The Blue Jays have received authorization to hold Summer Camp in Toronto. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca first reported the news on Twitter; his colleague Ben Nicholson-Smith has further details (Twitter link). They broke things down in a chat with Hazel Mae (video link).
This was the anticipated outcome, but it didn’t come easily. The relevant Canadian authorities waited until the last moment to give the nod of approval to a quarantine plan that the team will utilize.
For the July training period, the Jays will only bring players that have tested negative for COVID-19 infection. The whole team and key personnel is presently gathered at the organization’s spring facility in Dunedin, Florida.
Once the club is brought by charter up to Toronto, it’ll be limited to Rogers Centre grounds. They’ll stay in the adjacent hotel, with food and other necessities brought into the facility. In addition to regular testing of players and personnel, they’ll be isolated even from hotel staff to the extent possible.
As the Sportsnet crew discusses, this is in many respects a dry run for the forthcoming regular season. The Jays are hoping to utilize their usual home park to host games, but convincing the relevant authorities that it’s wise could represent a significant challenge. That would require comfort with the idea of the Blue Jays and their competitors criss-crossing the border.
What an adorable headline. I hope they have fun this summer and we’ll see them back at school in the fall.
Haha I didn’t even notice that until I read your comment… But yeah it is kinda funny. I wonder if they’ll do some archery and canoeing!? And of course they’ll be sure to get in a handful of nature walks!! Just hope no fights break out over who gets the top bunk!! :-p
Haha. I was thinking the same thing when I read the headline.
Y’all get in the bus. We’re goin to….Canada!!!!
No offence friend but you can stay where your at
Internet won for today
So what’s going to wind up being the plan of action? Are they going to get permission to host games as normal or are they going to have to play out of their minor league park in upstate NY? If Canadian authorities are making them isolate, even from hotel staff, I can’t imagine that they’re going to allow teams to come from the US on a regular basis for the regular season…
Frustrating. As a Canadian the last thing I want to see is Americans up here. Our worse COVID day was under 2,000 cases in one day. Florida is now averaging around 5 times that everyday. Canada has 37 million people, Florida under 30 million. I’d much prefer the Jays to play out of Buffalo and keep all those risks down in the USA.
I bet you yell at kids to get off your lawn too.
I mean he’s not wrong. There’s no reason to have international travel when there’s a handful of affiliate parks they could play at in the US. Getting them out of Dunedin was needed, but Buffalo probably shouldve been the place in my opinion.
Rogers center is closed to the public and the players will be staying in the hotels at the stadium. They will be isolated so it is safer than Buffalo.
When the kids on the lawn are acting careless and risking the life of those around them than tone may be the least of the concerns.
Many Canadians do not want individuals who have been residing in the states to enter Canada for the time being. It’s not you, well it is you but we’re trying not to say that directly.
@Ham77
I bet you don’t use a c*ndom with prostit*es..
i bet you dont speak to your mother with that mouth.
I disagree. If they’re isolating in the hotel and Rogers centre grounds then honestly….. they should probably bring the whole division into a bubble up here.
I’d rather have the whole league staying here full time than road teams coming to visit after their series in Tampa or Miami.
Roughly 250 cases per day in the entire country for the past week or more. Florida is putting up 40 times that many with less population.
I don’t trust the players to stay in that bubble and interacting with just people in that bubble.
The US is being ravaged by Corona. Canada doesn’t need them infecting our workforce and elderly forcing a second wave.
The Blue Jay’s are fortunate that they have a hotel at the complex. Many other clubs do not. I agree with some of the comments above. There’s no reason to play to an empty stadium in Toronto and risk bringing the virus North when you can play in an empty stadium in Buffalo
Toronto is also a hub for the NHL. If the athletes can live in a bubble for a few months and take all precautions they should be ok. But, adding the NHL guys with the baseball guys, there could be shenanigans.
I’m curious as to just how many personnel travels with a team? 100? 200? How many individuals are needed total from clubhouse attendants to luggage handlers to gophers in addition players, coaches, trainers, press, television crews and so on. What do you think is needed for 1 game, 500 people or more?
Move the Blue Jays to Buffalo, Charlotte, Portland or Las Vegas permanently, its an American game.
.
Is that why baseball is also dying
Still more profitable than any Canadian sport or league.
Having x12 the population (for now) will do that
Canadian death rate compared to total cases, 08%, US rate .04%, and we can see a doctor and receive treatment faster minus socialist medicine..
I would take those numbers with a grain of salt even if they were true after yesterday’s report that Ontario is and was including deaths where the deceased tested positive for COVID even if they didn’t die from COVID related complications. Ontario makes up about 30-40% of the deaths in Canada.
Yes, Canada has almost twice the case mortality rate and with 30% fewer tests per-capita. So much for government-controlled health care.
Boatmen, the difference is more than the 40% of COVID deaths reported from Ontario. Remove 40% of Canadian deaths and they’d still be slightly higher than the U.S. case mortality rate.
We cannot ignore the importance of the method and criteria used in the collection of data. Comparing data collected out of one province in Canada to a State can be similar to apples to oranges. Florida is easy to pick on for its limiting criteria.
Would like to see your math on that one. Total resolved cases in the US is 1,323,458 of those 131,566 dead. That is 9%. Canada has 68,347 cases resolved with 8,642 dead which is a death rate of 11%.
You can determine death rate by total cases, most are still active so you don’t know if they are going to die. You have to go based on total resolved cases and deaths.
Meant “can’t”
Bill nd5 : Now there is a 100% BS statement. Canadian rate of infection is a tiny fraction of the US with more testing on a per-person basis. Deaths in Canada are a TOTAL of 8,663 right now – USA is 131k with 250-750 more a day. The death rate jumped here due to it hitting a few nursing homes hard – thus killing off a lot of older people – with the smaller overall population (a bit more than 1/10th of the US) it is hard for overall averages to adjust. In many parts of the US if they didn’t confirm COVID before death they refuse to check after. No one in Canada died and left their family with a $1 million medical bill, which has happened in the US.
So please, if you are in the US, stay there and don’t come up here.
northey, the US had big hits in nursing homes hard too. US was hit harder because it’s a tourist attraction all year round. Not just Ontario.
Nobody was going to Canada in Feb/March. In fact, everyone during March break was trying to get out of Canada. Canadians were lucky.
We get it, you hate Canada.
Baseball is dying because the owners are going for max dollars on cable and specialty channels and no kids watch anymore. I watched on free tv via antenna and fell in love with the game as a kid.
I thought they were going to play in Mar A Lago.
One thing the article doesn’t mention is players need two negative tests in a row in order to make the trip to Toronto.
Once a cheater always a cheater. Personal opinion, bergman should be suspended for the abbreviated 2020 season and all of 2021.
Consider this. 50,000 infections a day in the USA. 105,000 infections in total in Canada. Every 2 days the US has as many new infections as Canada in entirety.
That’s why the NHL is going to bring all teams to Canada to play.
I do however feel it makes more sense for the Jays to play in Buffalo this Season.
A plane full of players and staff coming from Florida into Canada. lol. What could go wrong. Jays are going to have to play in the US anyway. Why train in Toronto?
I am in Canada and don’t have a problem with ML teams coming here. The players and staff are going to be tested almost daily. Obviously, someone who tests positive won’t be put on the plane with the rest of the team to come North. The numbers are small enough that contact tracing will be easy enough. And the teams can pretty much be kept in a bubble. They have a significant incentive to comply with protocols as if there is an outbreak on a team, they likely fall out of contention.
As for the great math in above comments:
The number of deaths in Canada per million people is 229. In the USA it is 398. (Covid Meter)
Of course that is historical. Right now, which is the most important focus, the rate of new cases in the USA is 200x of those in Canada.
Nothing else matters, Austin Martin just signed!