Two games in Toronto; One from a hotel window

Friday night, July 18 ... Rangers 5, Blue Jays 1

Saturday afternoon, July 19 ... Blue Jays 4, Rangers 1

(Randy's Perspective)

I just read Penny's two blogs about our trip to Toronto.
Before rolling further with this entry, let me take a moment to tell you a couple of things about Penny, my absolutely delightful wife.
First, she has made me the envy of Parkersburg, West Virginia, as well as suburban Vienna and a few places across the river in Ohio. I have long since lost count of the number of guys that have said one of the following three things to either Penny or me (about our stadium journeys):
 (a) That is cool. Really, really cool;
 (b) I have always wanted to do that; or
 (c) You (meaning me) are a lucky man.

Penny is fabulous - of that there is no doubt. Fabulous or not, however, she occasionally does remind me that I've been told many times that I am INDEED a lucky man.
My response: You are so, so right, my dear.

This three-to-four-year journey to every MLB stadium was actually Penny's idea. It stunned me when she suggested it (and I realized she wasn't kidding)), because Penny has historically been neither a baseball fan nor a sports fan. She would enjoy an occasional college football or basketball game, if it involved her alma mater (Marshall University) or another team that caught her fancy ... but her interest was passing.

Penny, shortly before the Blue Jays game against Texas

As far as baseball goes, Penny didn't grow up with it. While in grade school, she said she sometimes walked to a local park in her hometown of Fayetteville, West Virginia, where she would stay for awhile watching local kids' games. But combine those days in her childhood with a few trips to Baltimore to see the Orioles and an ill-fated trip four years ago to Wrigley Field, where she sat in an upper deck top row seat behind a column, and you have Penny's baseball history. (She hated Wrigley Field the first go-round, in other words, so I never suspected she would ever become a fan.)
Fast forward to today. On Saturday, she sat in her seat, scorebook in hand, marking the play-by-play and making a few other notes comparing her version of the Rogers Center's merits versus those of other stadiums we've visited. And she looked great. That, my friends, is a woman to be admired.

Which leads me to this. I read her comments on Toronto. I agreed with most; and disagreed with at least one thing. Later on that.
I fully agreed with her that our stay in the Reneaissance Hotel, with a stadium-view room, was a mind-bogglingly good experience. Probably a once-in-a-lifetime deal. In fact, I had to deal with a couple of issues downstairs while Penny went ahead to to our room. About five minutes later, when I got to the room, Penny motioned me inside and said, "You are not going to believe this."
She was right. It was staggering.
Now, I'm no Mark Stang or Bill James or any other person you might associate with baseball and history, but I knew enough Renaissance Hotel and the Blue Jays history to know that a couple of famous (make that infamous) events have taken place in those stadium rooms in full view of the crowd. I will refrain from inserting any links here, but they are out there.

When I made the room reservation, the hotel's booker didn't say that I should refrain from lascivious behavior, but that seemed to be her warning when she said, "The windows are clear." Uh, got it. Dress appropriately.
The booking agent asked, "Will you and your wife be the only guests?"
"Yes," I said. "Do you have a problem with extra guests?"
"Oh, you wouldn't believe what we get sometimes," she said. "We've had guests inviting 15 or 20 people to the room and bringing in a load of pizzas. We're not crazy about that."
"Got it," I said.

The game we saw from the hotel room was a 5-1 win by the Rangers.
It was the teams' first game after the All-Star break. The Rangers are struggling and unexpectedly in last place, while the Blue Jays are fighting to stay in the AL East race. They led the division for much of the first half of the season.
An interesting baseball dynamic took place during this game. The Rangers started J.P. Arencibia at first base. Last season was the final of his three under-achieving seasons with the Blue Jays. He was traded to the Rangers, where he spent time in the minors before being called up to the big club just before the Rangers trip to Toronto. While in Toronto, (according to published reports) he made a few media enemies and suggested at one point that charitable efforts he performed in the community were under-reported and, therefore, under-appreciated.
If you're ever tempted to think Canadians don't hold the aggressive U.S. spirit of baseball, I offer you the Blue Jays fans' reaction when Arencibia came to bat. He was hitting all of .122, I think, when he stepped to the plate for the first time. Still, he was booed unmercifully.
Sooo, if you like little mini-dramas, you would have enjoyed this. After he struck out his first time up - cheers to the strikeout, but more boos every time he stepped up to bat - in the seventh inning, Arencibia hit a screaming, long, deep, line drive that landed in the left field bleachers for a three-run homer that sealed the win.
I looked from the field to the television in the room to watch a replay. Man, it was cannon shot. Arencibia was smiling all the way through his trot around the bases.

The next day we checked out of the hotel and went inside the stadium to watch the Saturday afternoon game. Our tickets were just past third base, 15 rows up.
The result was almost a reverse of Friday night. The Jays won 4-1.
A vendor tried to create an Ugly American incident. It's probably a joke that Canadians throw around all the time, but the vendor yelled, "I've got beer! I've got water! ... If you're from the U.S., I've also got sodas." We don't know the good stuff, you see.
I'll give him this. The vendor got laughs.

As I mentioned, I read Penny's blog. She didn't seem impressed by the Rogers Centre or the crowds.
I would sort of disagree on the Rogers Centre and definitely disagree on the crowds.
She didn't find them especially enthusiastic. I thought they were great.

Too often, when we travel to visit a new team/place, my mind goes back in history to some key moment I saw that involves that team and my favorite team - the Atlanta Braves.
That was easy with Toronto. During Year 2 of the Braves great run in the nineties - 1992 - they played Toronto in the World Series.
The Braves were so good then. Great pitching. Clutch hitting. Best record in baseball. The year before the Braves had lost to the Twins in what some people considered the most exciting World Series ever. And the Braves were better in '92. No way the Blue Jays, Canadians for god's sake, could beat those Braves.
Wrong. Toronto in six games. The last out, if I remember correctly, was Otis Nixon trying to outrun a bunt.
I also remember that the Rogers Center was relatively new then (four years old, give or take a year). The crowd was noisy. It could have been the Maple Leafs playing hockey.
On this particular weekend, there were almost 39,000 in the park on Friday night and 45,000 on Saturday. Those are better crowds than Toronto's been used to in recent years. So they appreciate the good run this year.
Also, as in a few other stadiums, there is an added twist to the seventh-inning stretch. Along with Take Me Out to the Ballgame," you get "Ok, Blue Jays." It's one of those cute little ditties that hear it, then it's hard to evict it from your head.
Try it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qag6w_Tp50A

The stadium is a little dated. It was built shortly before Camden Yards, the first of the new breed of baseball-only stadiums that feature an old-timey feel but have modern amenities. Still, the Rogers Center was not bad. And it was nice to have a closed roof, since it was raining on Saturday.
Penny mentioned that I liked the cheerleaders. Yes, of course I did.
We first saw them Friday night during a pitching change in the bottom of the seventh. The J Force team is what they're called.
They came running down an aisle along the first base line, waving t-shirts or white rally towels, I wasn't sure which, over their heads. Then they broke into a lively dance routine.
So, get the picture. It was the bottom of the seventh, and the Blue Jays were losing badly. But the crowd got going.
I liked it. So did Penny, and I liked that, too.
Here's another "Ok, Blue Jays" link. You'll know the cheerleaders when you see them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KtAToAqRRk