(they’re no. 1…in socialized health care!)
With apologies to Dick Halligan, Jr. for the above headline, we’ll ignore Roy Halliday’s CG one-hitter this evening for a moment and rewind to Thursday night at the Rogers Centre when Yankee reliever Alfredo Aceves narrowly avoided being beaned by one of the paying customers. The Bombers’ Nick Swisher tells The Journal News’ Peter Abraham paraphases the Bombers’ Nick Swisher in Toronto, “the worst environment in the league for opposing players,” a sentiment echoed by one of Abraham’s readers ;
I have been to many games since I moved here from Southern Ontario last year. In all but two or three of those games, I have seen large-scale fights break out all over the stadium, police officers having to run to the sections to make arrests, unbelievable profanity being used, as well as debris tossed onto the field.
I was at the opener this year against Detroit and the fans began throwing paper airplanes onto the field. It all started when a fan threw a baseball at Curtis Granderson and just missed him. Jim Leyland took the Tigers off the field and a riot almost broke out. They eventually calmed down when they were warned the Jays would have to forfeit if order was not restored.
At the risk of condoning violence against members of the New York Yankees, for the second time this season I have to marvel ; who says Toronto’s not a real baseball town?