Buffalo Blue Jays

You know, it’s always a good thing to celebrate when people get decisions right. Over the weekend, we found out that the request to bypass COVID-19 isolation laws in Canada was denied.

Basically, as we all know, unless you’re an essential service you’re not allowed to come into Canada at these times. If you do, you need to isolate for 14 days. Major League Baseball had asked that this rule be waived. The Ontario Premier had given his OK with some rules about where the players would be able to move about in downtown Toronto. Somehow, this was seen to be more important than your other average traveller.

Blue Jays denied approval to play in Toronto

It’s not like they’re depriving Canadians of a job. You can check out the entire Blue Jay roster looking for Canadians, if you wish.

Dunedin makes sense on the surface as a place to play in the United States. After all, that’s where Blue Jay Spring training happens. But, who’s interested in taking their chances with Florida at this time?

So, there has been a great deal of speculation about making Buffalo home for the season this year. I’d never heard of Sahlen Field before but I do now. There is thought that if they played there the stadium would need additional lighting to bring it up to standard. I’m not sure why; it’s not like there would be fans in attendance after a day at work to enjoy a night game. Why not move all the games to the afternoon?

And move all games outside. Of course, that could be done at the Roger’s Centre. Sahlen Field is an outdoor stadium so that’s good. It will be interesting to see how other stadiums handle things if they are indoor/outdoor capable.

Back to the decision. You’d think that it could be an easy implementation with 40 players plus team support. That should be easy to track and keep everyone in order. Yet, one level of government has decided that the risk is too great.

Since the Federal government has the ultimate say about borders and those who cross them, they were able to effectively scuttle the plans of the province.

How does this apply in education? We’re talking way more than one team of 40 students here. We’re talking thousands who will be attending school buildings of all ages. Those buildings pale when compared to the Roger’s Centre. Most do have a nice playing ground outside that could be put to use.

There is no higher authority than the provincial government when it comes to the plans from districts that are due in a couple of weeks. It’s going to be an anxious time for many. For today, it’s comforting to know that there are minds that recognize that there’s something more important than getting baseball going just for the sake of going.

This Tigers fan wishes the Blue Jays all the best wherever they end up.