Off to the match
Toronto Blue Jays -v- Seattle Mariners
2 September 2007
If you think of sport and think of Canada you arrive at Ice Hockey. However this early in the year the season hasn't started so Vern had suggested we try a baseball match. As distances are so great in the League, matches are played in a series of three and we organised our visit to coincide with the third day against Seattle.
We walked down Yonge Street and along the front to the CN Tower which is right next door to the Rogers Stadium. My idea had been to do the tower in the morning and then head on to the match afterwards and for once fortune played into our hands.
You can buy a Toronto Passport which includes six major attractions for $59, and as we wanted to see at least five of them it looked like good value for money. A wee stall had been set up at the entrance to the tower to sell tickets so I ordered two of them.
This was the moment that their card reader decided to start playing up. It read my card ok and then whirred as it tried to print the ticket; however nothing came out. After fifteen minutes of hassle the two girls asked for a supervisor and one of the old style voucher printers.
Time was pressing on and the good news from the supervisor was that the queue to get up the tower was running at a two hour wait so our footering about at the desk had saved us from missing the match. We would never have had sufficient time to get up let alone back down again in time for the kick off - or whatever it is they call it.
Our tickets in hand we walked round to the stadium. The match was due to start at 13:07 hours which is as odd a time as any I can think of though JJ disagrees; he thinks that this is no odder than 13:00 or 13:15 hours. That boy can be really weird at times.
Despite being a good hour early we decided to wander in, find our places and think about getting something to eat.
As neither of us knew the first thing about baseball apart from the fact that you have to hit a ball with a club and run around a pitch, I had booked reasonably expensive seats opposite the pitcher's mound which gave us a good view of everything.
The stadium had its roof open and at this stage was spotless. I remember going to Wembley stadium one time and discovering that the toilets were fairly primitive. Well you couldn't say that in this case - everything was so clean.
We went for a dander and realised that we were going to be spoilt for choice for food. In the end we settled on chicken sandwiches and it would be hard to say whether it would have been easier to get the half baguette inside the chicken rather than trying to put that amount of chicken into a baguette.
The crowd slowly grew and the teams came out to stand for their anthems. The match was underway with the umpire's instruction to play ball.
I had been reading the programme (Canadians must think it is a computer program) and was slowly getting the hang of what the game was all about. As the scoreboard changed we started to realise that people getting to first base were getting a point, though that didn't seem to be counting on the big level.
The velocity of the ball as it was thrown by the pitcher was often in the region of 150 kph so it wasn't a great surprise to see so many misses. Sometimes the batter would really go for it and it was a case of: where did it go ? Often into the hands of the catcher behind him.
Two things really struck us. Firstly; so many people seemed to have little interest as to what was going on, the group of women in front of us spent the entire afternoon gossipping and looking at their holiday snaps. Many people arrived in late or seemed to spend a lot of time wandering off to get more vitals.
There lies the second thing: how on earth do they manage to eat so much ? All around us people were wading in a sea of dropped pop-corn or other comestibles. The famous vendors that we know from films and television were doing a roaring trade as they wandered up and down the aisles hawking their wares.
One was particularly noteworthy: older than the others he had a gravel voice which announced that he was carrying - ice - cold - beeeeeeeeeer ! You could almost hear the drops of condensation running down the side of the can. We were very good and resisted.
Every moment and pause was filled with something. At the end of an innings we were invited to watch kiddies dancing with Ace the Mascot or win win win with our tickets. I presume it is to cover all the adverts that are probably going out on the televised match.
The worst was the Happy Dance. We had one rather large gentleman sitting not too far away from us and he was definitely into the happy dance, though I would advise him not to take up pole dancing for a living.
Toronto won the match quite easily (6 - 4) and we think that took away from the game for us. There was no emotion, no hanging on every swing of the bat, but that said it was an interesting experience and I would have to add that I did find myself watching their next matches on TV, and they were more enjoyable as the team seemed to be forever losing against the Boston Red Sox.
My one big disappointment of the afternoon was that the Blue Jays designated hitter Frank Thomas didn't score a home run. He is a member of the envied 500 Home Run Club which is some achievement. You watch the speed of the ball and realise that this isn't easy. Then when they do hit it, the ball is often so arced upwards that the opposition with their big gloves can hardly fail to catch them out.
Indeed, 500 home runs is remarkable.
Match over, the sun still out, time to get up that tower.
See also