A second home: Blue Jays ready to soak in the support at Sahlen Field

The Toronto Blue Jays haven't played in Rogers Centre since 2019. The way things are going with Covid-19 and the vaccination struggles in Canada, it's plausible they won't get back there until 2022.

Meanwhile, the crowds are slowly coming back to Major League Baseball and teams from coast to coast are reuniting with their fan bases. Boston's Fenway Park and Cleveland's Progressive Field have joined others in offering full capacity this week and several more will follow over the next few weeks.

The Blue Jays have been left behind. They didn't get a whole lot of support the first two months of the season at their spring base in Dunedin, Fla., with most Canadians still home and fans of other teams – notably the in-town Tampa Bay Rays – getting most of the backing.

That's about to change. The Blue Jays open their second season at Sahlen Field on Tuesday night, when they host the Miami Marlins in a 7:07 p.m. game. They enjoyed the surroundings last summer, going 17-9 in Buffalo and earning their first playoff berth since 2016 while playing in front of a few thousand cardboard cutouts.

But this is going to be quite a bit different: There will be actual fans in the stands, likely in growing numbers as the schedule progresses. And they'll be watching a major league game in Buffalo for the first time since the Federal League of 1915.

On most nights this summer, almost all of them will be rooting for the Blue Jays and players who spent their Triple-A days at the corner of Washington and Swan such as Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Teoscar Hernandez and Danny Jansen.

"We loved playing at Sahlen Field last year. I don't know what it was, we played really good ball there," Jays infielder Joe Panik said over the weekend in Cleveland. "Instead of blowing to right (in Dunedin), the wind is going to be blowing to left and it's going to be a little bit cooler. So that's going to be something good for our bodies.

"Both places, we're comfortable. Obviously, trust me, we all would love to be in Toronto. I personally would love to be there. But with circumstances the way they are, we're really looking forward to getting to Buffalo and hopefully we'll get some Blue Jays fans up there."

Pitcher Ross Stripling joined the Blue Jays late last season and immediately saw the comfort zone his new club found in Sahlen Field. After one game, Stripling said it was noticeable how Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka was uncomfortable throwing on a cool night in Buffalo and how the Bombers in general didn't like their situation in going 2-5 here.

"We're excited. Those last four games, against the Rays at home in Dunedin, they were all cheering for the Rays," Stripling said. "And there were even chants for the Rays in technically our home stadium. We're out in the dugout going, 'Man, this stinks.' ... Just to have fans in the stands and get some energy in a stadium that's cheering for us and excited for us and wants us to win, that will definitely be a big difference."

Like last year, the stadium has undergone some major renovations. But this time, the work is much more permanent. 

The clubhouses on the service level have been given a huge makeover and whenever the Bisons return, they will have fancy new digs on the third-base side of the stadium after spending their first 32 seasons on the first-base side. Lots of room was created by taking the batting cages and pitching mounds out of the stadium tunnel and into a new building erected in front of the parking garage behind right field.

The bullpens have been moved out of foul territory and a new two-tiered structure is up in right-center field. The lights and light towers are new and so are the foul poles, replaced for the first time in the ballpark's history. After replacing the infield last summer, the Blue Jays opted to do the outfield in Buffalo this year, so the Bisons essentially get a completely new field from what they last played on in 2019.

"It was really cool to see the amount of work that has gone into that facility over the last year and a half to make it available to us last year and now to try to raise that standard even further and provide that experience for fans and players," said Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins.

"It has been enormous. A lot of different people have put a lot of time and energy into it and to see it once again coming to life ... that facility has just had a huge renovation that will benefit for a long time, which is good for the Buffalo Bisons and good for the Toronto Blue Jays."

But it will be particularly good for everyone to hear actual people in the park. By some estimates, there were fewer than 300 people in the facility during games last year – counting the players, coaches and umpires. When there's no fans, you don't need much servicing personnel. The park will come alive again this year.

The Jays are currently committed for 18 games through July 4 but are likely to play several more here. If they stay the whole season, they would play 59 games in Buffalo. They went 10-11 in Dunedin and are currently 27-25 overall, sitting 1½ games out of a wild-card slot.

"It will be great to be able to see our people that make us what we are at the ballpark," said Mike Buczkowski, the president of Rich Baseball Operations. "So many people that worked at concessions, so many ushers and security people are going to be there again. That was as strange as anything last year, walking into the ballpark and just not seeing the regular people that you run into."

And the staff will be there to support one of the biggest public gatherings the city has seen since the pandemic began. It will be about 6,600 for this week's games against the Marlins and Houston Astros, about 7,600 for the New York Yankees' visit that starts June 15 and probably more than that for future games.

"Even though the uniforms on the field said Yankees and Red Sox and Blue Jays, it was just a strange feeling without people there last year," Buczkowski said. "And so to actually have people be able to see what I'm calling most likely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see actual regular season major league games at our stadium is going to be special for a lot of people.

"A lot of season ticket holders have been there since Day One when we opened (in 1988). They're now going to be able to see what we had hoped to someday happen in Buffalo. They're going to be able to see Major League Baseball, and that's really cool."

Lefty Robbie Ray (2-2) will start for the Blue Jays on Tuesday against Miami's Sandy Alcantara (2-4). Toronto rookie sensation Alek Manoah (1-0) makes his second big-league start Wednesday. If you couldn't get a ticket, the games can be seen on the MLB Extra Innings package and MLB.TV.

"It's going to be great for us. I think we'll feed off that energy," said veteran second baseman Marcus Semien, who was not with the Blue Jays last season. "I'm looking forward to seeing the stadium and the city and my family is there waiting for me. So that will be nice. We're all looking forward to it."