So it must have been well over a decade since I’ve been to a baseball game in Toronto. I honesty can’t remember the last time I willingly sat through nine innings to watch any team play. For the Jays at least, their glory years were back in the early 90’s when they won a back-to-back World Series championships. Since then I haven’t followed MLB at all.

With that being said, it seemed like a completely new experience for me when I visited the Rogers Centre to watch the Jays vs. Rangers game. I didn’t expect to see so many fans decked out in Blue Jays gear. I showed some team spirit too, since I bought a homemade uchiwa to the game. The only thing is, I was cheering for the opposite team. LOL.

Actually, my main reason for going to the game was to see Darvish Yu pitch against the Jays. Since the Jays didn’t manage to acquire him from the trade, the next best thing was to catch him while the Rangers visited Toronto. So last week I bought three tickets so my sister, my friend K and I could go to the game together. HOWEVER, I found out the day after I had purchased tickets that the Rangers decided to switch their pitching rotation. This meant Darvish would end up pitching a day earlier. (T___T)

After a slight panic, we ended up buying an extra set of tickets for Monday’s game. It was a bit of a bummer since I couldn’t get refunds for Tuesday’s tickets, but at least we wouldn’t miss seeing him in action.

So Monday afternoon, I rushed out of work and headed downtown. Because it was raining, traffic was pretty much at a standstill the entire way to Toronto. Luckily I made it to Union just before 7pm, then K and I made a quick dash towards the Rogers Centre. The only mistake I made was not going to the washroom before taking our seats, because we ended up sitting smack in the centre of the row. Hehe.

The Rangers were up to bat first as many late arrivers continued to trickle in. Once the first half was over, Darvish finally stepped onto the mount. I was waving my uchiwa madly as he did a couple of practice throws, but most of the fans around us were completely disinterested. Darvish started off pitching really well against the Jays. Everytime he struck out a player, K and I would cheer. Everyone else in our section was completely silent. We seriously thought we would get beat up by all the guys sitting around us! Haha. The Rangers scored early on, but the Jays looked like they were starting to catch up. At one point in time a fly ball headed towards our section. Because I’m such a scaredy-cat I quickly ducked underneath my uchiwa as a natural reflex. K had a good laugh at my expense. Hehe.

It wasn’t until 7th inning that the game began to stall. By then the Jays had pulled out their starting pitcher. The new pitcher promptly gave up two home runs, which meant he was pulled out too. Rangers ended up leading 4 to 1. A few fans started leaving afterwards. It was actually better for us, since the row in front of us cleared out. Darvish stopped pitching after the seventh inning, so a reliever was there to finish the game.

After the bottom of the 8th, a few Blue Jays cheerleaders came to our section and started tossing out free baseball caps to the fans. Everyone was jumping up and down trying to catch a hat. Since I was waving my uchiwa around, one of the girls spotted me and tossed a hat in my direction. The hat ended up bouncing off my head and got snatched by the guy sitting a few seats down. I was so mad!!

Anyway, after a couple more strikeouts in the 9th inning, the game was officially over. Rangers had won 4 to 1. Everyone started to clear out afterwards. We decided to walk over to the visitor’s dugout to see if we could catch a fleeting glimpse of Darvish up close. There were quite a few Japanese fans who gathered by the dugout. However, it seemed like Darvish was long gone. So after taking a photo together, we ended up leaving too.

The game itself was actually a lot of fun. We had a great view from 1st base. Since Darvish pitches right, the view was certainly worth it. *Cough cough* The Rangers play again in Toronto in August. If Darvish pitches again, hopefully I’ll be able to go. =)