Baseball North of the Border

On a recent visit to Canada to visit family, my husband and I planned our trip so we could catch a ball game at Rogers Centre in Toronto.  This would be ball park number 6 in our quest to visit every Major League baseball park (we only have 24 more to go - no biggie!), and it was a great visit.

The ball park itself was kind of "eh," but the experience was a good one overall.  While I'm not a fan of artificial turf, the Centre's retractable roof was something I'd never seen in person before, and that made it interesting (my husband the engineer kept trying to figure out how the whole thing worked).  I'm glad the weather was nice enough to leave the roof open, because I'm not sure I would enjoy an indoor baseball game (I know; I need to prepare myself for Miami and Milwaukee).  It was a bit chilly for us southerners, but the crowd was lively and extremely well-behaved (it's Canada, after all).

The first noteworthy tidbit is that every single Canadian in that ball park knew the words to their National Anthem.  Everyone sang along while "O Canada" was played, and unlike our hard-to-sing song about bombs bursting in air, the Canadian anthem talks about love and God and pride.  Yes, God was mentioned 5 times in the song, and no one complained about it.  No offense to Francis Scott Key, but not all of us can reach the high notes like Whitney Houston, so even if we knew all the words, 35,000 fans singing the "Star-Spangled Banner" would not sound as good as the same amount of Canadians singing their song.  There was also no "pomp" like at Nationals Park - no presenting of the colors and no football-field-size flag undulating in the outfield.  I was totally OK with that.

Also interesting was the person who threw out the ceremonial first pitch.  It wasn't a season-ticket-holder, war veteran, or big corporate sponsor - it was a man who performed CPR on a stranger and saved the person's life.  Now that to me is a true hero, and he was very worthy of throwing out a first pitch and so much more. 

The game itself was very exciting.  It's always nice when the home team is winning, so the Blue Jays' 10-3 victory over the Oakland A's was a definite plus to my ballpark experience.  Former Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey pitched for the Jays, Chris Colabello and Justin Smoak hit homers for the home team, and the victory put the Jays in first place above the Yankees. 

What were my least-favorite things about the Rogers Centre?  Well it's another one of those parks that was shoehorned into a bustling city with big buildings around it, so it made the concourse area very dark (though not as cramped as Oriole Park).  The epoxy coating on the floor made it seem almost airport-like, though it was very clean (the whole city of Toronto was spotless, actually).  The concession vendors that go up and down the seating area were way too quiet - they were all like "Would anyone like a cold beverage?" as opposed to the "ICE COLD BEEAH HEAH!" guys I'm used to.   The grilled prosciutto and provolone sandwich I had was very good, but the food selection wasn't as extensive as in other ball parks (not sure if they had a gluten-free or vegan stand, like at other parks).

And oh my gosh, those Canadians do NOT swear or use cuss words of any kind!  When you leave a ball game in the US, regardless of whether your team has won or not, you always hear four-letter words being used - not in anger or anything; they're just part of people's conversation ("That was @#$% awesome!" or "The umpire $%!#% sucked!").  After the Jays won and took sole possession of first place in the AL East, everyone was happy and cheerful and said "Let's go get a drink" without placing any bad-word adjectives in front of the word "drink."

Overall, our visit to the Rogers Centre was one of the things that made our trip a very nice one.  As if the movie "Argo" wasn't enough to make me want to hug a Canadian, this trip reinforced my belief that Canadians are super-nice people and Toronto is a very nice place to visit.  In August.

"It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!"

It's official:  Spring Training 2013 has begun!  All pitchers and catchers have reported to their respective camps, and regular players are starting to trickle in as well.  The off-season wasn't so bad - we had Thanksgiving and Christmas, the Ravens won the Super Bowl, my husband remodeled one of our bathrooms, and Tim Lincecum got a haircut.  But it's time, my friends - time for the smell of fresh-cut grass and leather baseball gloves.  Tine for "Take me out to the Ballgame" and the seventh-inning stretch.  Time for overpriced beer and chili dogs.  I know; it may be freezing here in Maryland, but in Florida and Arizona, the players of the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues are ready to play some ball.

So what do we have to look forward to in the 2013 season?  Here's a rundown of what's not to be missed:

• Before the regular season even starts, the World Baseball Classic will take place in Japan, Puerto Rico, and the US.  Baseball teams from sixteen different countries will be competing for the ultimate World Championship.  First-round games begin on March 2, with finals being held two weeks later at AT&T Park in San Francisco.  These teams feature veterans like Adam Jones and Joe Mauer (playing for Team USA), Yadier Molina and Carlos Beltrán (representing Puerto Rico), and Robinson Canó and Melky Cabrera (for the Dominican Republic), but also include young players who will be getting their first taste of international competition.  Stay tuned to my blog, because I will surely have a lot to comment on during the WBC.
• The Yankees' Mariano Rivera looks to be ready for his comeback after last year's season-ending knee injury in May.  He is all rehabbed and ready to go, and at 43 years young, he will hopefully be back in pitching shape by the end of Spring Training.  He did say that he will decide before Opening Day if this will be his last season as a Major League baseball player, but since his contract with the Yankees is only for one year and he has always been in pinstripes, I'm sure this will be Mo's last season.
• Seventy-year-old Davey Johnson, the manager of the Washington Nationals, has said that this will be his last season managing a Major League baseball team.  And with his "World Series or Bust!" attitude, we can hope to see a lot of special moments from our nation's capital this season.
• Speaking of the Nationals, they have added a new mascot to their Presidents Race.  For those of you unfamiliar with this DC tradition, the four Mount Rushmore Presidents would race around the field at Nationals Park between the two halves of the fourth inning.  Since the Presidents Race began, Teddy Roosevelt would always lose.  Well last year, during the last homestand of the season, Teddy finally won, so the Nationals had to come up with a new gimmick.  After asking fans to vote for their favorite addition to the Presidents Race, William Howard Taft was chosen.  Why?  Probably because he was fat, had a cool mustache, and was the first President to throw out a ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game.  Let's see how the mascot version of Taft does this season.
• The revamped Toronto Blue Jays are ready to kick some baseball ass.  With new acquisitions to their pitching staff (Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle, and Josh Johnson) and offense (José Reyes and Emilio Bonifacio, to name a few), they look very good on paper.  Let's hope they can stay healthy this year - injuries have plagued the Jays for the past few seasons - so they can contend like in the days of John Olerud, Roberto Alomar, and Roger Clemens.

Another thing that is different from last season is that my husband and I opted out of the 5-game "Flex Plan" that we bought last year.  Not only did prices go up (we liked it better when our team sucked and tickets were cheaper!), but the seating choices were lousy.  I'm not going to watch 5 games while sitting in the scorching sun in the middle of the outfield seats nor am I going to be able to see anything from the mezzanine level.  So we're going the Stub Hub route this year, and hopefully we'll go to three or four games at Nationals Park (including a playoff game, hopefully!).  We do have a trip planned to PNC Park in Pittsburgh to watch the Pirates play the dreaded Phillies - can you guess for which team I will be rooting as I wear my Roberto Clemente t-shirt?

And don't forget your local minor-league baseball teams!  We will surely catch a handful of games at Harry Grove Stadium, where our Orioles' affiliate Frederick Keys play.  They may have gotten rid of their Puerto Rican manager, but the games are still fun to watch and still affordable for our family of four.

Now if the weather would only warm up here...