TORONTO – A year ago when Canada Day arrived baseball from coast-to-coast was in limbo, the Toronto Blue Jays awaiting the federal government’s decision on their request to host summer camp at Rogers Centre as local baseball associations sought ways to safely stage a season.
Twelve months later, after a shortened 60-game Major League Baseball campaign was played and some youth leagues managed an uneven return to the field, the situation is both different and the same for the sport nationally.
As Canada turns 154 Thursday, the Blue Jays are hosting the Seattle Mariners at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, N.Y., still working toward a return to Toronto. Baseball associations are making tentative plans for play to ensure an entire cohort of players doesn’t lose a second summer.
Putting the situation in perspective are the wider issues in the collective from Newfoundland and Labrador to British Columbia. The vaccine rollout seems to be creating a pathway out of the COVID-19 pandemic, although the Delta variant is a threat to our tentative strides for normalcy. Meanwhile, the recent discoveries of unmarked graves at former residential schools are forcing Canadians to confront the country’s shameful treatment of Indigenous communities.
All of it makes for an uneasy time, one in which the usual conviviality of Canada Day – picture some beer, a barbecue and a ballgame – doesn’t seem quite right. Even the government is calling this “a time to reflect,” ideally on first steps toward true acknowledgement and reconciliation.
In the background is the uniting power of sport and the summer is baseball’s hour.
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The dispossession of the Blue Jays since the federal government rejected the club’s modified-cohort quarantine plan last summer has created an inevitable distance between the team and its fans, exacerbated by the far more aggressive reopening in the United States.
As American fans increasingly flock back to ballparks, often without masks, to watch their teams, it only highlights the disparity felt here, with the Blue Jays unable to even get back home. Already this season they’ve called TD Ballpark, their spring facility in Dunedin, Fla., and Sahlen Field home, and while hopes of a third move to Toronto in time for the July 30 homestand are increasingly less likely, there seems to be a pathway toward an Aug. 20 return.
Already the NHL received a national interest exemption from the federal government that allowed the Montreal Canadiens and Las Vegas Golden Knights to cross the border during their semifinal series, now extended to the Habs and Tampa Bay Lightning for the Stanley Cup Final. In Victoria, Canada is hosting China, Czech Republic, Greece, Turkey and Uruguay in a men’s basketball qualifying tournament for the Olympics.
Both are in a modified quarantine bubble that covers the hotel and competition venue, ensuring a separation from the general public.
Logically, Major League Baseball and the Blue Jays should be able to employ a similar approach, although asking players currently living without restrictions in the United States to commit to a strict bubble – likely centred around Rogers Centre and attached hotel – is difficult.
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One possible bridge is a dual-track plan, allowing vaccinated players to live in the community while unvaccinated players are forced to adhere to a modified quarantine. But threading the needle between government needs and league/player approvals won’t be a simple task.
That’s why a month ago Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shaprio said, “what I’ve come to recognize is until the border is open, any proposal would have to deal with that and create a set of circumstances that allowed cross-border travel for players, families and visiting teams. … I guess what I would suggest to you is that until the border is open, there are significant challenges with us returning to Toronto to play.”
As things stand, border restrictions are set to be eased for fully vaccinated Canadian travellers July 5. The current border closure runs to July 21 and it’s unclear if fully vaccinated Americans will be treated similarly at that point, but that would help break the logjam the Blue Jays face.
Until it does, the Blue Jays will need to maintain their long-distance relationship with fans, many of whom have struggled to have any sort of baseball in their communities.
Local baseball associations did the best they could under last year’s restrictions, which were more severe in some parts of the country than others.
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In some areas, competitive teams managed limited seasons within small cohorts while house leagues were cancelled. Planning for this summer is similarly uncertain and likely to include limits on the participation and attendance of parents.
For some associations, the interruption of play last year is creating gaps within certain age groups now, and without a meaningful season this summer the problem will only grow in future years as that shortage works up through the system.
On a national level, the game remains strong and the depth of talent was shown during last month’s Olympic qualifying tournament, when a thinned out national team showed well despite several of the top eligible players not being made available.
Missing out on the Tokyo Games is a disappointment, to be sure, but a limited six-team field was always working against Baseball Canada.
At the community level, Ontario’s Intercounty Baseball League, a local staple, is aiming for a July 7 return and fighting through schedule adjustments due to shifting restrictions in the province.
In those ways, the struggle for normalcy on the baseball field mirrors that of wider society, just like it did on Canada Day one year ago. But there is progress, there is hope and still so much more to do for a more normal national birthday at 155.
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