![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblog::notes added stuff now at bottom of entry::
A funny thing happened on the way to the Red Sox.
As I've repeatedly crowed here, Blue Jays have been nesting in downtown Buffalo since COVID forced the closing of the Canadian border last year. Last summer's games were closed to all but cardboard cutouts, although I did manage to sneak some photos from the adjacent garage both before and during games played here in their 2020 stint there. During the off-season, Toronto embarked on a major project to bring Buffalo's Sahlen Field up to MLB standards- building new clubhouse and training facilities, moving the bullpens to safer spots behind the outfield wall, and upgrading the field and lighting. That meant two things. First, Buffalo's regular home team, the Bisons, would not play any games here in 2021 until the border reopened; they have played their entire "home" schedule in New Jersey, masquerading as the Trenton Thunder, a New Jersey minor league team left out of the Great Lord of Baseball Swindle of late 2020, while redonning their road Buffalo Bison uniforms everywhere else. Their mascot Buster, their fight songs and cheers, the playing of the theme from "The Natural" when a hometown hero homers- all put away in cold storage for the duration.
until reality reached the Canadians in charge.
----
The Blue Jays were taking flack for overpricing, well, everything. Bisons tickets have never gone for more than about 15-20 bucks for even good reserved seats, and even the Bills keep things at the low end of the NFL pricing scale. Once the Yankees left the building and the initial novelty passed, people just stopped going; and those who did were grumbling about the Blue Jays jacking up the prices of concessions substantially over what they had been. They had to figure out eventually that we HAVE teams in major league sports and most of us also know our baseball. Look, I'm no Rube when it comes to this stuff (not this Rube, or his other brother Rube;)- I've been to close to a dozen ballparks in The Show, including Toronto's real home base, and I'm not wowed by the talent or contracts of the guys on the field just because they're star Star STARS. And judging by the number of fans around us who were paying serious attention to the action and even keeping score, I wasn't alone.
In time, the Jays management seems to have figured that out. At the same time, New York State began expanding access so that, by the current homestand, our ballpark is now back at full capacity. So, by the middle of last week, these Canadians did what is in their nature to do: they apologized, and started putting very good seats on sale for midweek bronze-level opponents for actually reasonable prices.
Early yesterday afternoon, my friend Scott asked if I wanted in on a seat purchase for that night's game against Seattle. He was coming in anyway to our house from Rochester, to record a few semi-historic news programs off our local over-the-air channels, and by the time the threat of thunderstorms passed, I bought in for under half what the Sox cost me three weeks earlier. An hour before first pitch, we piled into his friend's hybrid to take us oot to the ballgame!
As with most events now, entry requires having your ticket on an app on your phone. I also had a photo on there of my COVID vaccination card, which I copied onto it because I'd been befuddled after dozens ot tries trying to get the official state "Excelsior passport" to prove it with a QR Code. Fortunately, Scott's son has magical powers-
-because as he stood next to me in line the pass finally showed up! (Spoiler alert: they didn't even check this time:P)
Once inside, we passed the various purveyors of major league merch, at the Bisons Team Store now completely de-Busterized and turned over to blue and white Canadian birdage, and also at stands in the concourse. They were selling game-worn jerseys of various Toronto heroes; or, if you prefer your J's without BO,:
Yes, they're selling the name slides from the locker room, apparently changed for each series. I took this picture of the one for former Met (and Long Island's Own™) Steven Matz.
I'd seen outside, and during last summer's outdoor visits, that the Jays had largely taken over the stadium signage for themselves, but it was only getting in the building that I realized just how completely they'd stripped the Home of the Herd of any traces of its usual tenants. We saw a Bisons logo on one floor mat near a beer stand. That was aboot it.
Not that we had anything to complain about, in terms of sightlines or access once taking our seats:
Actual major-league Mariners, from just the other side of the protective netting ten rows down from our $29 ticketed seats.
And that view, from those seats, of the assembled players during the National Anthems (Canadian first).
I couldn't put my finger on what was different at first, but gradually it sank in. We'd paid for the rarity of seeing a major league baseball game in a city that hasn't hosted one in the name of its own team for more than a century, but we were really there to witness an entirely made-for-Toronto-television production.
The once-green Bison outfield wall, now Blue Jay blue, had a nice Pride emblem on it-
- but look at those logos around it. That's not our La Nova Pizza (though they do still have a stand on the concourse)- and of the others around the field-
- only the binational Timmy's rang the slightest bell. The rest are advertisers for the folks back home who aren't allowed over to see the game in person.
Between innings, there were none of the usual events and interaction that makes a night at the ballpark special. No Chicken Wing race. No fan trivia contests or kids jumping through obstacle courses. No scoreboard welcomes of groups or recognitions of birthdays or anniversaries. And there was a particularly tone-deaf moment between innings where the scoreboard and sound system played the Shout Song. Not the version beloved by Bills fans for going on three decades, but the original you remember Otis Day & The Knights doing in Animal House. We had to struggle to get one chorus of "Let's go Buffalo" worked in to it before the song ended.
Not that I need constant ADD doings when the ball's not in play. For one thing, I don't miss the KissCam, and understand why they'd want to avoid that until we again reach Herd (heh) immunity. Still, I just got the feeling that, other than the interactions we made on our own, we were little more than breathing versions of last summer's cardboard cutouts.
They even had some of those, paid for by Jays season ticket holders, in front of the now-Torontofied broadcast booth behind home plate:
Until recently, the Rogers Sportsnet announcers, now down to a single set for radio and television, were doing the broadcasts from monitors back in their Toronto studios; this at least looks like they're back watching in person.
Even Conehead apparently took the night off from his legendary hawking of beer, although a local brewery did mix up a new batch of his signature ale which I downed, cold per his guarantee, in his stead:
Still, it was nice to work things out for ourselves. The scoreboard wasn't acknowledging birthdays, but one concession worker was sporting a tiara and sash where her coworkers were recognizing hers; I wished her one myself as I passed by. In our section between the first base bag and the right field corner, foul balls and flips from outfielders were plentiful, and while I still never got near one, I did see a teenager two rows behind me catch one on the fly- and immediately hand it to a younger kid in the row in between us. His brother? Definitely in some sense of the word. Blue Jay gear was most prevalent in the stands, with Bison (and Bills) shirts and hats making up a close second. Still-decent showings of Mets fans despite them being run out of town as a major league affiliate almost a decade ago; only a handful of Yankee swastikas, but also representings from fans of San Diego, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and the Cubs. (Ever the rebels, the three of us sporting team colors were in Binghamton and Batavia gear.)
As for the game itself? We got the full complement we came for. Decent starting pitching from the Jays left-hander Robbie Ray, who seemed to strike out a lot of M's even if our scoreboard wasn't keeping track of them. (He fanned 10, as the box score confirms.) The Toronto Next Generation infield made up 75 percent of sons of former major leaguers, including Vlad Guerrero Junior who's the hottest thing on the basepaths right about now. Multiple homers, which, for the Jays, result in a flashing light-stanchion show, explosions on the scoreboard, and an anthem that most definitely is not the theme song from "The Natural" as it's been since this ballpark opened four years after the movie was filmed down the street.
And what major league game would be complete without a replay challenge?
(Seattle was hopelessly behind at the time. The play wasn't that close. After further review, the ruling on the field stands. I hope the Seahawks get charged with a timeout come September:P)
It ended happily with Toronto winning, 9-3. We arrived home safely and I slept better and later than usual. Eleanor had spent an earlier part of her day being hosed by a non-Canadian on the renovation thing, but we seem to have worked out a solution to that, as well. Today has gone reasonably well as 2021 draws to a half-close at midnight.
Blue Jay, Blue Jay, Blue Jay.
----
ETA, the morning after the morning after:
Well, we did make it to the first of another month-
Hobbit Hobbit Hobbit;)
- But I found more things bothering me about the way the Big Kids just came in and kicked us off our playground.
The Jays seemed determined to eliminate any trace of the history and tradition that belongs to this city and ballpark. I mentioned the lack of anything between innings to engage the fans in attendance, but it seems to be an integral part of the major league team's business model for this short-term rental. It's not like the Blue Jays are this legendary baseball brand like the Red Sox or Cubs or ::struggles to spit it out:: Yannnnnn....k k k k... sorry, I just can't. Tuesday night's game was a matchup between two American League teams which began play in 1977. The Bisons were a National League team close to a century before that, and even the current reincarnation of the minor league franchise dates back to 1979. Our downtown ballpark opened a year before theirs did. So don't tell me they can come in here on reputation alone.
In addition to the goofy stuff, there have been actual annual events at this ballpark which form part of the lifeblood of the community. Friday night games have always been special (and even trademarked) fridaynightbashes, with pregame entertainment and postgame fireworks. The Bisons have put on one of the oldest and most respected Star Wars Nights in the entire country, doing a better job of some MLB teams that have done it half-asteroid. And for a quarter of a century, the night before the Fourth of July was ALWAYS an Independence Eve celebration with the Buffalo Philharmonic putting on a post-game concert with the biggest fireworks display of the season.
This July 3rd? The Jays are indeed "home" on Saturday, but chose to play in the afternoon. As one spokesman explained, in response to a Facebook inquiry about whether some July-themed Bisons merch would be available in their own ballpark's team store:
The Jays Store at the Ballpark only carries Jays gear as the Jays have full force of the ballpark and they already said that there will be no fireworks nor any BPO concert this sesason at the ballpark.
(Well, we knew Canadians spelled funny:P)
The message seems to be, Why should we? You're lucky we're letting you in here at all. Just cheer and look pretty for our fans back home on Sportsnet.
Other little things continue to bug. For years, I've had a reloadable prepaid card for concession purchases. It speeds the lines and keeps you in a spending budget at the ballpark. I've never had a problem carrying over the balance from season to season. At my first stand the other night, I took it out and got a look of confusion bordering on contempt. Not only did they not take these cards, none of them had even seen one before and didn't know what to do with it. Maybe they'll take it in Trenton:P
And the "ballpark" app you need to get in as the only place to obtain a ticket? Nothing on there about amenities of, duh, THE BALLPARK, like where charging stations for phones might be or which concession stands had specialty items beyond the usual Buds and dogs. The strangest absence? I couldn't find the one stand from previous years of the Toronto affiliation which sold poutine. Far as I know, they got rid of the stuff. Because, again, YOU built it, so YOU will come, und you vill LIKE it.
Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the game and the company. But if I was rating this for customer service, I'd give them a big fat Zed-minus:P
A funny thing happened on the way to the Red Sox.
As I've repeatedly crowed here, Blue Jays have been nesting in downtown Buffalo since COVID forced the closing of the Canadian border last year. Last summer's games were closed to all but cardboard cutouts, although I did manage to sneak some photos from the adjacent garage both before and during games played here in their 2020 stint there. During the off-season, Toronto embarked on a major project to bring Buffalo's Sahlen Field up to MLB standards- building new clubhouse and training facilities, moving the bullpens to safer spots behind the outfield wall, and upgrading the field and lighting. That meant two things. First, Buffalo's regular home team, the Bisons, would not play any games here in 2021 until the border reopened; they have played their entire "home" schedule in New Jersey, masquerading as the Trenton Thunder, a New Jersey minor league team left out of the Great Lord of Baseball Swindle of late 2020, while redonning their road Buffalo Bison uniforms everywhere else. Their mascot Buster, their fight songs and cheers, the playing of the theme from "The Natural" when a hometown hero homers- all put away in cold storage for the duration.
The bigger local news is that, once the renovations were complete in the second month of the season (Toronto playing its home games in its spring training home of Dunedin, Florida until then), Buffalo baseball fans were finally invited in to attend real live major league games in their home stadium. At first, capacity was limited to only a few thousand fans, and with no fans allowed into any game downtown since the end of 2019, demand began high. As did the ticket prices: Yankee games were "dynamic priced" close to $200 per seat, and even lesser opponents who can't draw flies at home were commanding $80 per ticket before fees were added on. I'd rather set money on fire than spend it on Yankee tickets unless the Mets are playing them, but I was bummed that I couldn't get a cheap seat to Miami or Houston in those opening games. I did spring for two not-as-bad seats to see the Red Sox when their mid-July games went on sale a few weeks ago, and I expected that would be that for my hometown major league experience....
until reality reached the Canadians in charge.
----
The Blue Jays were taking flack for overpricing, well, everything. Bisons tickets have never gone for more than about 15-20 bucks for even good reserved seats, and even the Bills keep things at the low end of the NFL pricing scale. Once the Yankees left the building and the initial novelty passed, people just stopped going; and those who did were grumbling about the Blue Jays jacking up the prices of concessions substantially over what they had been. They had to figure out eventually that we HAVE teams in major league sports and most of us also know our baseball. Look, I'm no Rube when it comes to this stuff (not this Rube, or his other brother Rube;)- I've been to close to a dozen ballparks in The Show, including Toronto's real home base, and I'm not wowed by the talent or contracts of the guys on the field just because they're star Star STARS. And judging by the number of fans around us who were paying serious attention to the action and even keeping score, I wasn't alone.
In time, the Jays management seems to have figured that out. At the same time, New York State began expanding access so that, by the current homestand, our ballpark is now back at full capacity. So, by the middle of last week, these Canadians did what is in their nature to do: they apologized, and started putting very good seats on sale for midweek bronze-level opponents for actually reasonable prices.
Early yesterday afternoon, my friend Scott asked if I wanted in on a seat purchase for that night's game against Seattle. He was coming in anyway to our house from Rochester, to record a few semi-historic news programs off our local over-the-air channels, and by the time the threat of thunderstorms passed, I bought in for under half what the Sox cost me three weeks earlier. An hour before first pitch, we piled into his friend's hybrid to take us oot to the ballgame!
As with most events now, entry requires having your ticket on an app on your phone. I also had a photo on there of my COVID vaccination card, which I copied onto it because I'd been befuddled after dozens ot tries trying to get the official state "Excelsior passport" to prove it with a QR Code. Fortunately, Scott's son has magical powers-
-because as he stood next to me in line the pass finally showed up! (Spoiler alert: they didn't even check this time:P)
Once inside, we passed the various purveyors of major league merch, at the Bisons Team Store now completely de-Busterized and turned over to blue and white Canadian birdage, and also at stands in the concourse. They were selling game-worn jerseys of various Toronto heroes; or, if you prefer your J's without BO,:
Yes, they're selling the name slides from the locker room, apparently changed for each series. I took this picture of the one for former Met (and Long Island's Own™) Steven Matz.
I'd seen outside, and during last summer's outdoor visits, that the Jays had largely taken over the stadium signage for themselves, but it was only getting in the building that I realized just how completely they'd stripped the Home of the Herd of any traces of its usual tenants. We saw a Bisons logo on one floor mat near a beer stand. That was aboot it.
Not that we had anything to complain about, in terms of sightlines or access once taking our seats:
Actual major-league Mariners, from just the other side of the protective netting ten rows down from our $29 ticketed seats.
And that view, from those seats, of the assembled players during the National Anthems (Canadian first).
I couldn't put my finger on what was different at first, but gradually it sank in. We'd paid for the rarity of seeing a major league baseball game in a city that hasn't hosted one in the name of its own team for more than a century, but we were really there to witness an entirely made-for-Toronto-television production.
The once-green Bison outfield wall, now Blue Jay blue, had a nice Pride emblem on it-
- but look at those logos around it. That's not our La Nova Pizza (though they do still have a stand on the concourse)- and of the others around the field-
- only the binational Timmy's rang the slightest bell. The rest are advertisers for the folks back home who aren't allowed over to see the game in person.
Between innings, there were none of the usual events and interaction that makes a night at the ballpark special. No Chicken Wing race. No fan trivia contests or kids jumping through obstacle courses. No scoreboard welcomes of groups or recognitions of birthdays or anniversaries. And there was a particularly tone-deaf moment between innings where the scoreboard and sound system played the Shout Song. Not the version beloved by Bills fans for going on three decades, but the original you remember Otis Day & The Knights doing in Animal House. We had to struggle to get one chorus of "Let's go Buffalo" worked in to it before the song ended.
Not that I need constant ADD doings when the ball's not in play. For one thing, I don't miss the KissCam, and understand why they'd want to avoid that until we again reach Herd (heh) immunity. Still, I just got the feeling that, other than the interactions we made on our own, we were little more than breathing versions of last summer's cardboard cutouts.
They even had some of those, paid for by Jays season ticket holders, in front of the now-Torontofied broadcast booth behind home plate:
Until recently, the Rogers Sportsnet announcers, now down to a single set for radio and television, were doing the broadcasts from monitors back in their Toronto studios; this at least looks like they're back watching in person.
Even Conehead apparently took the night off from his legendary hawking of beer, although a local brewery did mix up a new batch of his signature ale which I downed, cold per his guarantee, in his stead:
Still, it was nice to work things out for ourselves. The scoreboard wasn't acknowledging birthdays, but one concession worker was sporting a tiara and sash where her coworkers were recognizing hers; I wished her one myself as I passed by. In our section between the first base bag and the right field corner, foul balls and flips from outfielders were plentiful, and while I still never got near one, I did see a teenager two rows behind me catch one on the fly- and immediately hand it to a younger kid in the row in between us. His brother? Definitely in some sense of the word. Blue Jay gear was most prevalent in the stands, with Bison (and Bills) shirts and hats making up a close second. Still-decent showings of Mets fans despite them being run out of town as a major league affiliate almost a decade ago; only a handful of Yankee swastikas, but also representings from fans of San Diego, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and the Cubs. (Ever the rebels, the three of us sporting team colors were in Binghamton and Batavia gear.)
As for the game itself? We got the full complement we came for. Decent starting pitching from the Jays left-hander Robbie Ray, who seemed to strike out a lot of M's even if our scoreboard wasn't keeping track of them. (He fanned 10, as the box score confirms.) The Toronto Next Generation infield made up 75 percent of sons of former major leaguers, including Vlad Guerrero Junior who's the hottest thing on the basepaths right about now. Multiple homers, which, for the Jays, result in a flashing light-stanchion show, explosions on the scoreboard, and an anthem that most definitely is not the theme song from "The Natural" as it's been since this ballpark opened four years after the movie was filmed down the street.
And what major league game would be complete without a replay challenge?
(Seattle was hopelessly behind at the time. The play wasn't that close. After further review, the ruling on the field stands. I hope the Seahawks get charged with a timeout come September:P)
It ended happily with Toronto winning, 9-3. We arrived home safely and I slept better and later than usual. Eleanor had spent an earlier part of her day being hosed by a non-Canadian on the renovation thing, but we seem to have worked out a solution to that, as well. Today has gone reasonably well as 2021 draws to a half-close at midnight.
Blue Jay, Blue Jay, Blue Jay.
----
ETA, the morning after the morning after:
Well, we did make it to the first of another month-
Hobbit Hobbit Hobbit;)
- But I found more things bothering me about the way the Big Kids just came in and kicked us off our playground.
The Jays seemed determined to eliminate any trace of the history and tradition that belongs to this city and ballpark. I mentioned the lack of anything between innings to engage the fans in attendance, but it seems to be an integral part of the major league team's business model for this short-term rental. It's not like the Blue Jays are this legendary baseball brand like the Red Sox or Cubs or ::struggles to spit it out:: Yannnnnn....k k k k... sorry, I just can't. Tuesday night's game was a matchup between two American League teams which began play in 1977. The Bisons were a National League team close to a century before that, and even the current reincarnation of the minor league franchise dates back to 1979. Our downtown ballpark opened a year before theirs did. So don't tell me they can come in here on reputation alone.
In addition to the goofy stuff, there have been actual annual events at this ballpark which form part of the lifeblood of the community. Friday night games have always been special (and even trademarked) fridaynightbashes, with pregame entertainment and postgame fireworks. The Bisons have put on one of the oldest and most respected Star Wars Nights in the entire country, doing a better job of some MLB teams that have done it half-asteroid. And for a quarter of a century, the night before the Fourth of July was ALWAYS an Independence Eve celebration with the Buffalo Philharmonic putting on a post-game concert with the biggest fireworks display of the season.
This July 3rd? The Jays are indeed "home" on Saturday, but chose to play in the afternoon. As one spokesman explained, in response to a Facebook inquiry about whether some July-themed Bisons merch would be available in their own ballpark's team store:
The Jays Store at the Ballpark only carries Jays gear as the Jays have full force of the ballpark and they already said that there will be no fireworks nor any BPO concert this sesason at the ballpark.
(Well, we knew Canadians spelled funny:P)
The message seems to be, Why should we? You're lucky we're letting you in here at all. Just cheer and look pretty for our fans back home on Sportsnet.
Other little things continue to bug. For years, I've had a reloadable prepaid card for concession purchases. It speeds the lines and keeps you in a spending budget at the ballpark. I've never had a problem carrying over the balance from season to season. At my first stand the other night, I took it out and got a look of confusion bordering on contempt. Not only did they not take these cards, none of them had even seen one before and didn't know what to do with it. Maybe they'll take it in Trenton:P
And the "ballpark" app you need to get in as the only place to obtain a ticket? Nothing on there about amenities of, duh, THE BALLPARK, like where charging stations for phones might be or which concession stands had specialty items beyond the usual Buds and dogs. The strangest absence? I couldn't find the one stand from previous years of the Toronto affiliation which sold poutine. Far as I know, they got rid of the stuff. Because, again, YOU built it, so YOU will come, und you vill LIKE it.
Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the game and the company. But if I was rating this for customer service, I'd give them a big fat Zed-minus:P