Let me just point out that many of us Torontonians outside the media still prefer to call the Rogers Centre the Skydome. However, a more appropriate description would be the Crypt of Doom. It is not inspirational when the loudest cheers are over a simple advertisement involving an electronic horse race. The Buffalo Bills hate it when they play here - no home field advantage at all, even though their city is just over the border two hours away.

There was excitement over the Blue Jays and in the Skydome during their back-to-back championships of '92 and '93. As I recall it started when during an interview Toronto's DH Dave Winfield pleaded for more noise from the fans. He used the word "synergy". The word got around and the fans responded. Winfield was absolutely right. We had more fun with a stadium full of healthy folks clapping, stomping, and screaming our heads off, while the team played to their max going all the way to the championships.

As a Met fan, I can assure you that when Jose Reyes is going well, things will be lively in whatever building he's playing in. Few players can fire up the crowd like Jose.

During the last World Baseball Classic, the Skydome was actually incredibly loud during the Canada-US game. The lack of any actual hope over the past 19 years, plus a naturally quiet fanbase, has meant Toronto's been a fairly mediocre place to watch a game for the last very long while.

However, the fan base for the Jays has been getting noticeably younger over the past several years and the fans have also shown a greater inclination to volume lately, whenever there's been any pretext to cheer.

While their has been some drunken idiocy (two dollar Tuesday shall never return), Toronto's fans have been so deeply starved for a winner, that there's real potential for 35,000+ fans in the stands each game, and a more enthusiastic, vibrant crowd, where Jays fans aren't outnumbered by Yankee and Red Sox fans visiting north of the border during big intra-divisional series.

The Jays do look quite good- but there is a lot of injury risk on that roster- Johnson and Reyes have significant injury histories, Dickey and Buehrle have logged a lot of innings, and even returnees like Joey Bats have had significant injury. Let's hope they stay healthy- should be a fun team to watch

and a talent evaluator from a third team in the division thinks the trade of first baseman/designed hitter Kendry Morales to Seattle for left-hander Jason Vargas is going to help both clubs: "It's one of those trades where both teams dealt from strength and got exactly what they needed."


Hi Kevin Goldstein.