SkyDome (Rogers Centre)
Toronto, ON
Baltimore Orioles
at Toronto Blue Jays
July 25, 2003
By
Ken Schlapp
Once again, I headed off to a new
land. Still within Canada, but my 6-hour drive took me from
French-speaking Quebec to English speaking Ontario, which is almost
like a different country. Quebec, specifically Montreal, truly does
give you a European feel to it, while Toronto feels like you are
still in the United States, but make sure you do not tell a Canadian
person that. They may get offended. Regardless of any of those
differences, I was looking forward to this game. Before I was
completely entrenched in rooting for the enemy (Red Sox) of my enemy
(Yankees), I rooted for the Blue Jays as my American League team. I
even had a bunch of Blue Jays shirts. My rooting interest began
early in 1977 when I got my first few packs of 1977 Topps baseball
cards and noticed cards of some new team called the Blue Jays, which
confused me at first, but then my brother Steve explained to me that
there were two new teams. 
Considering I am an ardent fan of the underdog, which the Blue Jays
were for many years, it was easy to root for them. It was nothing
like the feeling I had when the Mets won in 1986, but I was
definitely happy to see Dave Winfield knock in the winning run
against the Braves in the 1992 World Series and again when Joe
Carter won the 1993 World Series with that dramatic home run.
My initial target in Toronto was the
SkyDome, but not just for baseball. My goal was to sleep in the
stadium, or in the Renaissance Hotel, that is actually part of the
stadium. I had booked a room here in advance, because I just had to
stay here under the circumstances of my trip, but not a room with a
view of the field. When I was checking in, I told them that I was
there to write an article about the SkyDome and asked if they could
upgrade my room to one with a field view. However, even though I
showed them my credentials from AAA (which was a letter indicating
my task), they would not upgrade me without a substantial increase
in my room rate. At $153 per night (Canadian), I was already paying
much more to stay here than at any other place on the trip, so I was
not about to pay any more for the room. I am still happy I was able
to stay there anyway. At least, I will not have the opportunity to
embarrass myself in front of the glass windows to my room. There
have been a few instances where people were seen in their rooms
(during games) doing things they may or may not have wanted others
in the stadium to see.
As they say “when in Rome…”, so I
figured, I would take more advantage of my place of lodging by
heading to Diamonds (not becoming infamous in front of a window!),
the hotel restaurant, for lunch. Here I was able to watch the Blue
Jays practice on the field from my table. Diamonds was located in
center field with a full view of the field from behind a glass. I
thought this was pretty cool, even though I was staring at an
AstroTurf field in a dome, but at least the dome was open today. It
takes 20 minutes to fully open or close the roof. To throw a bit of
history in, this is the first stadium in which they successfully
built a retractable roof. As I indicated in my last article, they
attempted to build a retractable roof for Olympic Stadium in
Montreal, but that was a complete failure.
Aside, from enjoying watching the Jays
practice, the view from t he
restaurant was good enough for me to start making some stadium
observations. The all blue seats are the first thing that stood out
to me, which fits the team name and colors. It also fits the color
scheme of the SkyDome’s other tenant, the Argonauts of the Canadian
Football League. They have played here as long as the Blue Jays
have, which is since 1989, when it opened. The Blue Jays and
Argonauts both played at Exhibition Stadium up until 1988. The
Toronto Raptors even played NBA games here for their first few
seasons before the Air Canada Center was completed. Back to the
unique view of the half-open dome from the restaurant, which is not
something you see every day. I also noticed the retired number 37
with Dave Steib’s name attached to it on the upper deck façade, next
to Pat Gillick, their long-time general Manager. Those are clearly
the two names I associate with the Blue Jays more than anyone else.
Once I was done with lunch, I headed
out to take my walk around the stadium (which is on Blue Jay Way),
which is not like any other stadium. The SkyDome was built around
the CN Tower and over train tracks leading to Union Station, so it
is pretty much intertwined with the neighborhood. When you head
towards the dome from the main part of the city, you notice the CN
Tower and the hotel, but really cannot tell that there is a baseball
stadium there without knowing precisely to look for it. However, if
you get the chance to go up to the observation decks of the CN
Tower, you do get an amazing view of the SkyDome from far above.
When walking around the stadium, you have to go down (or up
depending on your direction) many stairs to get to some of the
gates. This does have the benefit of allowing you to walk into the
stadium at the level of your seats, which is similar to Dodger
Stadium, even though they are nothing alike in any other way. Then
I found the best feature of the SkyDome above the entrance of gate
5. This is where the artwork titled “The Audience”, which is a
bunch of exaggerated fans watching a game, making faces, drinking,
and doing all the things that fans do at events.
When it was time to head into the
SkyDome, I had to buy a ticket first because this was one of the
very few places I was not able to get a complimentary ticket for the
game. I was able to contact Chris Bilton of the ticket office prior
to my trip, but when he called me back, he said he wished he could
join me on my trip, but his boss would not let him comp me a
ticket. I have made out pretty well on this trip so far, but
Toronto was becoming expensive. I ended up buying a ticket behind
home plate for $44.81 Canadian, and headed in for more of my
rituals. As soon as I walked in, I noticed signs and promotions for
“Baseball North” all over the place, including displays of current
Blue Jays players. In fact, the credit card giveaway was a Blue
Jays Baseball North T-Shirt. My only problem was that I could not
get one, because I was not a Canadian citizen nor did I have a
temporary Canadian residence to allow me to apply for one. I could
not persuade them to give me a shirt without the application I was
not allowed to apply for. Next up, was to buy a souvenir soda cup,
but guess what, they did not have those here either. I had to
resort to buying a mug and a baseball north shirt in the team store,
so I had to pay for everything here, which makes me sound spoiled
and the great luck I have had to this point clearly did spoil me,
but did not take away from my enjoyment at the SkyDome.
I continued walking aro und
the concourses, which are wide open which makes it easy to get to
the many concession stands (to buy standard stadium food or even
sushi) and back to your seats without having to fight through a
crowd. Moving on to the upper level concourses, there was a spot
where you get a good view of Lake Ontario, which is definitely worth
the walk up to for.
After my walk around, I had plenty of
time to sit in my seat and take a look at the Dome from behind the
plate. From that angle, the two flags by the dead center field roof
for the United States and Canada stand out. Their championship
banners are in between the them, which gives it a unique balancing
effect. All of the flags and banners are also directly above the
suites and large jumbotron. The Argonauts banners and retired
numbers are outside of the flags on both sides on the upper façade
of the Dome. From this angle, I also realized that Steib was not
the only retired number. To the left of the Jumbotron are the
retired numbers of Tony Fernandez (1), George Bell (11), Joe Carter
(29) and Cito Gaston (46). It is very impressive that a team with
such a short history has actually had five players and one General
Manager worthy of such honors. The bullpens are located in opposing
outfield gaps, which brings up a theme that I have noticed with all
of these stadium highlights, which is how symmetrical the SkyDome
is. In fact, it is exactly 100 meters (328 feet) down both lines
(leading up to the foul “nets” not “poles”), 114 meters (375 feet)
in both gaps and 122 meters (400 feet) to center field. Yes, the
measurements are in meters because Canada has embraced the metric
system in the whole country and not just French-speaking Quebec.
Like in Montreal, both national
anthems were played, but this time “Oh Canada” was performed
entirely in English. Although most things are written in French and
English here, the French language is not generally embraced. The
music played after the anthems was mostly via the organ, which gives
a bit of the old baseball feel in this modern stadium.
The game got off to a slow start.
Orioles pitcher, Jason Johnson, held the Blue Jays scoreless for the
first 2 innings, but was topped by Blue Jays starting pitcher Corey
Lidle, who shut down the Orioles for 3 innings. The Blue Jays
finally struck first in the bottom of the 3rd. Mike
Bordick led off the inning with a walk, moved up to 2nd
on Erick Hinske’s single, and scored along with Hinske on Carlos
Delgado’s monstrous homer to put the Jays up 3-0. This also set off
the stadium fireworks and had the two blue jays bird mascots going
crazy. The tiny crowd was excited too. Unfortunately, the Blue
Jays have not drawn the big crowds since the 1994-1995 strike. The
days of 4 million annual attendances appear to be gone.
The Orioles began to make a game of it
in the 4th when Brian Roberts singled and stole second in
front of a Melvin Mora walk. I apologize, but this is where I have
to pause and let out my disgust that the Mets traded Melvin Mora to
the Orioles for Mike Bordick during the 2000 pennant drive. After
Bordick hit a home run in his first at bat as a Met, it was all
downhill from there. He was awful in the playoffs and World Series
against the hated Yankees, while Mora h as
turned out to be a very good player. Anyway, Jay Gibbons doubled to
knock in Bordick with the O’s first run. The O’s added another run
in the 5th on singles by David Segui and Brooks Fordyce
and an RBI ground out by Roberts. The inning and the Orioles threat
ended when Luis Matos was called out for interfering with Blue Jays
Catcher Greg Myers attempting to throw out Robert stealing second.
Despite the abrupt end to the inning, the Orioles made this a
one-run game. They threatened again in the 6th, but had
the inning thwarted on the bases again when Jeff Conine was thrown
out at third trying to take the extra base on Tony Batista’s 2-out
single. They finally tied it up in the top of the 7th on
a Deivi Cruz double and a Fordyce RBI single.
The 7th inning stretch
brought the traditional single of take me out to the ballgame, but
it was followed by the Blue Jays’ “Okay Blue Jays” song, which I
never heard before. I would also like to point out that they did
have an interesting rolling out-of-town scoreboard that showed the
score for all innings and included all of the Blue Jays minor league
clubs. In this game, the bottom half of the 7th inning
is where the real excitement occurred when the Blue Jays came to
bat. Frank Catalanotto started things off with a walk, but was
pinch-ran for by Reed Johnson, who quickly swiped second, moved to 3rd
on a wild pitch by Jason Johnson and finally scored when center
fielder Luis Matos threw the ball away after catching Vernan Wells
fly ball. This also knocked Jason Johnson out of the game (he would
end up giving up 5 runs, 4 earned, in 6 and 2/3 innings while giving
up 7 hits, 4 walks and striking out 6). Delgado knocked in the 5th
and final run of the game for the Blue Jays with a single off BJ
Ryan to give the Jays a 5-3 lead. Delgado had a big night going 3-4
with a homer and 4 RBI.
After Cliffe Politte retired the first
Orioles in the 8th, Trevor Miller came in and struck out
the last 4 Oriole batters to preserve the win for Corey Lidle (7 IP,
9 H, 3 ER, 3 K, 3 BB) and more importantly free Pizza for the crowd
at Pizza Pizza, by striking out David Segui. When the Jays
strikeout 7 batters, the fans get free pizza. I think this was the
loudest I heard the crowd all game. This was when I noticed the
Pizza Pizza K Korner in right center field. The Orioles even
participated in a unique strikeout feat of their own in the 8th
inning too. The last three Blue Jays also struck out. The
interesting catch was that it took three pitchers to do it: Hector
Carrasco, Buddy Groom, and Kerry Lightenberg.
Bottom line – It ended up being a good
game and the Blue Jays won, which made me happy to actually see a
team I was rooting for win a game. Despite the fact that this is an
Astroturf Stadium with a roof, I like it anyway. For one, the roof
was open, and the game was exciting, so the turf did not stand out
as much. My only real disappointment was the small crowd. I have
been back here many times since, and still think it is a nice place
to see a game.
Basic trip facts:
-Stadium # 27
-Old Stadium Sites visited – None (Total – 18)
-Under construction Stadium Sites visited – None (Total – 2)
-Miles traveled – 354 via Car (Totals: Driving – 16,483, Subway -
20, Air - 3,196, Total – 19,599)
-States, provinces, Districts and/or commonwealths passed through –
Quebec, Ontario (Totals: States – 47, Provinces – 2, Districts – 1,
Commonwealths - 1)
-Seats – Aisle 121, Row 15, Seat 11 – 100 Level behind Home Plate
-Prices: Parking – $18 (in hotel), Beer – 6.50, Hot Dogs - $3.50,
Program (including pencil) - $5.00, Souvenir Soda Cup – None
-Credit Card giveaway – None
-First Pitch - 7:06 PM
-Attendance – 17,095
-Results – Blue Jays 5, Orioles 3, W – Cory Lidle, L – Jason
Johnson, S – Trevor Miller
-Home team record to date – 16 wins, 14 losses
-Record of “team I was routing for” to date – 13 wins, 17 losses
-Lodging – Toronto, Ontario
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