“Officer, I’d like to file a noise complaint.”
Exiled for the past year due to COVID restrictions, the Blue Jays will make their triumphant return to Toronto Friday when the Royals come to town for a three-game set at Rogers Centre. Rather than get some shut-eye, Blue Jays skipper Charlie Montoyo, still fired up from his team’s victory over division-leading Boston hours earlier (they thumped the Red Sox 13-1 at Fenway), decided to keep the party going upon his return to Canada at 4:30 AM, channeling his inner Matthew McConaughey by rocking out to bongos in his clubhouse office.
Judging by his crack-of-dawn jam sesh, Montoyo is pretty excited to be home after lengthy pit stops in Dunedin (Toronto’s spring training home) and Buffalo, where the Blue Jays had been shacking up since June. For newcomers Robbie Ray, George Springer and Marcus Semien, the next 11 games will represent their first Toronto homestand. The weather should be beautiful too (sunny with a high of 68 Friday night), not that it matters since the Jays play under a retractable roof at Rogers Centre.
Here, Montoyo seems to be sharing a brain with The Office protagonist Michael Scott, who, throughout his tenure as manager of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch, shared a similar enthusiasm for percussion instruments, particularly the steel drums after his trip to Jamaica.
Currently three games over .500 at 51-48, the fourth-place Blue Jays enter Friday trailing Oakland by 4.5 games for the AL’s second Wild Card spot.
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