Toronto Blue Jays at Olympic Stadium in Montréal
Date | Opponent | Score | Attendance |
April 4, 2015 | Cincinnati | Toronto 9-1 | 50,231 |
April 3, 2015 | Cincinnati | Cincinnati 2-0 | 46,314 |
March 29, 2014 | NY Mets | Toronto 2-0 | 50,229 |
March 28, 2014 | NY Mets | Toronto 5-4 | 46,121 |
The Toronto Blue Jays again are ending their Grapefruit League season at Olympic Stadium in Montréal. This year's opponent is the Boston Red Sox, the first American League opponent to be part of the Montréal experience.
Boston is a logical choice given how intertwined the sports histories are between Beantown and Montréal.
The Red Sox are certainly aware of the Canadian influence in their fan base. Not that Olympic Stadium can hold that many more people, but fans from New England and the Maritimes will certainly come to Montréal and not to root for the home team. The New England fans are much more likely to have a passport, given their proximity to Canada, than most of their American cousins.
The Boston Red Sox are also significant since they would be a huge rival with the return of the Expos, if the team is placed in the American League East Division, as the rumors stand now.
Friday night's game starts at 7 pm and the Saturday afternoon game starts at 1 pm. Rogers Sportsnet will carry both games in Canada and MLB Network will show the Sportsnet feed in the United States.
Saturday's game in Montréal will be available in 4K in Canada. Rogers says it is offering the 4K feeds to all cable, satellite and IPTV providers across Canada.
J.A. Happ will pitch on Friday and minor-league call-ups will pitch on Saturday.
We've heard that about 106,000 tickets have been sold for the weekend, with a few tickets remain for Friday’s game and a sold out game on Saturday. Each of the previous 2 years sold just over 96,000 tickets. Ticket prices ran from $24-$99.50 … for an exhibition game.
Montréal Mayor Denis Coderre believes the next step for Montreal is to get regular-season games, which he believes would be possible as of 2017. We were arguing for this back in 2010, so after this level of success, the argument is a lot stronger.
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Friday night's honourees will be a baseball Hall of Famer and one who should be. Tim Raines and Pedro Martinez will receive the accolades before the game Friday night. Martinez entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015. Raines should get into the Hall in 2017.
Former Expos manger and executive Jim Fanning will be posthumously honoured before the game on Saturday. Fanning is in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
photo credit: MLB