Four reasons every night should be ’80s night for the Blue Jays

Four reasons every night should be ’80s night for the Blue Jays


Last night was ’80s night at the Skydome Rogers Centre, and after the Blue Jays 16-7 trouncing of the visiting New York Yankees, we can’t help but wonder why the club doesn’t bust out ’80s night on a regular basis. After all, where else can artificial turf, thousands of faux mullets, 90-mph fastballs and Glass Tiger coexist harmoniously? Sure, not everyone was thrilled with the Jays’ kitschy PR gag, but we’re all for injecting a little more fun into what can be an unrelenting 162-game schedule (we’ll also celebrate any excuse to bring up former Jays great George Bell’s infamous Jheri curl ‘do). After the jump, four reasons every night should be ’80s night at the Rogers Centre:

1. The fans got into it
Between the Mike Reno headbands and Rod Stewart–inspired wigs, the ’80s were alive and well for the 37,000-plus in attendance. Frankly, we think the game day staff should rock the all-spandex look (way) more often.

2. And so did the players
Case in point: check out the Jays pitchers during the national anthems (why Ricky Romero doesn’t let his locks flow for real is beyond us). Also, catcher and TL favourite J.P. Arencibia supposedly did his pre-game interviews in a Dee Snider wig. Not a thing wrong with that, we say.

3. The bells and whistles
Speaking of Arencibia, he proved that no detail was overlooked (except, you know, actually wearing their retro jerseys) when he took to Twitter last night to enlist suggestions on his ’80s at-bat song. Even the folks at Rogers Sportsnet went all out with a totally rad retro broadcast featuring old-school graphics and a scoreboard that appeared only when they were coming in or out of a commercial break.

4. 16 runs, 20 hits
Of course we’d be remiss not to mention the biggest reason we loved Thursday’s ’80s night: the Jays’ bats were on fire. Every Blue Jay recorded a hit, as the team scored a season-high 16 runs—the highest ever without a single home run. It will probably be a while before we see another ’80s-themed game at the Rogers Centre, but at least for one night the Jays were the best around.