Skydome

Toronto, ON Canada

Montreal Expos @ Toronto Blue Jays

July 7, 2001

The Road Trip

We spent Friday night at our hotel room in Cleveland and planned for a fairly early start with about a 5 hour ride up to Toronto, eh? The game was suppossed to be at 7:00PM but after remembering what happened with the last Saturday game we figured we wouldn't know for sure until we got there so we wanted get there fairly early. When we came back on Friday night we turned on SportsCenter in our room and were amazed at the clip we would see of Izza Alcantara from the Red Sox minor league team. Click here for the video (1.6MB AVI) We had breakfast at the hotel Saturday morning and watched this video a half dozen more times on the wide screen TV they had there, we just couldn't get enough and neither could the TV sports news shows. We headed out for our journey tothe great white north. Since Dauber had never been to Niagara Falls we decided to stop and take some photos from the Canadian. There is very little on the U.S. side of the falls, some parks, rest rooms, vending machines, and not much more. Once you cross the border you're thrust into some sort of cheezy bizarro Vegas/Orlando. Neon signs, wax museums, restaurants, T-shirt shops and other rinky dink tourist traps litter the streets. While Candians would love to believe that it's the more pictoresque view of the falls which is the lure but it's probably really, lower drinking age, legal gambling, weak Canadian dollar and ease of getting a visa to Canada that seal the deal for tourists.

We drove on through Niagara along the major highway called QEW, Queen Elizabeth Way; God save the queen! Not far north of Niagara you come into view of the city of Toronto; it's about 20 miles away but the problem is: Lake Ontario is in your way so it's really about a 50 mile drive around the lake. We arrived in Toronto and didn't really have directions to the hotel. We could see Skydome and the CN Tower from far away so we just headed there. We drove around lost for a while and got to our hotel early enough to find out that the game was really at 4:00 PM yet we still had plenty of time to get there. We caught the subway outside our hotel and had a 10 minute ride to Skydome.

Getting Tickets

We didn't get tickets ahead of time since we knew it would not be sold out as interleague play has brought surprising disappointing tournouts when the Canadian teams are playing each other. There were several scalpers around as we exited the subway station. We were talking to one guy who didn't have the tickets we wanted so he had to take us to his "boss". Can you imagine that scalpers actually have a "boss", next thing you know they'll be forming a union. So we go see the boss and he turns out to be some sort of Italian mobster wannabe. Mike does the primary negotiating on 2 pairs of club level seats which are not next to each other but teh club level is usually much more open to moving around and such so we were comfortable with this. It was very close to game time so this guy must be getting desperate, we offered him $100 CN for the 4 which is about $65 US. He absolutely refused and countered with something much higher. We argued and argued and this guy was being really stubborn. As he started to weaken, his last ditch effort was to say "You are insulting me [with this offer]", to which Mike responsed "I'm doing you a favor by not letting you get stuck with these tickets." At this point the national anthem was probably playing and this guy would have been stuck with these tickets. He was still fussing so we just started to leave and he immediately gave in and sold us the tickets in a fit of disgust. We looked at the tickets and noticed that they had bar coded price tags on the back of the tickets as if they were trying to sell them at the counter at a baseball card store or something like that. The price tag was $75 CN each so I can see why he was upset if he actually thought he'd be able to get that much. He kept going on and on about how tough club seats are to get and blah blah blah. One thing about the tickets: they we Blue Jays season tickets no the Ticketmaster version so they usually have come nice artwork on them. Well, the graphic on their season tickets, this is the Toronto Blue Jays mind you, is a picture of Roger Clemens! How terrible! They've had a year to recouperate and they still have Roger on the tickets?!?!? What's wrong with Delgado? Could you imagine the Red Sox leaving Clemens or Boggs on their season tickets? No way! Very lame for the Blue Jays...

The Stadium

It was an overcast and rainy day so we would get to experience the domed Skydome, we saw this to be a stroke of luck as our only rainy day for any ballgame so far, was on a "dome day". We'll have to keep track of all the retractable domes we visit and which we see open and closed. We were a little disappointed that we didn't make it inside for the national anthem because this is a rare experience in baseball where assumedly the Star Spangled Banner would not be played because there were 2 Canadian teams playing each other. We look forward to as many anomalies in our trips as possible. We made it inside the stadium through a series of malls, tunnels, subway stations, train terminals, and other indoor passages which made it a bit confusing but we'd eventually find our way. We went to the club level and were able to all sit together right behind home plate since the corwd was sparse. The club level has some dining facilities and bar areas where you can sit and watch the game, or you can just go to your seats which we did.

One cool thing about Skydome is the actual scoreboard video screen which must be the largest of all the stadiums, it has a widescreen aspect ratio which makes for some cool replay action. There is a hotel and Hard Rock Cafe in the outfield with stadium views from rooms and the restaurant. The food at the stadium is nothing special but adequate - nachos seem to be the big thing here. There is just something about Canada and baseball that presents a generally apathetic atmosphere at Skydome. The crowd is weak and they even have lame heckling lines. Metrodome was a much better "dome baseball" experience because of the ambiance. Skydome does have a cool location as Toronto boasts diverse activities and Skydome is in a great location, being able to arrive by subway is a big plus. Now for the next big lame aspect of the Blue Jays organozation: Dauber, of course, goes to get a program and comes back with some booklet with Vlad Guerrero on the cover. We were dumbfounded and disgusted that what he was holding was a Toronto Blue Jays praogram! First, they have a Yankee on their season tickets (but at least he WAS a Blue Jay), then they put a rival player on the cover of the program (who was NEVER a Blue Jay). I wonder what Toronto fans think of this. If you are a Jays fan, please let us know!

Pros: Domed stadium cooperates with lousy Toronto weather, US dollar goes a long way, easy to get a good ticket, Astroturff makes in-the-park home runs more likely, retractable roof prevents you from being pooped on by a blue jay in the rain, Toronto is a cool town, casino gambling is legal somewhere nearby, Blue Jays better than the Expos

Cons: Fans don't know how to heckle, have to listen to O' Canada (just kidding!), Budweiser is an import and Molson is everywhere, Montreal has better strip bars

The Town

We wished we had more time to spend in Toronto as this seems to be a pretty cool town - very multicultural with a good subway system. One difficult part was that the action seems to be pretty well spread out. None of us had been to Toronto before so we really didn't know where we were going but we didn't find a center of the nightlife like the Flats in Cleveland, Times Square in New York, or downtown Milwaukee. There was a lot of construction in the downtwon area and we didn't come across a consolidated entertainment district. We were able to find a good spot for dinner and went out for a bit afterwards but regretted not having much time to really see the city. Perhaps Toronto is better suited for a hockey arena trip as baseball doesn't seem to translate well but without Canadian teams you can't really call it a "World" Series.

The Game

Masato Yoshii takes the hill for the Expos

Skydome would prove to be one of our better games and lead to a debate on our streak of seeing 2 consecutive games with a Home Run. Each stadium seems to have some sort of kiosk getting people to sign up for credit cards and giving away a free trinket of the home team if you fill out the application. We suddenly realized how much free junk we had missed out on at all of the stadiums we are visiting. Lumpy decided to test the waters and see how legit you have to be to get the free stuff; it certainly couldn't be as easy as just giving a phony name to get the jerky prize. It turns out you need to show some sort of I.D. so Lumpy gave them his old, expired Florida Tech (college) student I.D. card. No problem! So Lumpy gave the T-Shirt to his girlfriend gift and couldn't bear to break the news to her that it was a freebie.

The food in the stadium was decent but of particular interest was the "secret sauce" listed on the menu at "Mr. Sub" (creative Canadians). We evaluated our fields: Mike=mechanical engineer, Dauber & Cooter=architects, Lumpy=genetic researcher. Clearly Lumpy had the skillset most applicable to deciphering the secret sauce. His verdict...italian dressing.

We were again treated to a great game but a controversy would brew. Rookie Caesar Izturis with the Blue Jays would come to bat in the 6th and hit a liner into left field. Mark Smith comes changing in, makes an attempt at a catch but the ball bounces off him and darts into center field past Bergeron who was charging over toward left field. The ball would roll back to the wall and that was all she wrote, in the park homer! Click here for the video (1.3MB AVI).The first time any of us had seen one live! So now the debate began, "Does this qualify as home run to say that we've been lucky to see one in each game?" Certainly we when we think of the thrill of seeing a home run, a "blast", a "bomb" a "round tripper", this mayhem is not what comes to mind. Fortunately, Lee Stevens launched one in the 8th to settle this one.

Koch would come on in the ninth to close out a three run lead. He put 2 on with 2 out and by this time we were really laying into him, it's great to heckle a struggling closer. Some of the Toronto fans were trying to follow our lead but were just saying stupid stuff, that's OK, they have the right idea and when we publish our Ballpark Roadtrip Heckling for Dummie's book, they'll be able to follow along with some great lines. Vidro would step in as the potential last batter, knock one into the stands and send this one into extra innings. At this point, we could care less about the outcome as this was a very fun game - in-the-park home run topped off with a blown save. Toronto would end up prevailing in the 11th but the crowd seemed more enthused that they were 1 day closer to the begining of hockey season.

No, the ACTUAL game...

This was an exciting game with the Blue Jays stealing 6 bags and an in-the-parker by Izturis. Lee Stevens would homer but the Jays would have to blow a 3 run lead in the ninth to make this a close one. Mondesi would triple in the 11th and Strickland would load the bases for pinch-hitter Tony Fernandez, who would punch a single through for a walk off win. In terms of on field action, this game was one of the best.

Thrill Factor: (4/5)

MONTREAL ab r h rbi bb so lob avg Bergeron cf 6 2 4 1 0 2 4 .239 Vidro 2b 6 1 2 3 0 0 3 .323 V Guerrero rf 5 0 1 0 1 0 4 .326 L Stevens 1b 5 1 2 2 1 2 1 .248 O Cabrera ss 5 0 1 0 0 2 3 .246 Ducey dh 4 1 1 0 0 2 1 .206   a-M Mordecai ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .242 M Smith lf 5 2 3 0 0 1 0 .286   R Minor pr-3b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .200 Barrett c 5 0 2 2 0 1 1 .242 Blum 3b-lf 3 1 1 0 1 1 1 .238 Totals 45 8 17 8 3 11 18

a - grounded to pitcher for Ducey in the 10th

BATTING: 2B - Barrett (17, Halladay); V Guerrero (26, Koch); M Smith (6, Plesac). HR - L Stevens (14, 8th inning off Escobar 0 on, 1 out); Vidro (11, 9th inning off Koch 2 on, 2 out). RBI - L Stevens 2 (59), Barrett 2 (18), Bergeron (5), Vidro 3 (36). 2-out RBI - Bergeron, Vidro 3. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - O Cabrera 3, V Guerrero 1, Bergeron 1. GIDP - Blum, L Stevens. Team LOB - 8.

BASERUNNING: SB - O Cabrera (9, 2nd base off Escobar/A Castillo); V Guerrero (12, 3rd base off Koch/A Castillo). CS - Bergeron (3, 2nd base by Halladay/A Castillo).

FIELDING: E - L Stevens (9, ground ball); Scanlan (1, throw). Outfield assists - V Guerrero (A Castillo at home). DP: 2 (O Cabrera-Vidro-L Stevens 2).

BATTING: 2B - Fullmer (23, Yoshii). 3B - A Gonzalez (2, Mota); Mondesi (4, Strickland). HR - Izturis (1, 6th inning off Mota 1 on, 1 out). S - A Castillo. RBI - L Lopez 2 (6), Jo Cruz (43), Izturis 2 (3), Mondesi (50), T Fernandez (2). 2-out RBI - Jo Cruz, Mondesi. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - A Castillo 1, A Gonzalez 1, Fullmer 2, Simmons 1. GIDP - Mondesi, A Castillo. Team LOB - 11.

BASERUNNING: SB - Jo Cruz 2 (17, 2nd base off Yoshii/Barrett, 2nd base off Mota/Barrett); A Gonzalez 2 (9, 2nd base off Scanlan/Barrett, 3rd base off Scanlan/Barrett); Izturis 2 (5, 2nd base off Scanlan/Barrett, 3rd base off Scanlan/Barrett).

FIELDING: Outfield assists - Mondesi (L Stevens at 2nd base). DP: 3 (Izturis-A Gonzalez-C Delgado, Izturis-A Gonzalez, A Gonzalez-Izturis-C Delgado).

WP - Yoshii 2, Koch. IBB - L Stevens (by Koch); Blum (by Plesac); C Delgado (by Strickland); Fullmer (by Strickland). HBP - C Delgado (by Sc Stewart); Blum (by Koch).
Pitches-strikes: Halladay 90-65; Loaiza 20-13; Escobar 13-10; Koch 26-16; Plesac 30-15; Yoshii 56-41; Sc Stewart 3-2; Mota 23-12; Scanlan 36-26; Lloyd 20-14; Strickland 37-15.
Ground balls-fly balls: Halladay 3-3; Loaiza 3-0; Escobar 0-2; Koch 2-1; Plesac 4-1; Yoshii 10-2; Sc Stewart 1-0; Mota 1-1; Scanlan 6-1; Lloyd 1-1; Strickland 3-0.
Batters faced: Halladay 24; Loaiza 5; Escobar 4; Koch 8; Plesac 8; Yoshii 21; Sc Stewart 2; Mota 7; Scanlan 9; Lloyd 3; Strickland 9.

UMPIRES: HP--Jeff Kellogg. 1B--Mike Reilly. 2B--Tim Timmons. 3B--Cb Bucknor. T--3:40. Att--23,976. Indoors.