In a Canada Day weekend tradition (as it has been two years in a row), I went to catch a baseball game. Last year I saw one at Yankees stadium but seeing as we didn’t go anywhere this year, I saw one at the Roger’s Centre Skydome.

Well we kind of went because we haven’t gone to a game in awhile, it was a nice day, and tickets are cheap. We just showed up at the gate and bought tickets for the 500 sections ($16), sitting behind the foul pole in right field. I think we were closer to CN Tower than the field.

The game was part of Roy Halliday’s visit to Toronto, although he didn’t pitch in the game (he would pitch the next day). I saw more Halliday Phillies’ jerseys than his jersey from Toronto! It wasn’t an exciting game, but we got to see two home runs – the second was a two-run shot by Jose Bautista to give Toronto the lead in the 7^th inning! Unfortunately, our reliever could not hold the lead in the 9^th and we ended up losing.

Apprently, the crowd likes to cheer on Bautista by singing the Montreal Canadiens’ Olé Olé Olé to José José José.

Going to the baseball game is not always about seeing the game itself. Beforehand, there was a street festival to celebrate Canada Day. They had activities for kids and gave out some freebies like flags and giant fingers (I don’t know what these things are actually called). The first 10k fans also received a free t-shirt, but we didn’t make it for the promo.

With all the fanfare, there were over 45,000 fans at the game! That’s pretty close to a sell-out.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: baseball, sports, toronto