It had been 711 days. Stretching from Aug. 29, 2019, until Tuesday night. That's a long time for a city to be without its team. This was the week the Buffalo Bisons finally came home.
Sure, there had been baseball during that time in Sahlen Field, with the Toronto Blue Jays playing 49 games in the last two seasons, but the real home team wasn't here. The Bisons first had to endure the cancellation of the 2020 minor-league season, which left them off the field for the first time since 1978, and then they spent the first three months of the 2021 campaign as orphans in Trenton, N.J., while the Blue Jays set up shop in Buffalo.
Starting Tuesday night, things seemed largely back in place.
Buster was around. The chicken wing race was back. Fans were regularly shown waving and dancing on the Big Board. Tina Turner's "Simply the Best" pounded through the sound system after the final out of four consecutive Bisons victories, as the song has since the 1990s.
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"It's been great. It's been comforting," said Mike Buczkowski, the president of Rich Baseball Operations. "I guess it just feels right. And not that the Jays didn't feel right, but obviously they were just very different. Now you see the classic white Bisons jerseys and you get to see fans who couldn't come to the Jays games. I'm seeing a lot of people already that I did not see at the major-league games."
The fans are cheering for their team and the noise has been noticed. In Trenton, remember, the Bisons were outcasts at times and dealing with fans rooting for the other team, just as the Blue Jays were in Buffalo while playing the Yankees and Red Sox.
"I know me personally, I'm super thankful," said outfielder Forrest Wall. "All the guys are. The atmosphere is great. It's bright lights, a loud atmosphere. That's why we play the game and we're super thankful that the fans have been awesome so far."
The new digs
The Bisons' buses rolled into the stadium parking lot from Lehigh Valley last Sunday after 1 a.m. Many of the players had not seen Sahlen Field. They were tired and most went to the hotel. But they were ready, too. On Monday's off day, many came to check out their gigantic new clubhouse and training areas left behind by the Blue Jays. And ballplayers as a rule do not come to the park on an off day.
Longtime clubhouse manager Scott Lesher, who spent the summer with the team in the New Jersey capital, said the Trenton front office took care of the Herd as if it were its own team. But as he aptly pointed out during a media tour that morning: "This is going to be a whole other world."
"It's the sheer size of the main clubhouse that jumps right out at you," said Brad Bisbing, the Bisons' new assistant general manager. "There's so much more room for players and staff. And there is so much more staff with a minor-league team these days than there used to be, so many people connected to the players' health and wellness that you have to have space for. And we do.
"Guys are going to want to be here at the ballpark because the facilities are so tremendous. They're going to want to play here. That's going to help us not only in the immediate future, but also for many years to come. Word is going to get around to how great these facilities are."
A reporter asked outfielder and Triple-A rookie Logan Warmoth after one of the games what his impressions of the ballpark were and he sat on a video call with a wide smile while the question was being finished.
"When you asked that I got the chills just thinking about it," Warmoth said. "It's been a grind. Last year (at the Rochester alternate training site) to spring training, Trenton. We just fought through it. And then when when the time came to come to Buffalo, we were just juiced. I think the majority of the team came in on the off day on Monday just to check it out. That's never happens on a Monday. You get an off day in August, and you're not coming to the field. But everyone was just so excited."
The new GM gets his mic
In a franchise that dates to the 1870s, Buczkowski had been the Bisons' longest-tenured general manager as he first took over the role in 1993. He was promoted to his latest position on March 9, 2020, while assistant GM Anthony Sprague was promoted to GM.
Sprague never got to run his team. The pandemic hit and you know the rest. That changed Tuesday. Sprague, Bisbing and radio voice Pat Malacaro were all at the ballpark by 5 a.m. to do appearances on local TV morning shows and to get ready for opening night.
Buczkowski has officially greeted fans at the microphone on the field at the start of a new season longer than any man in the city's history. Sprague finally got the mic he originally thought he was going to have on April 17, 2020, the date of last season's opener.
"Welcome back everybody to Sahlen Field for Bison Baseball," was Sprague's greeting. Fitting words.
"I had everything in my head what I wanted to say and then I went off script a little bit and just was speaking from the heart," Sprague recalled Friday night. "I actually felt more comfortable doing that than what I had planned out. I've done it before, speaking at festival nights and other stuff. But not opening day as the GM. Not the opening day of 711 days without a game.
"So it was more daunting. Looking out, you're seeing everybody. My heart was racing a little bit more than I expected."
Buczkowski, one of Sprague's mentors since the new GM arrived on the scene since 2002, felt like a proud papa.
"I was telling someone the other day how cool it was and how strange it was at the same time," Buczkowski said. "I was down on the field walking in the mayor for the first pitch and you hear the introduction of Anthony. He's out there and I know a big smile came across my face. I'm listening to him and it was very heartfelt. Overall, just a great feeling, a great job."
The day of the opener, Sprague and Buczkowski finally changed their Twitter feeds. Sprague had remained with @BisonsAGM while Buczkowski was @BuffaloBisonsGM. Now you can follow @ASpragueGM and @Mike_Buczkowski.
"Whenever that first game is, if it was this year, next year, whatever," Sprague said. "I wasn't changing it until then."
The manager
Casey Candaele is one of those baseball lifers. At age 60, he's a 5-foot-9 pepperpot of energy who played almost 2,100 games in professional baseball. There were 754 in the big leagues for Montreal, Houston and Cleveland and 270 for the Bisons from 1995-97, when he became one of the most memorable cut-ups in the franchise's modern era. But he could play, too: In 1996, at age 35, he batted .311 in 94 games for a division championship team.
Candaele jumped at the chance to manage in Buffalo and reacquaint himself with the front office and fans. But that couldn't happen with the team in Trenton. Opening night was big for him to be able to finally be back in Buffalo nearly a quarter-century after he left.
"It was so cool reminiscing and seeing Mike Buczkowski and hanging out with him," Candaele said. "You're familiar with a lot of people. (Former president) Jon Dandes, Mark (former Fan of the Year Mark Aichinger) is always there behind the plate and was great to see. I called my wife after the first game and I was telling her it was pretty cool here and she said that's awesome.
"It was weird, because we were on the other side of the field (in the third-base dugout, connected to the new clubhouse). I was talking to (hitting coach) Corey Hart and he said the same thing, 'I never have been able to see the buildings there, but this is a really cool spot.' A lot of great memories and times here. Really neat to get back here."
An important duty
In Triple-A, of course, you spend as much of your time as a traffic cop as you do running the game. But in this crazy situation, with the Blue Jays playing in Buffalo and the Bisons in Trenton, how did Candaele give players the good news they were getting promoted?
He couldn't stop laughing through his explanation.
"I said to guys, 'Congratulations, you're going to the big leagues. Yeah, it happens to be in Buffalo. It's actually where we would have been. We're not there. But it's actually the big leagues now so go get 'em.' Yeah. That's how I did it. Crazy, right?"
After Tuesday night's opener, Candaele had to call Connor Overton to give him the news after the pitcher had already returned to his hotel room. Overton, released three times and after two stints in independent ball, was going to the big leagues for the first time at age 28.
"Oh my goodness, it makes makes me misty every time I see a guy that the work he's put in and things that he's sacrificed, for that to come to fruition," Candaele said. "He was just stunned. ... It is really cool to see. It's good to be the one that gets to tell him. It's nice to bring happy news because sometimes in this game you have to bring out not-so-happy news. That's no good. That's not fun."
What level are you?
Bisons pitcher Nick Allgeyer started in Trenton and has been called up to Toronto twice. He made his MLB debut on July 2 against Tampa Bay – in Sahlen Field. Three batters, the final three outs in an 11-1 win. Got designated for assignment. Rejoined the Bisons in Trenton. Now he's in Buffalo but in Triple-A.
"This is always gonna be a special place for me forever, the place where I made my MLB debut," said Allgeyer, a 25-year-old from St. Louis the Jays drafted in the 12th round in 2018. "I walked out here and looked up in the stands to where my parents were when I first saw them that night. I was very new to all of the roster moves you have up here compared to the lower levels. It is a little bit of a whirlwind but it's really cool to be back here."
Blue Jays infielder Cavan Biggio joined the team on a rehab assignment and it had to feel strange for him. He's played the bulk of his big-league home games here the last two years, homered five times and had another one stolen by Aaron Judge of the Yankees over the right-field wall during the teams' series in June.
"Yeah, I've spent a lot of time here," said a laughing Biggio, a Bison in 2019. "It's good to be here, especially with all the modifications and upgrades that they've done to this ballpark Coming here, it's always a warm welcome.
"It's definitely very similar to when we went from Dunedin to here, and then from Buffalo to Toronto. It's always a new breath of fresh air whenever you can come into a better facility. You've got to hand it to those guys in Triple-A who put their head down and worked and didn't complain about the situation at all."
Barks in the Park
Things went to the dogs at the park Thursday night for the first Dog Day of the season. Owners could bring their pooches and sit in Sections 124, 126 and 128 in right field. The Bisons used to have the dogs cavorting on the grass berm in right-center, but that's gone in the wake of the Blue Jays' new bullpen construction.
Still, there seemed to be plenty of fun going on as new Buffalo residents Austin Hutchinson and Meagan Collins – attending their first Bisons game after moving here from Virginia and coming to a Blue Jays game – were feeding a hot dog to Cortana, their 7-year-old boxer mix.
"Super excited. Wanted to get here experiencing the game," Collins said, noting Cortana had gone to a dog day at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. "She likes watching people run around the bases. She gets very excited."
A section over, Shelby Krawczyk of Niagara Falls and her mother, Peggy, were feeding french fries to Chanel, a 2-year-old golden retriever at her first game who seemed completely at ease. A hot dog was also in the works.
"She's still a baby to me," Krawczyk said. "She loves people. She'd go with anyone and there will be people around here. She loves everyone and I think she'll do OK."
You might be wondering
• The ticket office on the third-base side of the ballpark is open. The hours are on non-game days are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays. On game days, tickets for future games are available through the current game.
There has been a lot of confusion about tickets because the Blue Jays did exclusively online ticketing and the box office was not open. That is not the case with the Bisons.
• Fans keep asking about the absence of beef on weck without the Charlie the Butcher stand. It's a staffing issue, with a lack of consistent workers prompting owner Charlie Roesch to opt out of this Bisons season with an eye on returning for 2022.
• Another point of confusion during the opening series: Fans who are fully vaccinated do not have to wear masks in the concourse because it is considered an outdoor part of the stadium under current guidelines. Masks are required in all indoor areas: Restrooms, suites, the gift shop and Consumers Pub at the Ballpark when not actively eating or drinking.
The final word
While virtually every Bisons official saw most of the Blue Jays games, Lesher didn't see a single one. He was laid off in 2020 and in Trenton this year. But that's OK. He was simply happy to have a team to work for again.
"The Bisons were going on the road so I was going to come home for a little while, go see a Toronto game against Cleveland," he said. "I just was hoping for a beer and a hot dog or two, but then the Blue Jays got to go home. So that means we were coming back from Trenton and everything went crazy. But it's been great, man. These guys have been pumped about being here.
"It's just been a wild two years."
