It was announced earlier Wednesday, that the Toronto Blue Jays would play two exhibition games March 30th and April 1st 2017. The Blue Jays will face the Pittsburgh Pirates during those two games. Tickets are reportedly going on sale Saturday October 1st.
Baseball Returns to Montreal
This will be the third National League team to face the Blue Jays in the Montreal exhibitions. The only American League team to face the Blue Jays was the Boston Red Sox who faced the Jays in Montreal this past spring. Over 106,000 fans filled up Olympic Stadium to see the Red Sox and Jays. Before Red Sox series, the Jays played the New York Mets in 2014 and the Cincinatti Reds in 2015. Both of those series saw over 95,000 fans fill up the Big O to watch the games.
This is good news for Montreal, and it’s baseball fans who want to continue to show the world that they want baseball back in the city of Montreal. It is also great for the Blue Jays to grow their team popularity in Montreal. It has always been an Expos town, even though the Expos haven’t been around since 2004. The Blue Jays will never replace the Expos completely, or permanently, but they get to show their brand of baseball to the younger fans.
Honoring the Past
The exhibition games have also been used as a platform for the Montreal baseball project to promote the goal of returning Major League Baseball to Montreal. It is also a great way of honoring players like Vladimir Guerrero, Tim Raines, the late great Gary Carter, the 1994 Expos team and just recently Pedro Martinez.
It could be a special weekend if Raines and Guerrero get voted into the baseball Hall of Fame. The stadium would be packed to honor those top Expos. Andre Dawson also deserves his own night, the former Expo and Chicago Cubs great was voted into the Hall. Honoring Raines in front of 40,000 plus fans would be very special for everyone.
Keep an eye out for special events to pop in Montreal for that spring weekend. Many well know baseball names and former Expos tend to show up and host different events. More news will be known the closer we get to those games. Once again tickets are set to go on sale October 1st . If it’s anything like the last couple of years, the best seats sell out quickly.
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