Here it is: your memories of
Exhibition Stadium, the first home of the Toronto Blue Jays. I want to thank
everyone who took the time to send in their memories. Let’s get started:
Jeff (Scarborough, Ontario) July 27, 1979 Blue Jays vs Detroit Tigers
Going to the ball park with your sons is a very rewarding and
satisfying day out. To attend a major league baseball game to watch the Toronto
Blue Jays, our home town heroes, last place or close to it notwithstanding, is
even better.
Picture sitting in the bleachers at Exhibition Stadium, first home
field for the Jays, beyond the left field fence in our $2 bleacher seats, with
a son on each side. Top of the 5th, one out, one runner on base, Altar Greene,
Tigers 3rd baseman Tom Brookens at bat. Phil Huffman of the Jays on the mound.
Brookens delivered his first ever home run away from Tiger Stadium,
over the left field fence in your general direction. As the ball gets closer
and you realize that it will be in your vicinity, you prepare to make an
attempt to catch it.
The ball came directly to my seat and without standing or shifting I
was able to catch it, on the fly, at knee level. After traveling about 350feet
it was much softer on the hands than I would have imagined. I was very pleased
as were my boys. Detroit went on to defeat the Jays by a score of 4-3 in eleven
innings but our day was a winner.
I have given the baseball to my eldest son for safekeeping.
Paul (Hamilton, Ontario) 1985 Blue Jays vs New Yankees
I
was 14 when the Jays were chasing their first play off spot in 1985. I had been
to see a few games earlier in the year with my dad, but this would be
different. It was the final weekend of the year and they Jays only needed to
win one game to capture the division. In the end, they only won one game and as
much as I would like to say that was the game my dad took me to, it wasn’t.
No, we went on the Friday night,
but the atmosphere was unlike anything I had ever experienced, and the only
thing that topped it was the World Series game I went to at SkyDome in 1992
(they lost that game, too). The Jays had lost three straight to the Tigers and
we were hopeful of the slump ending and the Jays clinching.
For a brief moment, it appeared
that’s exactly what would happen. The score was 2-2 when the Jays pushed across
the potential division-clinching run in the bottom of the eighth. A Cliff
Johnson single had scored Lloyd Moseby.
Tom Henke had come into the game
in the top of the eighth and now looked to shut down the Yankees in the ninth.
The first two batters came up, then sat down. Two outs. One to go. This was
going to be the night. But Yankee catcher Butch Wynegar drove Henke’s pitch
over the right field wall for a home run to tie the game.
No problem. We were confident
the Jays would push across the winning run in the bottom half of the ninth. But
a single and a walk put two runners on. Don Mattingly was the batter and he hit
a high fly ball into centrefield. The inning was over—except Moseby dropped the
ball. The Yankees scored on the error and the Jays failed to tie it in the
ninth.
It was very disappointing and as
much as I pleaded with my dad for us to come back the next day, we didn’t.
However, watching them clinch on TV the following afternoon took away the sting
of the night before. But as the years have gone by, I sometimes find myself
wishing they had clinched it when I was there.
Phil (London, Ontario) 1980s
My
first game at Exhibition Stadium was in the early 1980s. I think it was around
1982 or 1983, I’m really not sure as I was only five or six years old. I don’t
even remember who they played but I do remember going with my parents and it
was an afternoon game. I was just starting to get into baseball and I couldn’t
wait to go. The drive from London seemed to take forever.
When we finally got there, we
walked across the parking lot and saw all the other people headed to the same
place we were and I got really excited. I was finally there. We entered the old
Ex and once I came through the tunnel and into the stands, I was blown away.
The massive amount of grass (I didn’t know it was fake at the time) must have
taken forever to cut.
The players were warming up, the
sun was beating down on us and as a little kid, it was the greatest feeling in
the world. I don’t remember any plays, or what I had to eat or even if I left
the stadium with any souvenirs. But I will always remember the drive in the
car, the walk to the stadium and seeing the field for the first time.
**Thank you
for your submissions. I greatly appreciate it.**
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