The coronavirus pandemic has brought a lot of incongruity to sports, from an NBA season at Disney World to a Kentucky Derby scheduled for September.
Now, get ready for the Buffalo Blue Jays in Major League Baseball.
With the Canadian government barring games at the team’s home stadium, the Rogers Centre in Toronto, the major leagues’ only team outside the United States will make Sahlen Field in Buffalo its main home for the abbreviated 2020 season. The team said Friday that it would play “the greater part of its home schedule” in Buffalo but did not specify what other sites might be used.
The MLB season began Thursday night. The Blue Jays played their first game on Friday, on the road in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Baseball is playing its season in home stadiums, but without fans, to try to reduce the risks of spreading the virus. Nevertheless, Marco Mendicino, Canada’s immigration minister, ruled against holding games in his country because of all the border crossings it would require from the Blue Jays and their opponents — particularly teams based in states with high rates of infection.
“Based on the best-available public health advice, we have concluded the cross-border travel required for MLB regular-season play would not adequately protect Canadians’ health and safety,” Mendicino said.
That will put three major league teams in New York — at least temporarily — for the first time since 1957, when the Dodgers, the Giants and the Yankees all played in the state.
The Blue Jays have their first home game scheduled for 6:37 p.m. on Wednesday against the Washington Nationals. Toronto won only 67 games last season; it last made the playoffs in 2016.
It is not the first time Buffalo has been home to a major league team. From 1879 to 1885, the Bisons played in the National League, and they also had brief stretches in the short-lived Players League and Federal League, which both are considered to have had major-league status.
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