#69. Sports Day in Toronto (Sunday, April 3, 2011)

What was your best day…of going on a spontaneous road trip?

Though it may be hard to envision for some people¹, there was an extended period of time not too long ago when Toronto sports teams were just plain bad. In particular, those years from 2008 to 2013, when none of the big three – the Blue Jays, the Raptors, and the Maple Leafs – made the playoffs even once.

Yet it was in 2011, right in the middle of that drought, that I wanted nothing more than to take a spontaneous road trip to Toronto (from Waterloo) to see my beloved Blue Jays in action – for the first time in ten years.

And finally now, right before exam period started, my best friend Masato (#104) and I had found a Sunday to go catch the Jays and Minnesota Twins play in the third game of the season; plus watch the Raptors take on the Orlando Magic later that evening.

The first awesome part of this trip was getting off from our two-hour bus ride and walking towards the Rogers Centre along with the 35,503 others in attendance. Having not attended a major sporting event since I was in elementary school, it was exciting to just be there with so many other fans of the team, with everyone wearing the jersey of their favorite player².³

It also happened to be Jose Bautista bobblehead day, so we each got one of those (though Masato somehow managed to break his). Sitting in the 200-level seats in right field as the stadium filled up and the players got introduced to “Bittersweet Symphony”, and the game got started – it all just had this surreal feeling to it. A feeling that I didn’t even know I could get to experience just by taking one short bus ride.

They say at every baseball game, you see something you haven’t seen before. In the Top of the 4^th, Michael Cuddyer tried to sneak into second (from first) after a wild pitch, but the Jays’ catcher J.P. Arencibia quickly recovered to throw him out and end the inning. I had seen wild pitches before; I had seen runners get caught stealing before – but that was the first time I ever saw this, on TV or in person.⁴

Throughout the game, the fans in our section were heckling the Twins’ right fielder Jason Kubel by chanting his last name really loud.⁵ Also nice was during the seventh inning stretch when they played “Build Me Up, Buttercup” by the Foundations, and everyone in the stadium started to sing along. A Blue Jays tradition I didn’t even know existed.

The Jays went into the Bottom of the 9^th down 4-2, but two base hits, two fly balls that almost left the yard, and two nerve-wracking walks made it 4-3 with the bases loaded and two outs. Adam Lind was up, and everyone was on their feet. Until he grounded out weakly on the first pitch. A disappointing ending for sure.

After that, it was just a quick walk across Union Station to the Air Canada Centre⁶. And the basketball game was just as exciting.

It was Hedo Turkoglu’s first game back in Toronto after demanding a trade out, so the whole arena took to booing him loudly every time he touched the ball. And I guess it worked, as he did not have a very good game. Also not having a good game, by his standards, was (peak) Dwight Howard; who seemed twice as big as everybody else on the floor but half the time didn’t look like he was trying. And because of that, the lowly Raptors⁷ somehow managed to hang in there and win the game 102-98.

Just being there to watch these games in person, in a great sports city like Toronto, is the type of experience that makes being a fan entirely worthwhile. Even when the teams are absolutely terrible.

Given some of the more recent successes (#85).
The traded-away Roy Halladay (#97) was the most popular one.
Note that this is happening eleven years before #104, during which span I go to a lot more games. So what would eventually become old hat for me is beyond thrilling here.
The game log provides the super-informative description: “[Player] was out trying to advance to second.”
In the Bottom of the 8^th, one little kid tried to join in, shouting: “Puuuuuubel, Puuuuuubel”, at which point the hecklers had to tell him that the right fielder was no longer in the game.
Since renamed the Scotiabank Arena.
Who finished the season 22-60, much worse than the 52-30 Magic.