TEAM ::: TORONTO BLUE JAYS

LOCATION ::: TORONTO, ONTARIO

MY FIRST GAME ::: JULY 30, 1992

OPPONENT ::: KANSAS CITY ROYALS

PARK MAY ALWAYS BE KNOWN AS :: SKYDOME

 

RATINGS

BALLFIELD ::: C
SCOREBOARD ::: A+
FACILITIES ::: C
FOOD ::: C
MLB STADIUM RANK ::: 34 OF 40

MY TAKE ON THE PARK

If SkyDome, sorry, the Rogers Centre was future of how all ballparks would look, that vision lasted about 3 years. Once Camden Yards opened on 1992, the future had changed. Given the look and capacity of the new ballparks, Camden Yards turned out to be the future of baseball.

I recall on my first visit the spectacle of SkyDome overshadowed everything else. Everything that happened here from people looking into the hotel in left to the Hard Rock Café in right, to the video board in center field, everything was discussed and raved about. 20 years later all anyone talks about is that Dinosaur in Canada. But is that really the case? Or did everyone just take the Toronto plan and modify it. Let the hotels and the restaurants be built around the park, not inside the park. Give people something to do before and after the game, just don’t be the one responsible for providing those choices.

 Easy to find right under the tallest free standing structure I the world, the Rogers Centre can be located from 20 miles away. If not staying inside, plenty of hotels are located within walking distance of the park. I’ve encountered some of the most aggressive scalpers outside the park, I guess an out of town jersey looks like easy prey these days.  I guess he tourists stopped going to see the Jays.

For my pre-game meal on my last visit, 2009, I sat in the window at the Hard Rock Café.  I almost wished I didn’t have a game ticket because not only was the seat available for the game, it was a comfortable vantage point to enjoy the game from. I was shocked to learn that the restaurant closed its doors at the end of 2009.

I enjoyed the game here. Where else can you find a game still played on Astroturf, it is like watching old time baseball, from the 70s and 80s here when everyone played on some sort of fake grass.

When I started visiting stadiums, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta and St Louis all looked the same. I guess we thought by the year 2000 everyone would be playing in a multipurpose stadium. Thankfully, that did not happen. I can, however, appreciate the vision the city of Toronto had and still feel that SkyDome did influence the change that took place in baseball for years to come.

THE LINE UPS

Kansas City Royals Manager :::   11 HAL MCRAE

Toronto Blue Jays Manager :::  43 CITO GASTON  

KANSAS CITY ROYALS 

56 Brian McRae cf

9 Gregg Jefferies 3b

5 George Brett dh

22 Kevin McReynolds lf

12 Wally Joyner 1b

15 Mike Macfarlane c

25 Gary Thurman rf

13 David Howard ss

3 Terry Shumpert 2b

27 Luis Aquino p / LP

 TORONTO BLUE JAYS 

 25 Devon White cf

 12 Roberto Alomar 2b

 29 Joe Carter rf

 32 Dave Winfield dh

 9 John Olerud 1b

 23 Candy Maldonado lf

 17 Kelly Gruber 3b

 10 Pat Borders c

 2 Manuel Lee ss

 36 David Wells p / WP

 50 Tom Henke S

 

KC ROYALS      000   000    000   0   3   1

BLUE JAYS       110   001    00x   3   7    0

TIME ::: 2:35
ATTENDANCE ::: 50,417
WEATHER ::: INDOORS, OUTSIDE :: COOL, DRIZZLE

 

SEND ME AN E-MAIL

LINKS

© 2000-2013 UNCLE BOB'S BALLPARKS
I AM IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH ANY OF THE TEAMS ON THIS PAGE ... THIS PAGE IS MEANT FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY.

This free website was made using Yola.

No HTML skills required. Build your website in minutes.

Go to www.yola.com and sign up today!

Make a free website with Yola