed stadium at the time and it was the most modern of all stadiums.  That is no longer the case.  The stadium looks quite dated on the inside now.  There’s definitely no shortage of the color blue and since it was a beautiful 70-degree evening with not a cloud in the sky, the roof was wide open.  I remember back in the early 90s that the Blue Jays set attendance records every year.  Again, that’s no longer the case.  There were maybe 15,000 at the game with tons of empty seats.  The Hard Rock Café that had been the signature part of the center field stands years ago no longer exists, but the hotel in center field is still there.

The outside of the stadium is very impressive though.  The structure is monstrous.  And right next to the stadium is the CN Tower – the tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere.  The one huge drawback to the stadium is that it is one of the two stadiums that still uses artificial turf.  I hate that stuff!  The scoreboard is huge and impressive in CF though. 

Our seats were in the first row of the top level of the stadium directly behind home plate.  We sat next to a long-time season ticket holder who chatted us up during the game about our trip.  And on the other side, a guy and his girlfriend from Ireland sat next to me who had never seen a baseball game before.  I spent a few minutes trying to explain the game to him.  It was pretty hard to explain some of the subtleties of the game like why you don’t accumulate strikes when a foul ball happens after two strikes. 

The game was another close one and this time it ended in extra innings with a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11^th with the Blue Jays winning 6-5.  One unique thing that happened during the game was that an umpire was hit by a batted ball.  I’ve been to a few hundred MLB baseball games and seen countless others and I’ve never seen that happen.  Also, in addition to Michael getting three batting practice balls, the Blue Jay mascot tossed him a t-shirt.  For the record, in all those hundreds of games I’ve attended, I’ve never caught anything but a cold.  Overall, the stadium felt too sterile to me.  Maybe if more fans were there, my experience would have been better.  But I can’t say I liked Rogers Centre too much.  I give it a 6.5/10.  Here’s Michael now who liked it a whole lot better than me.

Hi everyone, it’s me Michael.  I loved Rogers Center.  I was really impressed with everything.  I suppose getting a t-shirt from the mascot made it better.  I know my dad didn’t like it as much as I do, but I think he kept saying it wasn’t how he remembered seeing it on TV years ago.  I like the artificial grass – very green!  The big scoreboard was cool too.  I also like the view of the CN Tower right outside the stadium.  I liked it so much that I gave it a 8 out of 10.

There you have it!  Our next game we are both REALLY looking forward to.  The next game is at Fenway Park in Boston this Sunday on Father’s Day.  Tomorrow we take off for our two-day visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  I can’t wait to see Michael’s reaction to all of the cool stuff in the Hall.  We’ll be in Cooperstown until Friday morning and then we drive to Boston.