The Toronto Blue Jays’ Dalton Pompey slides into second base past the Baltimore Orioles’ Everth Cabrera at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore on Friday.Rob Carr/Getty Images
It was opening day at Camden Yards for the Baltimore Orioles on Friday afternoon and Russell Martin took the opportunity to arrive by skateboard.
The weather midmorning was damp and chilly when the Toronto Blue Jays team bus departed from the team hotel in Baltimore to make the two-kilometre trip through the busy downtown streets to the stadium.
But the Blue Jays' multimillion-dollar catcher still opted to skip his comfortable free ride.
Instead, Martin hopped on the skateboard that has been a constant companion during the American League team's first trip of the season.
"He told me Thursday in New York he couldn't skateboard in the hotel room, the carpet sucks," said Dalton Pompey, Martin's Blue Jays teammate.
On Friday, the well-worn wooden contraption was resting, upside down, in a spare locker in the Blue Jays' visiting team's clubhouse at Camden, right beside the space occupied by Martin for his baseball gear.
"It took me a bit longer than I thought it would to get here," the 32-year-old Montreal native said nonchalantly about his 20-minute trip. "If I knew it would take me that long I would have taken the bus."
Perhaps Martin already knew he was not in the starting lineup Friday, the first time this season, giving way to backup Dioner Navarro for the opening game of the three-game series. Perhaps he knew he would not have to worry about depleting energy reserves through a little bit of self-propulsion.
With the Baltimore Police Department starting to shut off access to the roads surrounding Camden to vehicular traffic about three hours before the 3:05 p.m. (ET) scheduled first pitch, Martin's form of transportation was perhaps a wise option.
Martin said that skateboarding was an activity he started to pick up last season, when he was in Pittsburgh playing for the Pirates at PNC Park.
"The players' parking lot at PNC was just so far from the clubhouse I just took it up to save the legs, really," Martin said. "It was a good five-to-six-minute walk and on a skateboard it would take 45 seconds."
Whether it is the sight of Toronto's five-year, $84-million (U.S.) asset winding his way through cities streets on a product often associated with adolescents, the beginning to Toronto's season has been anything but normal.
Friday in Baltimore, for the second time this week, the Blue Jays had to endure the drawn-out pageantry of a home-opener.
It meant a lot of time standing around on the field while the Orioles are introduced over the public-address system to loud cheers from the partisan gathering with fireworks exploding in the sky.
The Blue Jays were well versed in the moment, having already gone through it on Monday before a packed New York Yankees audience at Yankee Stadium.
And they are not done yet.
On Monday, after completing the weekend set in Baltimore, the Blue Jays will be the guests of honour at their own home-opening gala, against the Tampa Bay Rays at Rogers Centre.
It begs the question, how much over-the-top, welcoming-back-the-Boys-of-Summer tributes can one team be expected to endure?
"It doesn't really get tiresome," Toronto relief pitcher Liam Hendriks said. "For me it's something I enjoy. I like seeing what each city can bring to the table."
Martin, in his 10th major-league season, said he has been through multiple home-openers and is used to the ritual.
"The first one of the year's exciting and then it just feels like another regular season," Martin said. "To me, today doesn't feel like it's opening day, it feels like it's opening day for the Orioles.
"For us, I feel like it's just our second series of the year."
In Martin's case, the often extravagant celebrations have turned foul – literally.
"There's one I remember when I was with the Dodgers," Martin said. "I forget what year it was, but they brought these pigeons onto the field [and] let them out. And on the way back in one of the pigeons just dropped its breakfast on my shoulder.
"It was the first day of the year and I'm like, this is unbelievable, this is how it's going to start. I had to change my shirt."
Martin said he brightened up – a bit – when someone mentioned to him that the air delivery was a sign of good luck.
"Actually, I think I wound up having a pretty good year," Martin said.