Pete and I flew into YYZ on Sunday 6/9/02 after one of the most hellish flights ever. All the way from La Guardia to Toronto this damned alarm kept going off and one of the LCD screen motors kept grinding. Did our heads no good at all after 2 nights in New York, I can tell you. After we entered Canada we checked in to the hotel and then wandered down to the Sky Dome. There was a game on (Minnesota ?) so we picked up a couple of bleacher tix to check out the interior. We discovered that apparently Canadians have no legs. The rows of seats were so close together we literally could not sit down. Also we discovered that Canadians do not heckle after we yelled "Raul (Mondesi), you look marvelous" and got all these amazed and puzzled looks from the few fans out in the right field bleachers. Feeling a little slow we decided to head out, get some dinner (the beef in Toronto is GREAT btw) and then hit the sack.

We had tickets to the Giants/Blue Jays Monday night game so we had some time to kill. We wandered down to the waterfront for a little look see. Pete imitated DiCaprio, we had a coffee, checked out some boats and then went to the tallest structure in the world, the Canadian National Tower. The glass floor is pretty cool and the tower is really tall, but the view from the top, apart from being able to look directly down onto the Sky Dome (closed unfortunately), is actually a bit disappointing because there are no other buildings in Toronto even a third as tall so you get no feeling of height. The Empire State felt much taller. After that, lunch and then off to the game.

I think I mentioned that there is very little leg room in the seats at SkyDome, even in the lower deck where we were, which is weird because it has the widest concourse I have ever seen. Must be 80'-100' wide ! Once we got to our seats just past 1st and squeezed in we immediately got into the spirit of things, if you know what I mean. Clapping and cheering and backing Shinjo with "Shinjo, Gann Bare" which surprised the hell out of the Japanese fans several rows in front to us who were there to see Shinjo play. We also got chatting to a couple of Toronto fans sitting just behind us, one of whom turned out to be a DJ on EZRock, a local radio station. She promised to mention us in her Tuesday night broadcast, which she did. Click here to play the 1.3MB wav file (or right click and download to save). The roof of this place is incredible but it was a bit strange with it looming over center field. The Giants ended up losing (damned DH and artificial turf !), but it was still interesting to have to use a passport to go to a baseball game. After the game we headed out into the Toronto night life and ended up at this place called Smokeless Joes run by a guy called .... Joe. Very cool. Fresh oysters (not really my thing) and over 100 different beers (definitely my thing). Joe insisted that we try some of the higher octane models and after that things get a bit hazy. The verdict is that Toronto is a great town and I would have liked to have had more time to check it out. The down side is that to really enjoy a game at the architectural and engineering marvel that is the Toronto Sky Dome you really have to be literally, and not just figuratively, legless !