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Toronto Blue Jays Dalton Pompey (left) sits on the bench as his team take on Tampa Bay Rays in American League baseball action in Toronto on Saturday, September 13, 2014.Chris Young/The Canadian Press

As a youngster, Dalton Pompey once visited old Yankee Stadium and wondered what it would like to play there one day.

Friday night, the 21-year-old Mississauga, Ont., native will get that chance for the Toronto Blue Jays in what will mark his first Major League Baseball start in left field against the New York Yankees.

"It's pretty surreal," Pompey said during an interview with reporters in the Blue Jays clubhouse a couple of hours before game time. "I grew up watching the team and I was fans of guys like Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada.

"To have my first start here it's just an awesome feeling. To get out there onto that field, be able to hit, run, do all that stuff, is just amazing."

For Pompey, it has been a whirlwind of a year.

Toronto's 16th round selection in the 2010 draft, Pompey advanced through three levels of minor league ball in the Blue Jays organization, finishing up at Triple-A in Buffalo where he hit .358 in 12 games with the Bisons.

In September, the Blue Jays promoted Pompey to the big league team as part of the September call-up and has been used sparingly with just three pinch-hit at-bats to his credit (no hits) and a couple of pinch-running assingments.

"Maybe he'll come in a jump start us," Toronto manager John Gibbons said. "He doesn't have an easy assignment, Kuroda's [Yankee pitcher Hiroki Kuroda] pretty tough if he's one.

"But he's looked good. The limited times he's been in there he's looked good."

Pompey said he always felt confident in his physical abilities when it came to playing baseball at the highest level. He said learning to master the mental aspects of the game has made the difference for him this year.

"I think it was just the mental side, believing in myself, having that approach at the plate, believing in my abilities, having faith in that stuff and knowing that I could do it consistently every day," he said. "It was just my mind was getting in the way of my ability I felt like sometimes. And it was blocking me from being the best player that I can be."

As has been the case for much of this final road trip of the season for the Blue Jays, the actions of one their players – this time star outfielder Jose Bautista – has riled the opposition.

After stroking a home run in the eighth inning of Thursday's game that knotted the score at 2-2 (the Blue Jays would lose 3-2), Bautista surprised many when he angrily slammed his bat down into the field as he was embarking on his home-run trot.

Shawn Kelley, the Yankee reliever who surrendered the big hit, also said it was disconcerting to hear Bautista yelling and swearing.

"I'm not really sure what that was all about – to be honest, it was pretty disrespectful towards me and the game itself," Kelley said after Thursday's game.

Kelley continued: "To slam bats and shout profanities because you hit another home run just seems childish and disrespectful... I mean, I'm just an average everyday reliever, so I'm sure everyone's going to think I'm just pouting over giving up a homer, but I've never slammed my glove or cursed at another player for getting him out. Never."

Bautista said on Friday that he never intended to convey any disrespect toward the Yankees by his outburst.

"It's unfortunate that he thinks that any of my emotions following [Thursday's] home run had anything to do with him," Bautista said. "It didn't.

"I was in a moment of a lot of passion because of the developments of the game and stuff that had happened to me throughout the game had me fired up at the moment. And the reason why my reaction was what it was was because of those circumstances that had nothing to do with him. I'm sorry he felt like any of it was directed to him or the Yankees, which it wasn't."

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