Hope springs eternal as Blue Jays open 48th season vs. Rays

Looking back at personal highlights of 51 MLB Openers

When it comes to Major League Baseball, opening day is very special, even if the reality is there have already been two games played — Dodgers and Padres, in South Korea. Nevertheless, on Thursday, for all of the other 28 teams, it is their real opening day. The Blue Jays in breaking camp, had it easy this year, packing up for the start of a 10-game trip, making the short drive to a hotel in St. Pete from their Dunedin spring digs. They now open up with four vs. the Rays at The Trop.

Looking back through the mists of time and upon further review, sifting through the personal memory banks of my MLB years with the Expos (1973-95), Toronto Star (1995-2018), the Blue Jays (2019-22) and now Griff’sThePitch.com, I have compiled some highlights from a number of those season-opening games, all but one of which I attended in one of my official roles. That would be the first one.

April 6, 1973, Cubs 3-Expos 2 at Wrigley Field: My first official day of working in MLB (if you can call it that), I was early-on experimenting with a home-made personalized scoring system that I believed could produce detailed statistics, pitch counts, scoring position, type of contact, pitcher/batter, etc, that the Expos did not have and would be useful to GM Jim Fanning and the front office in early versions of the contract-arbitration process. Relying for game details on CFCF and the radio team of Dave Van Horne and Russ Taylor, this initial ’73 opener pitted RH Mike Torrez vs. RH Ferguson Jenkins. The Cubs scored two in the ninth, on a pair of bases-loaded walks by RH Mike Marshall. In hindsight, it was a painful preview of future heartbreak, the walkoff walk by CF Rick Monday driving in PR Tony LaRussa.    

April 6, 1979, Expos 3-Pirates 2 (10) at Three Rivers: An unforgettable 48 hours is what stands out with the delayed ’79 opener. Late in that spring, on March 16, The China Syndrome was released in theatres based on a fictional accident in a nuclear power plant. Then on March 28, came an actual nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, a plant in Western Pennsylvania. Seven days later, when the Expos landed in Pittsburgh, Spaceman Bill Lee emerged slowly from the plane wearing a full gas mask, just in case of rogue radiation. His legend only grew. The April 5 opener was rained out even though it was a sunny day and as the club worked out on a bone-dry artificial surface, the powerful Expos thought they smelled fear across the field. The two talented squads battled all the way to October, with the Pirates clinching the NL East on the final day and going on to win the World Series over the O’s.  

April 9, 1981, Expos 6-Pirates 5 at Three Rivers: A much-hyped debut for rookie LF Tim Raines, who had a brief stint the summer before, but was now transitioning to leadoff and to the outfield from his natural second-base position. First inning, Raines walked vs. RHP Jim Bibby. On the next pitch he took off for second base, the throw from C Steve Nicosia glanced off his helmet into right-centre field. Raines picked himself up and scored from second on the play. It was a great year for NL rookies with LHP Fernando Valenzuela (Dodgers) and 2B Juan Samuel (Phils). The Expos won the opener on a ninth inning single by C Gary Carter off RHP Kent Tekulve.  

    

April 3, 1984, Expos 4-Astros 2 at Astrodome: It was RHP Charlie Lea over RHP Joe Niekro in the Expos debut of LF Pete Rose, who had signed as a free agent at the beginning of the spring. More memorable than the game itself was an incident at the conclusion of an eight-game road trip in Cincinnati, where Rose had built his legend. Rose showed up to Riverfront in his Sunday finest on the travel day at the ballpark for the series finale, Wednesday, announcing he had married his second wife, Carol, at the home of agent Reuven Katz, that morning. Manager Bill Virdon’s policy was to allow wives, but not girl-friends on team charters, so Charlie Hustled to the altar before the flight back to Montreal. What did Pete have to say? It didn’t help that Virdon did not allow media in his clubhouse before games, so in my holding off aggressive Cincy TV crews and writers, a shirt had ripped from shoulder to waist which in the clubhouse became the stuff of P.R. legend.

April 26, 1995, Blue Jays 13-A’s 1 at SkyDome: The matchup of RH David Cone vs. RH Dave Stewart was compelling. But, in my first year at The Star it was already a tumultuous spring for MLB with replacement Jays set to play the year in Dunedin, without MGR Cito Gaston. That scenario all changed thanks to an 11^th hour, eve of opening day, ruling from Judge Sonia Sotomayor (now a Supreme Court Justice). That decision settled the strike and signalled the need for a second round of spring training for the real players. Memories of those extra weeks in Florida include writing a column at Inn on the Bay, on April 19, as the tragic Oklahoma City bombing unfolded, rendering everything else as unimportant. When the late-April baseball moment arrived, Opening Day attendance at the Dome was 50,246, but when the next day’s attendance dipped to 31,070. The desk suddenly wanted a column on the “crisis in attendance”. I looked around at the stands, scratched my head and said, “Crisis, what crisis? Hey, I just came in from Montreal!”

April 1, 2001, Blue Jays 8-Rangers 1 at Hiram Bithorn in San Juan: The joy and enthusiasm of the Puerto Rican fans is a lasting memory. The ovations for national heroes, Jays 1B Carlos Delgado and Rangers C Pudge Rodriguez were moving. I laughed in the dugout at the first batting practice with rookie MGR Buck Martinez. He glanced sheepishly at me as hordes of Puerto Rican TV types hustled across the field, only to be greeted with an apologetic shrug from Buck, “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Spanish.” I made a note of the fitting coincidence of two uniform numbers, side-by-side, being honoured on the outfield fence belonging to Puerto Rican legends Roberto Clemente and Orlando Cepeda. The 21-30 combo was, also, coincidentally, the record number of consecutive games played by Lou Gehrig that when it was broken by Cal Ripken Jr emerging from the strike, helped save the game in its hour of need.   

April 1, 2002, Blue Jays 12-Red Sox 11 at Fenway Park: The Jays scored eight runs in three innings vs. RH Pedro Martinez. But the real story was that New Hampshire native and future ace, RH Chris Carpenter had been looking forward all spring to starting the opener at Fenway in front of family and friends. Unfortunately, Carpenter in his desire to pitch, had not reported his shoulder issues and had to be shut down three times in ’02. He underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum, and was not offered a major-league contract after the season. Carp proceeded to great success with the more patient Cardinals. This ranked as one of GM J.P. Ricciardi’s biggest mistakes.

April 5, 2012, Blue Jays 7-Cleveland 4 (16) at Progressive Field: Who ever made the decision to open on the shores of Lake Erie on April 5? In what may be the most miserable weather of any opener I ever attended (7degrees C, 22 km/hr winds from RF) the Jays outlasted Cleveland in 16 innings on a three-run blast by C J.P. Arencibia, who caught all 280 Jays pitches. Two days later in Game 2, J.P. caught 12 more innings and 189 more pitches. The opener lasted five hours, 14 minutes and went to extras when DH Edwin Encarnacion doubled home two in the ninth.  

April 6, 2015, Blue Jays 6-Yankees 1 at Yankee Stadium: The beginning of an eventful ’15 season that ended at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City in the ALCS did not debut on any sort of familiar script. RH Drew Hutchison was G1 starter and winner at Yankee Stadium, even though by the end of the season he was not on the playoff roster. What MGR John Gibbons did discover was two young 20-year-old relievers, RH Roberto Osuna and RH Miguel Castro (later in SS Troy Tulowitzki deal). Newcomer 3B Josh Donaldson was batting fifth on Opening Day, before later moving to the two-hole and earning AL MVP, while OF Kevin Pillar was stationed in left field for G1, before taking over in centre from Dalton Pompey on April 25.        

March 28, 2019, Tigers 2-Blue Jays 0 at Rogers Centre: This opener was meaningful, on a personal basis. It was my first year back in media relations after last working for a ballclub in 1994. RH Marcus Stroman tossed seven two-hit, shutout innings with no decision. This one makes me smile because it was also the year the Rogers Centre press box moved from the suite level, right behind home plate, out to the left field corner so that high rollers could have a better view from behind the dish. I recalled in ’18, as Chapter Chairman of the Toronto BBWAA, how I had argued eloquently and vehemently for the press box status quo, pointing out the necessity of being able to report accurately and to do that you need to be able to see balls and strikes and everything else that goes with the respect-for-media tradition. Then the next year, as newly installed Director, Baseball Media, I was patting new BBWAA chair, Shi Davidi, on the shoulder telling him, hey, it’s no big deal. Everything will be alright.

Oh well. Time for another memory. Play Ball!!