Canada, Eh...

Now that I have gone to Toronto and the Rogers Centre, that leaves me with a total of 13 with 19 left to go. (I also included the old Yankee and Shea stadiums. That's why when you add 19 and 13 you get 32. I will not see defunct stadiums, though, will see future ones.) This time I was following the Yankees and came out with a victory. I feel it makes more sense to follow your team, than to go to a game and not cheer for a team or a team that you dislike. Canada is a beautiful place, polite and clean and I almost forgot we were in another country. The money is different in value and appearance, they use kilometers not miles and celsius not fahrenheit. They also have weird accents, though, are polite. No phone service up there, in fact, the Rogers Centre is named after their biggest phone company, that is similar to Verizon. They have good museums and is a very touristic city.

It was a long drive from NYC, it's roughly about 7 hours, not including the 2 hour game traffic....do the math. There was a heat wave and I got sun burned in Canada, go figure. Why the roof wasn't closed I don't know. The stadium looks smaller on television, but better in person. It is located in the downtown area, like most stadiums, right next to the tallest man made structure in the world, The CN Tower. We had good mezzanine seats and there was a significant amount of Yankee fans in attendance. We got more looks walking down the street than in the game, Canadians are nice. The fans were very supportive, unlike some, they are loud and cheerful.

With the exception of next years trip to DC, the ballparks are no longer in driving distance. I know people on this site drive from Boston to LA to see a game, it's not impossible, but not me, any trip more than 8 hours of driving is too much. But after next year I will fly to the stadiums. This will force me to travel less, but, can probably see more games. For example, I can fly to a state with to teams and drive a rental to the two stadiums. Probably won't fly on 2 different occasions,m kind of expensive.

Please feel free to comment or feedback, thank you guys.

Oh, I also went to Niagara Falls.

0 members like this

Comment

You need to be a member of Ballpark Chasers to add comments!

Join Ballpark Chasers

Comment by Kurt Smith on August 6, 2011 at 5:53pm: I've been to three games at Rogers Centre...although it was still Skydome then. I've always liked the place, even though many people are down on it in the retro ballpark era. I like the blue seats, with the green turf and the red railings. Somehow that works for me. I also think it's a cool thing to have a hotel in the ballpark; I'm surprised more new ballparks haven't picked up on that idea. (How about hotel rooms on the Green Monster or in the B&O Warehouse?) And the street theater in Toronto is great, better than in any city I've seen.

It helps that the location is as good as it can be; it's in a very happening area in a very happening city. Love Toronto, would always love to go again. Through Niagara Falls, of course.

Comment by Mary (17) on July 31, 2011 at 7:32pm: Sorry, editing late - I mean that in Milwaukee there was a city bus in from the airport, so transportation costs into town were negligible, as was the cost of getting out to Miller Park, which is in the suburbs.

Comment by Mary (17) on July 31, 2011 at 7:30pm: Richard, thanks for the Rogers writeup - I'll bet the Canadians were thrilled that it was so warm, and doubt they would consider closing the dome for that!
For traveling to the ballparks farther away than a reasonable car drive, I think you can look at traveling inexpensively - for instance, we took a trip to Milwaukee to see Miller Park, and actually took a city bus to a downtown location near our hotel - and then there was a city bus special to the ballpark which took us out there and through immense parking lots (where everyone was tailgating - I would have thought it was a football game if it had been around my neck of the woods) right to the park, and the return pickup was easy as well, lots of buses right at the front door. The other things we did in town were all done on foot. The point is that you may not need a car to get around once you get to a city, and may even be able to find buses or trains between cities, and just incur real travel costs to get to the far away city or area. This approach certainly works for any of the city parks - you don't want a car in Chicago anyway - and you could do that two-fer, also San Francisco and Oakland.

Comment by joe nadon 7/10 on July 27, 2011 at 12:48pm: glad to see you had fun in canada. I've been to lots of Jays games and when the Yankees and Red Sox come to town they usually bring a good mix of fans from both teams. I agree with what u said about following your team, much more fun. Me and a buddy hope to follow the jays when they do a east coast swing next year (maybe hit Bal, NY, and or Bos) If you make it to Seattle drop me a line, i will show you a couple cool pubs-