Subject: SkyDome Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 02:35:41 -0400 From: Don Dudley Organization: Sun Microsystems To: Don.Dudley@Sun.COM Hey, Fans, As the last season of the Millennium winds down, I was able to stop off in Toronto and catch one more "new" ballpark Sunday on my way to California. I decided to make it a "Blue Jay Weekend". I left home very early Saturday morning to fly down to Baltimore to watch Maura and the Johns Hopkins Blue Jay field hockey team play Muhlenberg College. Hopkins beat MC in a 1-0 OT thriller. Then I moved on to Toronto, arriving about midnight. I stayed right at Pearson Airport rather than the SkyDome Hotel, as Jan is about four years from being liberated from her excuse not to join me on these trips ;-). I got snarled in some major traffic trying to park in the garage under the Stadium. When I finally emerged from the garage, I immediately found a very pleasant guy selling tickets. He offered me a second level (cushioned) club seat down the third base line, face value 26 CAD, for 20 CAD. I gave him $20 US, which is upwards of 30 CAD, and we were both happy. I got a souvenir ball autographed by all the Blue Jays, which will complement the Red Sox ball, vintage 20 years older, I got from my local savings bank. You absolutely could not ask for more perfect weather -- crystal clear, 71 degrees, 4 mph winds out to right. My seat was looking straight up at the CN Tower and its high-speed elevator shaft. Following last week's trend, I bought another excellent corned beef sandwich, a large iced tea (Jan will be happy to know that they could not give me a souvenir cup :-(), and got seated in time to get the lineups in my scorecard before the first pitch. Re the excellent corned beef, a couple of you remarked last week on the dubious Jewish heritage in Chicago, but what about Toronto ;-)?! Coincidentally, the White Sox were visiting the Blue Jays. This made the fourth time this year I'd seen the Pale Hose -- at Kaufman Stadium, Jacobs Field, Comiskey Park, of course, and now SkyDome; i.e., none of these were at Fenway Park. These baseball Blue Jays were not able to hold up their end of the weekend bargain as the White Sox won, 3-2, completing a sweep of the series. Honda handed out towels encouraging "Let's Go Wild!" to the early arrivals at the park, but realistically, Toronto's chances at the Wild Card spot are long gone. Brian Simmons won the game with a three-run, opposite field homer that hit the left-field foul/fair pole screen. There were a total of only 11 hits in the game and no errors. The game was played in a brisk (for an American League game ;-)) 2:38. Willis Otanez made two great line drive stabs at third, filling in for Tony Fernandez, but hit into two double plays, including one with two on to end the game. Shawn Green didn't do much at the plate, but he showed quite a gun from right field, chasing Magglio Ordonez back to third on a 300+-foot fly ball with a one-hopper right on the plate; what a player! And amazingly, I saw Mike Sirotka win again, having been at Comiskey Park seven days earlier for his last start and victory over the Indians. Think he'd pay me to follow him around from ball park to ball park all season ;-)? For some reason, there were only three umpires, but they hustled around the field to cover for each other like no minor league umps I've seen. Halfway through, "The World's Fastest Ground Crew" tidied up the field in less than 60 seconds. Of course, with the turf, they just had to deal with the four small patches of dirt, but they also re-did the foul lines at home, first and third, something I haven't noticed other crews do during the game. Despite the artificial surface and my expectations, I really enjoyed this place and would very much like to come back. That should do it for my quest this year. Leah and I have had long-term plans to go to Fenway Sunday, 9/26, albeit without tickets. This is the last regular season Red Sox game at Fenway, and who knows, maybe even Cal Ripken's last there. Leah and I made these plans, including eschewing right field grandstand seats, before Cal came off the DL, not to mention started challenging 3,000 hits. See you at the park. Don