You Most Likely Know It as Rogers Centre

But it will always be SkyDome to me.

I took my first trip north of the border this past weekend and saw the Blue Jays on Friday night.  I'll just focus on my trip to the SkyDome for now and get to the rest of my time in Canada in another post.  On my MLB At the Ballpark app, I can keep track of baseball games I've gone to going back to 2005.  I've put in all the games that I can remember going to during that time and according to the app, I had been to 54 games (probably missing a couple at Shea Stadium and/or old Yankee Stadium) in 21 stadiums (definitely accurate) and seen 27 teams during that time (I might have missed a few games, but I think that was accurate).  Two of the three teams I hadn't seen were the Blue Jays and Royals (the Rangers are the other one).  I crossed those two off the list.

I met my friend Adam at our hotel in Toronto on Friday afternoon.  After relaxing for a bit, we headed down to the SkyDome early.  One of the best things about the SkyDome is that it has a great location in downtown Toronto (which happens to be the fourth largest city in North America).  The outside of the building isn't particularly attractive.  It's just very concretey.  The best side is the side with the hotel on it, which has some windows on the outside.  After taking a lap, we headed into the stadium.  When you walk in the gate that we used, it's like you're in a parking garage.  Think of those old ramps at Shea Stadium and make them more like a parking garage and that's the first thing we saw when we walked in.  In fairness, some of the other gates put you right on the concourse, which makes for a much nicer entrance.

The outside of the SkyDome looks pretty cool in this picture.

And not so much in this picture.

We went down to the lower concourse and took a lap to check out the food options, which were somewhat limited.  I got some Cajun wings from Quaker Steak & Lube.  Adam Richman went to Quaker Steak & Lube in the Pittsburgh episode of the classic television program Man vs. Food and I had never had it before, so it was worth a try.  The wings were good, but very messy.  Adam went to a deli concession stand in the stadium and got a sandwich named after Bill Cosby for some reason.  We sat down a little past first base to eat and watch some batting practice.

Apparently SkyDome had Canada's first Quaker Steak & Lube.  That's a good job when it comes to food, but they need more good options.

Our view for batting practice

Then we headed up to our seats on the upper level behind home plate shortly before the game started.  I always enjoy singing the Star Spangled Banner in another country.  Then I stood politely and quietly for O Canada, but my hand was most definitely not over my heart.  One interesting note about O Canada is that the English and French versions do not mean the same thing.

As for the game, it was not very competitive.  Jason Vargas took on J.A. Happ.  Lorenzo Cain drove in the first run for the Royals in the second and they never looked back.  (Speaking of people named Lorenzo, Dodgers' third base coach Lorenzo Bundy definitely has the best name of any third base coach in the league.)  Cain would later homer in the 8th after Happ was strangely left in the game with a high pitch count and trailing 4-1.  Alex Gordon also hit a home run and Jose Bautista hit a home run to drive in the only run of the game for the Blue Jays.  The Royals won 6-1.

This was our view for the game.  Jose Bautista is hitting a home run in the picture.  The artificial turf looks terrible with those black streaks in the outfield.

So how does the SkyDome rank among the now 22 stadiums I've been to?  I'll make an updated list at some point this year, but let's just say it ranks poorly.  It has a good location and cheap tickets ($13 per seat on Stubhub, probably the cheapest tickets I'll buy all season).  The hotel in center field is kind of cool.  There were some people leaning out from their rooms to watch the game.  But there was a lot not to like.  First, it's one of only two stadiums in the majors that lacks natural grass (Tropicana Field is the other).  It's the only stadium that only has dirt around the bases rather than all around the infield.  Quaker Steak & Lube was good, but the food selection was lacking in general.  The atmosphere wasn't particularly good (small crowd, 21,543).  It's kind of like an updated version of Shea Stadium with a retractable roof (which was fortunately open thanks to the 66 degree game time temperature).  I often sit high up behind home plate when I visit the various stadiums around the league.  SkyDome is more like older stadiums than newer ones in that the upper deck is very high and kind of right on top of the field.  I prefer the newer stadiums where the upper deck is a little lower even if it's a little farther back from the field.  One of my biggest issues with the stadium (besides the fact that it's not in the United States) is that it is apparently the only stadium in the league without any craft beer available.  In the words of Jimmy Volmer, "I mean, come on!"  Around the stadium, it was almost only Bud and Bud Light on tap.  If you're going to have a Canadian city with a baseball team, that team at least needs to have Canadian beer widely available.  I did manage to find a concession stand on the upper level with a wide selection of beer available in cans and I had an Alexander Keith's Red Amber Ale, which was decent.  Alexander Keith's is from Nova Scotia, but it's owned by Labatt, which is of course owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.

The other thing the Blue Jays should do is become Canada's team (if you're going to have a team in Canada, they should make an effort to belong to the entire country).  They got huge crowds in Montreal for two preseason games with the Mets.  They should play one homestand per year in another Canadian city.  It would work in Montreal, but stadiums might be an issue in other cities.  They're not getting great attendance in Toronto (they're 22nd in baseball), so I think they could find a way to make this work even if they don't have baseball stadiums that would hold huge crowds in other Canadian cities.

I think SkyDome could be fixed.  It needs to be renovated so that you don't enter and think you're in a parking garage.  Grass needs to be put in (I've read that the Blue Jays want grass, but there is concern about having the inside of the stadium exposed to the elements much more with the roof open more often for the grass).  I would definitely try to open up the upper concourse, and maybe even totally redo the top half of the stadium.  Sacrifice some seats if you need to and make that upper level more open and just lower in general (the Blue Jays have plenty of seats that they don't need anyway, but that could be an issue for the CFL and the Bills).  And for the love of God, get some Canadian craft beer in there!

Adam and me after the game