Why the Blue Jays home opener—and season—is going to be different this year

Every year, spring brings with it the first Toronto Blue Jays game at the Rogers Centre. Most years—at least most years in the last two decades—this ritual goes off without much fanfare. Sure, there’s the almost perfunctory sellout crowd (many of those tickets being corporate giveaways or wildly reduced-price promotions), but their beer-fuelled chants echoing under the depressing calm of a closed dome always seemed to ring hollow. What has there been to cheer for, really? This year, things are different (the beer won’t be flowing as freely tonight, for starters). The Blue Jays are wearing blue again—and so are diehard fans all around town, re-emerging at the sight of something promising. The team is young. They play hard. And they’re good. Brett Lawrie has awesome written all over him (except for where he has other things written all over him), Jose Bautista is the best hitter in baseball, and Ricky Romero might just be an underdog Cy Young prospect. Count us among the excited. After the longest opening day in baseball history last Thursday, the Jays took two of three games from the Cleveland Indians—and only lost the third by one run. Tonight, they take on the Boston Red Sox, which means it should be a good game, and an important one against division rivals. It also means thirsty fans may be able to find some beer in the visiting locker room.