Alex's Baseball Across America: Rogers Centre Review

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R O G E R S C E N T R E

September 7, 2011

Boston Red Sox v. Toronto Blue Jays

7:07pm (yes, 7 minutes after the hour)

Toronto 11, Boston 10

WP: Camp (4-3, 4.48 ERA)

LP: Bard (2-6, 2.76 ERA)

S: Francisco, F. (13)

Attendance: 16,154

Time: 3:29

64 degrees, cloudy

Rogers Centre, formerly known as the SkyDome, opened in 1989. It’s a multi-purpose stadium with a retractable roof. It was the first major sports complex in North America to have a retractable roof. Montreal would have been the first had the roof actually retracted like it was supposed to. It housed the 1992 and 1993 World Series champion Blue Jays. It even plays host to the Buffalo Bills. It sports 100% genuine AstroTurf, one of two MLB stadiums still using turf. Honestly, I was not looking forward to going here, but I actually ended up enjoying it.

The Red Sox are playing for the AL East crown. The Blue Jays are just playing. They’ve actually brought up some good talent over the last few weeks, which should be promising for their future. Tim Wakefield entered the game with 199 career wins. He’s been throwing knuckle balls in the Majors since 1992. This was his seventh attempt at win #200. I saw one of the previous attempts. He had left the game with the lead, but the bullpen later blew it. This would once again become the case today. This was an absolute slugfest with four homeruns, seven doubles, 22 hits...all adding up to 21 runs. Oh, and there were 6 hit batsman! Six! There were only eleven in the 25 games prior to this.

The Atmosphere: It’s not the best, but it’s not the worst. It’s not a true baseball stadium, and you can tell. The chance for rain had the roof closed when I walked in. Luckily, they opened the roof just prior to first pitch. That seemed to just liven the place up a bit. They are used to small crowds here. Even though only 16,000 showed up, they made plenty of noise.

The Scorecard: In a $5 program. I was able to take the “card” out which made it easier. It was paper so I could actually write on it. It did have diamonds but they were light, and the boxes were huge. Sell a scorecard on it’s own and get rid of the diamonds, and they’ve got a winner.

The Hot Dog: I can’t remember the brand. Grilled. Taste good. Some spice. Descent bun. Not bad. Not a top 5, though. They have stands that serve MONSTER foot long dogs. These suckers were huge. It could feed a family of four for a week. There was no way I could stomach it, so I went with their standard dog.

The Broadcasters: They called a good game. No complaints. I wonder why I can get good radio coverage when the dome is closed, yet when you go back into any concourse in a stadium, it disappears. There was no real pregame, as coverage did not start until 7pm. I assume that is the norm. There was the unfortunate plane crash in Russia with all the hockey players so that was being covered until that time.

Entertainment: Very little other than the routine scoreboard stuff. They run some pregame show on the big board. It spent the whole time highlighting a player from the Marlins. You’d think with the little support they seem to be getting around here that they would highlight their own. The mascot is a Blue Jay. He’s got nothing on Fredbird.

Scorecard ripped out of the program.

They had some random game-used stuff in a case somewhere. Nothing formal, though. No way to get anything from a specific game, but I didn’t care...see my souvenir above.

Other Views:

Other words: Like many others, I would go back when the team is doing better and when a bigger crowd would be present. Although, this team doesn’t totally stink...they may not show up here until they get back to the playoffs.

Gripes: Not an AstroTurf fan...especially when your roof retracts. I’m assuming they just wouldn’t get to leave it open enough to grow grass. I think with some renovations to try and make things more spacious the Jays could stay here for awhile.

R O G E R S C E N T R E

T O R O N T O , O N T A R I O

H O M E O F T H E B L U E J A Y S

The gates opened 1-1/2 hours prior to game time. There’s not just a whole lot to run around and see and do. You can go anywhere for batting practice, but balls rarely get up into the stands in the outfield. The obvious place appeared to be along the lines, as the balls take quite a bounce off the turf. I stood in Section 130D for about 5 minutes. Kevin Youkilis of the Red Sox was sporting his crazier-than-Craig Counsell batting stance. He hit a fly down the line in left. It bounced off the field and into my section. Another guy ran up for it. I ran down. People seem to hardly be able to get there to get it on the fly, so I was just going to wait for it to roll down. That’s what it did.

The Crowd: Small, but they made noise. I saw one lady keeping score above me. No radios. The cultural diverseness that is Toronto also shows up here. No one “looks like” they are from Toronto. It’s a complete mix of people.

The Stadium: When the roof is closed, it feels like an old domed stadium, which is not particularly fun to me. This one opens, and I’m glad it did for this game. The seating in the upper deck actually reminded me of old Yankee Stadium. Cramped. It wasn’t so cramped that your knees were banging the heads of the people in front of you, but it was a tight squeeze. The stadium itself sits text to the CN Tower, which seems to be the symbol of Toronto. One unique feature of this place is the hotel attached to it. Seventy of its rooms overlook the park from centerfield. The stadium is located in downtown and easily accessible via the TTC (ie subway).

S T A T I S T I C S U P D A T E

MLB Games Seen

27 of 31

Days

68 of 86

Driving Miles

13,225

Estimated Gallons of Gas

696

States / Provinces

31 + the District of Columbia + Ontario

Hot Dogs Eaten

Too Many

Border Crossings

1 of 2

P R E D I C T I O N S U P D A T E

(AFTER 26 OF 30 GAMES)

Current Stats (Predicted Total through all 30 games)

Runs

250 (249)

I needed some low-scoring games...didn’t happen.

Hits

474 (512)

Errors

33 (36)

Home Runs

66 (65)

Under...

Doubles

106 (101)

Under again...

Triples

11 (10)

Sacrifices (Hits & Flies)

26 (31)

Strikeouts

402 (415)

Walks

153 (189)

Home Team Wins

17 (17)

This doesn’t mean I’ll root against the Cards on 9/25...

Complete Games

1 (1)

Shutouts

1 (2)

Saves

16 (15)

Under!

Blown Saves

8 (7)

Red Sox bullpen!!!

Balks

1 (2)

Wild Pitches

9 (19)

At least Wakefield got me 2 here.

Hit Batters

17 (18)

Went from 11 to 17. Thanks!!!

Walk-offs

2 (2)

Stolen Bases

29 (40)

Caught Stealing

13 (15)

3 today!

Ejections

3 (4)

Smallest Crowd

11,617

Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore

September 1st, Toronto v. Baltimore

Largest Crowd

47,744

Yankee Stadium, New York

September 3rd, Toronto v. New York

B A L L P A R K R A N K I N G S

A quick note about my Stadium Rankings. There’s a lot of good ones out there! When good parks like the Rangers and Nationals Parks end up near the bottom, you know there is a lot of competition. Just because they are low, doesn’t mean they aren’t good. Baseball has just been stepping up the bar over the last few years.

The Stadium

1. PETCO Park, San Diego

2. AT&T Park, San Francisco

3. Fenway Park, Boston

4. Target Field, Minneapolis

5. Comerica Park, Detroit

6. Yankee Stadium, New York

7. Wrigley Field, Chicago

8. Safeco Field, Seattle

9. PNC Park, Pittsburgh

10. Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore

11. Minute Maid Park, Houston

12. Chase Field, Phoenix

13. Progressive Field, Cleveland

14. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia

15. Citi Field, New York

16. Miller Park, Milwaukee

17. Coors Field, Denver

18. Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati

19. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington

20. Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.

21. U.S. Cellular Field, Chicago

22. Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City

23. Rogers Centre, Toronto

24. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles

25. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim

26. The Coliseum, Oakland

The Atmosphere

1. AT&T Park, San Francisco

2. Fenway Park, Boston

3. Target Field, Minneapolis

4. PETCO Park, San Diego

5. Yankee Stadium, New York

The Crowd

1. AT&T Park, San Francisco

2. Fenway Park, Boston

3. Target Field, Minneapolis

4. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia

5. Yankee Stadium, New York

The Scorecard

1. Target Field, Minneapolis

2. Comerica Park, Detroit

3. AT&T Park, San Francisco

4. Citizens Bank Ballpark, Philadelphia

5. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington

If I ranked “Scorecards Shoved Inside of a Program”,

this would be at the top. But, since they aren’t genuine

scorecards in my book, I’m not ranking them.

The Hot Dog

1. Coors Field, Denver

2. AT&T Park, San Francisco

3. Progressive Field, Cleveland

4. Yankee Stadium, New York

5. Citi Field, New York

The Broadcasters

1. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles

2. AT&T Park, San Francisco

3. Miller Park, Milwaukee

4. Target Field, Minneapolis

5. Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore

I don’t think they called it a Blue Jay Dog.

Batting practice ball #4 in my 31-year career. The first I’ve gotten in foul territory. Off the bat of Kevin Youkilis--the first time I’ve actually known the hitter of a ball I got. I’m still waiting to catch a ball from live action!

Toronto’s version of the Space Needle.