“Welcome to the field, the Toronto Blue Jays!” Buffalo Bisons play-by-play man Pat Malacaro announced over the PA system.
“Huh?” I thought. “Oh right. This is the big leagues!”
Friday night was another Blue Jays home game in Buffalo as they welcomed in the New York Mets. For sports writers who cover these games daily, it’s likely just another day at the ballpark, albeit in a strange and historic season. Me? I’m a local news guy who’s fortunate enough to have a platform that grants me access to this game (and a boss that was totally cool with me writing this perspective piece).
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m fully aware there’s a worldwide pandemic going on and there are far more important things to discuss, but it’s a Friday night and my options were to either clean my house or experience Major League Baseball in Buffalo.
For those of you who don’t know, before coming to WBEN, I worked for a few years in minor league baseball as a broadcaster, PR guy, sales rep, tarp puller, and I even donned the mascot outfit a few times (yes, it is hot in there and I’m sorry that your kids might have been scared by me).
When baseball was seemingly cancelled this year because of coronavirus, I was obviously bummed.
Then when MLB came back I was stoked – even more so because Buffalo was hosting the Blue Jays – and knew I wanted to come out to a game to experience it with my own eyes. It looks really interesting on television, but you only get the perspective of what they show you and now with your own eyes.
Pat’s introduction wasn’t the only time that I was taken aback by something not referencing the Buffalo Bisons. Brad Bisbing from the Bisons front office announced the game-time temperature in Celsius and wind speeds in kilometers. If you’re a reader from Canada, you’re probably chuckling at me.
An uneventful top of the first as the Mets went down in order, but one thing was already perfectly clear to me: The piped in crowds give little to no feeling of an actual crowd. Back-to-back strikeouts in the first inning would have the crowd bumping. We’re only a few minutes into the game and the crowd energy feels like a crowd filing in for a show at Shea’s.
Bottom of the first comes. Here’s Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom, the two-time Cy Young award winner. This isn’t a rehab outing, it’s the real thing. Vlad Guerrero, Jr. was inches away from going yard to the opposite field and settled for a run-scoring single.
Onto the second and deGrom is settling in. Even though Toronto’s up 1-0…they’re probably in for the long haul with this guy on the mound.
It’s the third inning. Yep…a three-run homer puts New York up 3-1. At this point I’m expecting someone to heckle Jays pitcher Chase Anderson but nope. I suppose that’s one thing the players really enjoy about no crowds. How many times have you seen that drunk guy slurring his way through trash talk?
The Mets added another run in the third after the Blue Jays outfield lost the ball in the lights. No exasperation from the crowd.
Are you seeing the reoccurring theme here?
No matter how much you pack the seats full of cardboard cutouts of Blue Jays and Bisons fans, it is not the same experience, even as I’m here in person.
Conehead isn’t walking up and down the aisle selling ICE COLD beer. There’s no one leaving peanut piles on the ground (guilty). Kids aren’t begging mom and dad for cotton candy.
Long gone is the scent of a hot dog and hamburger. It’s replaced by the inside of my mask.
Still, the transformation of the stadium to fit the Blue Jays brand was impressive. The club really did a great job getting their brand across several parts of the stadium. The obvious ones you may have seen on television are the tents behind each team’s dugouts, the top of the dugouts, and the navy blue walls. But I’m really impressed they covered the very top of the scoreboard with the Blue Jays logo which curves over the Sahlen logo.
I give a lot of credit to the Blue Jays and Bisons organizations for the effort they did to make scenario a reality on such short notice. They absolutely made the best with this situation, transforming the minor league ballpark to the MLB standards in just three weeks.
“I knew it was going to be ready for play but I didn’t envision it being this good,” Rich Baseball President Mike Buczkowski told me prior to Friday night’s game. “I didn’t envision a player space being as nice as it was both for the visiting teams and the Blue Jays. I guess I didn’t envision how great everything would look when you watch the games on TV.”
Buczkowski has been to virtually all of the Blue Jays home games this season and also described the atmosphere as “strange”.
“You look at the uniforms says Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays, Mets,” he said. “But then you look around and there’s nobody in the seats other than those ensuring the event goes off the way it is. I liken it to the summer when we have some high school baseball games that are here. The scoreboard is on. They’re playing baseball. But there’s not a whole lot of people in the stands. Yet, like I said, the uniforms are Major League Baseball uniforms. These are regular season games that are going to be forever recorded in history as being played in Buffalo at Sahlen Field.”
Though, on the flip side, Buczkowski said if fans were able to see it, the games probably won’t have been held in Buffalo anyway.
Buczkowski and Bisons management are thinking ahead towards next year and the potential return of Minor League Baseball. He said they have anywhere from three to four plans in the works. However, those plans will likely need altering depending on the circumstances with the pandemic.
That doesn’t entirely rule out the return of Major League Baseball next year. Just don’t expect Buffalo to get its own big-league franchise any time soon.
“There’s never been a question about fan support in Buffalo and Western New York for any of the teams,” Buczkowski said. “That’s known. The question always was a matter of economics. The size of our market and the fact that we already have two major league sports in town and if there could be support for a third one.”
Buczkowski also said it would be tough for ownership in this market to support a franchise that has no salary cap. Even though similarly sized cities have had success with their teams, he said it’s difficult to maintain that success in a smaller market like Buffalo.
None of this feels real, but I’m grateful to be here. Still, I wish you could be too.