Brian Tallet

Follow Brian Tallet Updates:

. . .

The Rogers Centre, Home of the Blue Jays, Toronto, ON

I’ve been to Canada so many times, experienced so many traditionally Canadian things, yet i had never been to a baseball game. And like in the USA, Baseball is just as big in Canada. This year however i decided to change all this!
Nestled right beside Toronto’s iconic CN Tower lays a giant almost Armadillo lookalike building, although lower to the ground – some could say it was equal to the CN tower’s impressiveness in how vast it actually is ~ this building is the Rogers Centre, and home to Toronto’s own Baseball team, The Blue Jays.

The date was Sunday 2nd May 2010, and The Blue Jays were playing Oakland Athletics at home in the Rogers Centre, this was the only time during our visit they were going to be playing at home, so we made sure we were there!
The weather forecast had been that of misery to be honest, sunny to start with but soon turning into thunderstorms, so although it looked sunny as we set off on the journey to Toronto, with the hot sunny weather outside, we expected to be sat inside a pretty well protected environment, the Rogers Centre, keeping us dry from the rain. Baseball is a summer sport. It’s supposed to be played when the weather is good, hence baseball caps! The Rogers Centre is purpose built however, being designed to be played in whether its raining or sunshining, providing the spectators as well as players with a rain proof roof during rain, but being open to allow in the sunshine when it’s sunny! The venue was the first major team sports arena in North America to sport a functional, fully retractable roof. The roof is composed of four panels and covers an area of 345,000 square feet (32,100 m2). The two middle panels slide laterally to stack over the north semi-circular panel, and then the south semi-circular panel rotates around the stadium and nests inside the stack. It takes 20 minutes for the roof to open or close.
We parked up in the city centre, at the closest possible Car Park, sure it was $20 to park for the day, but it was as close as you could get – and with the CN Tower next door, you could always visit that after the game!

There are a number of entrances into The Rogers Centre, but the one we entered (above) was the first we came to – where you show the people at the door your ticket and walk through a turnstyle and then head on towards where your seat is located. Now, check your ticket (though you should have an idea as to where you’ll be sitting when you buy it) – it will have information about where your seat is. Ours was located on the 500 band seats, which is the highest up, so we walked up the concrete walk ways all the way to the top before exiting it to walk through the main concourse on that level. There’s no shortages of places to get food – and beer is sold at almost every stall! This is also the place where you’ll want to buy yourself some Blue Jays merchandise – at the very minimum why not get yourself a baseball cap? every few meters round this ring which goes around the entire Centre is both a mens and women’s toilets, so you wont ever have to worry about being too far away from the bathroom through the game, but more importantly you’ll see large pointy signs with numbers on sticking out of the wall with a tunnel underneath them. These numbers correspond to the section your seats are located in. So its simply a matter of walking until you see your seat section up on one of those boards.

As soon as you emerge from the end of that tunnel, you’ll suddenly see exactly how big this stadium really is. There’s a few things that gets you when you walk in, first is the size, next is all the high tech screens and boards around the Centre – then you see the lay out of the field, and if the roof is open you’ll see the CN tower towering over you like big brother!

We found our seat easily and scooted along before sitting down. Although the seats are arranged like cinema seats, person in front lower down than you, the seats are ever so slightly more cramped than in a cinema, but ultimately – I’m not of a particularly small frame and it had no effect on my pleasure there that day. So you’re sat down and finally can take it all in.. I came to thinking about that giant screen once again.. It is absolutely massive. Although we were sat on some of the highest seats, the view wasn’t actually too bad, and the screen made sure you missed nothing – as although you are sitting the other side of the stadium, it’s so big you can’t miss it. The main video screen in the Rogers Centre is called the Rogers Centre videoboard and is also known during Blue Jays games as “JaysVision”. Designed by Daktronics, the screen is 33 feet (10 m) high and 110 feet (34 m) across. The panel is made up of modular LED units that can be replaced unit by unit, and can be repaired immediately should it be damaged during an event. Originally, this screen was a Sony JumboTron before it was replaced. For a time, it was the largest of its kind in the world.. so yep, don’t worry about missing anything!

I went into the Centre knowing absolutely nothing about baseball, I’d never seen a game before and to be completely honest I’d not been interested in watching it on TV – But even with this, and thinking it may be similar to rounders i started getting to grips with the game. Now apologies to Americans and Canadians, and all Baseball fans all over the world if i get any of this wrong, but this is what a British newbie picked up about the game while i was there! To help you on your first game, this is how the game works! First, the game is played in 9 bits. These are called Innings. In each of these innings, both teams take their part in batting and pitching. The first team batting has as much time on the field as they want, PROVIDING they do not get 3 people out! There’s a number of ways to get people out. One being the pitcher on the mound in the middle of the diamond, throws the ball so that it crosses the batting plate between shoulders and knee height. If this happens and the batter misses it, it’s called a Strike. If the ball doesn’t pass over the plate correctly, but the batter goes for it anyway, and the bat crosses over the line in front of him, this can also count as a strike, but only if he’s not on 2 strikes already. If they get 3 strikes they’re out.
It surprised me the first time i saw this, but the pitcher can be sneaky, instead of throwing straight at the batter, should there be a member of the other team who has made it to 1st base, the pitcher can throw the ball to first base. The purpose of this is that the person on first base can stay a little away from first base plate, so he has less distance to run should the batter hit the ball, if he’s not touching the plate by the time the ball gets from pitcher to the person on first base – the player is out.
If the ball is hit by the batter, up into the air, but caught before hitting the ground, the batter is out instantly.
So that’s getting people out. There’s also the rule about “walking” this means the batter walking to first base by default. This happens if the pitcher on the pitcher’s mound throws 4 balls which aren’t over the plate or aren’t between shoulder and knee height. When this happens the batter can walk to 1st base.
The aim of the game obviously is to pick up Runs. This can only happen if they can get past what we’d call third base. This can be done in a sequence of runs from 1st to 2nd to 3rd, or in a Home Run, where the ball was hit by the batter so hard that the ball is knocked outside the player’s field and into the stands.
Finally, a Foul Ball is when a batter hits the ball coming from the pitcher, but the ball ends up not passing the line to the right and left of the diamond, and often ends up landing in the stands either side of the field (and so spectators can pick up a memento from the game!). If the game is tied at 9 innings, the game goes on until one team has won.

While you’re there, don’t miss getting yourself a foot-long hotdog.. trust me when i say they will be the best hot dogs you’ll have ever eaten!.. Both food and drinks are very pricey at the Rogers Centre, but as one person joked, it’s all part of the baseball experience!

The game ended, roof still open, sun still shining with the Jays having won 9 runs to 3.. and with us having no sun tan lotion/sun screen we’d burnt nicely in the sun.. a burn that took several days to clear up! .. So as a lesson to anyone going to a baseball game, whether you’re expecting it to be raining, or bright sunshine – make sure you go with plenty of sun screen and prepared for all weather!

After the game was over we hung about in the concourse area pictured above where the seat number section is pictured, this seemed to give the majority of people enough time to leave the building for us to head out without being in a large crowd. I was impressed at how easily everyone managed to get out of the building – there are plenty of exits so that people aren’t all bottle-necked into one place.

SO ultimately, although sunburnt i had a brilliant time at The Rogers Centre watching the Toronto Blue Jays, and although i knew nothing when i went in, i came out with a better understanding of how everything works, and maybe even a bit of a fan of the Jays and the sport its self!

If you’re looking to getting yourself into a game – check out the blue jays ticketing where you can see where you can sit, and choose seats according to price. When you’ve bought your tickets you can also print your tickets at home, and take them out with you so no problems with posting! – So there really is no excuse, don’t miss experiencing this for yourself – and head along to the ball game!

View Larger Map

We flew out to Toronto having used Canadian Affair, and they’re hands down the cheapest flights you’ll find – we always head out to Canada using them – so much that I wrote an article about them! Take a look at the article here, or click the logo below to have a look for some flights to Toronto from your local airport