Six Hundred Days Later -- Trenton Thunder

Trenton Thunder had their home opener on May 4, 2021 as the Buffalo Bisons (the AAA affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays) -- six hundred days after they closed the 2019 season as the Yankees AA team.

As the man in front of us said, "it is starting to feel more normal."

Starting with only able to sell 1,400 assigned seats in a stadium that has 6,150 seats (plus more people when they include standing room only), it felt empty. Last year when they hosted the high school tournament they only sold 500 seats a game, but as they were unassigned seats, people clustered together. Shh! Don't tell the Governor! Would have been hard to pull that off for the opening game since Gov. Phil Murphy was in the stands with us three sections away.

It was nice to be back.

Some notes for years from now when I can't remember this logic:

1) Last year the Yankees decided Trenton Thunder would no longer host their AA team. The "why" is murky, I believe an inadequate playing surface was mentioned, as were some other insults, followed by the usual non-excuse excuses, such as we need less minor league ballparks.

2) That left Waterfront Park (now Arm and Hammer Park) without a team.

3) Enter the Draft League -- a new league comprised of mostly post-high school students who did not make the minor leagues, but still want to hold onto their dreams of playing pro ball.

4) Waterfront Park was designated the first Draft League location.

Here is where COVID comes into play.

1) The border between Canada and the United States is still closed, meaning the Toronto Blue Jays cannot host other teams because those players cannot cross the border. Making the Blue Jays homeless.

2) The Buffalo Bisons stadium (in Buffalo, NY) planned to do major renovations this summer and were going to be homeless.

3) At the end of March it was announced the Bisons would move to Trenton. They'll be the Trenton Thunder while home, and the Buffalo Bisons while on the road.

4) The Toronto Blue Jays will continue to play in their Spring Training location in Florida while construction continues. When construction is done, they'll move to Buffalo. (I so wanted to write shuffle off to Buffalo, but didn't want to be too corny.)

5) When the border reopens, I believe Toronto will stay in Buffalo and the Bisons will continue to stay in Trenton.

Meanwhile...

1) The Draft League is still on and set to start in a couple of weeks. They still need a home, likely a local college.

2) The Draft League will be called Trenton Thunder.

3) So, on any given day this summer, there will likely be stats for two different Trenton Thunder games in two different locations with two different rosters.

Clear as mud, right?

As for the game, experts said the playing was much better at the AAA level. I noticed a couple of bonehead moves.

1) The short stop fielded the ball with the bases loaded and seemed utterly confused about what to do with it, allowing at least one run to score.

2) The pitcher was hit in the back by a line drive. Should pitchers know to keep their eyes on the ball?

Thunder won 6-1 against the Worchester Woo Sox.

Fireworks set to the lamest soundtrack ever (15 second snippets of Springsteen and Bon Jovi songs) followed the game.