Opening Day

Almost like the changing of the seasons, baseball's Opening Day means spring is here and summer will soon follow.

I'm a Toronto Blue Jays fan. Why does a Knoxville native follow the Blue Jays? The Knoxville area is full of Braves fans. Lots of Knoxvillians follow the Reds or the Cardinals. Of course, you can always find some Yankees or Red Sox fans no matter where you are. But you don't run into many Blue Jays fans. It all goes back to my childhood.

When I was growing up, the major league club in Toronto had a AA farm team in Knoxville, the Knoxville Blue Jays, known as the K-Jays. Back then, on Monday nights during the summer, a family could take their church bulletin from the day before to the K-Jays games and get in free. Free. The whole family. Parking was also free at the old Bill Meyer Stadium. The experience at the ballpark was not necessarily first class. Looking back, poor plumbing, faulty wooden bleachers down the right field line and poor sight lines were all part of the mix. But that's not what I remember most. What I remember most is that I was getting to watch guys who would soon be playing in the major leagues (Cecil Fielder, Jesse Barfield, Fred McGriff and others); great seats (they probably weren't great seats but because so few people went to games on Mondays, the seats seemed pretty great to me); and from time to time we would get ice cream in a mini-batting helmet. There's no better way to eat ice cream!

Fun memories. Go Blue Jays. Enjoy the baseball season.