So, I took a brief break from soccer Sunday afternoon, and did something I haven't done in 14 years.
 
I went to see the Toronto Blue Jays play at the ‘Dome.
 
Away from the footie pitch, and away from children's music, I work part-time with special-needs adults for a wonderful organization called Community Living Toronto.  I assist folks who have their own apartments, but need some help with normal, day-to-day
 chores. 
 
It was CLT day at the ball park on Sunday, so three clients and I trooped down to watch Jays' ace Roy Halladay pitch against the Chicago White Sox.
 
(There is a strong soccer angle coming.  I promise.)
 
I'm honoured to work with some very dear people on this job, and we all had a wonderful time.  I also got to compare the experience of watching baseball at Rogers Centre with the Toronto FC phenomenon that is rocking BMO Field right off its foundations.  It was … interesting.
 
Background: I went to 40-odd Blue Jays baseball games a year, from that famously snowy opening day in 1977 right up until about 1990.  I hated Exhibition Stadium for its dreadful sightlines, but came to dislike the ‘Dome even more for its impersonality, odd angles and non-stop blaring hype.
 
I still went occasionally, up until the strike wiped out the World Series in 1994.  Yep, I'm one of The Fans Who Never Came Back.  By the time '94 rolled around, I was a ravenous travelling lacrosse fanatic, which took up a lot of my time and passion.  I was married then, too, which took up a lot more.
 
Lacrosse became my sporting grande passion.  I didn't need the Blue Jays anymore.  Honestly didn't much miss them, either. 
 
My final baseball game was at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, in August of '94.

The Mets and the Pirates.  Lovely little 3-2 game.  Can't even remember who won.  And I honestly knew, as I sat there that night, I was probably never going to give a dime of my money to Major League Baseball – ever again.
 
(Soccer angle approaching.)
 
And so, my CLT clients and I settled into some very nice 14th-row aisle seats in short left field, and I was reunited with the grand old ritual of watching Blue Jays baseball live.  The differences from BMO Field are, indeed, hugely noticeable.
 
The Rogers Centre seats rise from the playing field at a very shallow angle.  If you're on the aisle, your view of the infield is blocked anytime anybody stands up.  Yes, you can watch the action on the Jumbotron, but at any given moment, on any given play, your view can vanish. 
 
The hype is pounding, and relentless.

Someone, somewhere, decided that baseball fans need to be entertained every single second, even though baseball is a slow, poetic, thoughtful, reflective game.  But who needs poetry when you get to guess which animated recycling truck is carrying the hidden giant baseball on the Jumbotron?
 
You're being sold something – aggressively – from the moment you enter the stadium till the second you finally get squeezed through the exit door.

And nobody seems to mind in the least that their 14th-row seats have an obstructed view.
 
My clients had an amazing, wonderful, fantastic time.  They were beaming on the subway home.  Happy, excited, it was a joy to see.  Whatever role the Blue Jays played in putting the day together, thank you very much and we all look forward gleefully to doing it again.  Whatever thoughts I'm offering now do not reflect the views of Community Living Toronto, or its clients, in any way at all.
 
I'm speaking, instead, as the starry-eyed 17-year-old who watched Bill Singer throw the first pitch to Ralph Garr of the White Sox from way WAY out behind the right field foul pole on April 7, 1977, and fell in love for years.
 
(Cue the soccer angle.)
 
If you haven't yet experienced BMO Field on a Toronto FC game day, things are hugely different.  The seats are all right on top of the play.  Clear straight views from everywhere – unless you got bought scalped tickets in the supporters' section behind the south goal and naively thought you were going to be able to sit down back there.
 
The hype is kept to a minimum.  We're informed of the waybill number the courier company used to deliver the game ball to the officials, but that passes quickly.  A watch company “sponsors” the time added on at the end of each half.

Personally, I don't think you should ever be allowed to sponsor a dimension, but no one asked me, and there you go.
 
In the end, the only thing that ever much happens at a TFC game is people who love the game, watch the game – and make a huge and happy noise cheering.
 
There is nothing really wrong with Blue Jays baseball.  I moved on long ago, but it's still a good and grand institution, and good for them for hanging in there.  I've just come to want something simpler – purer.  For years it was lacrosse, and right now it's Toronto FC.
 
There is so much less happening at BMO Field.  And it's so much more enjoyable.

Onward!