Mike Harrington: Bisons, fans feel right at home in return to Sahlen Field

Al Hummer, wearing a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. No. 27 Bisons jersey of 2018-19 vintage, and his wife are well-known regulars. They're on the KissCam just about every night, including in the second inning Tuesday. They shared the team's 2019 Joe Byron Fan of the Year Award for their amazing run of attending all 32 Triple-A All-Star Games since 1988.

They came to four Blue Jays games this year, but this is what they were waiting for – the return of their team from Trenton.

"We had high hopes, really high hopes that they were going to come back," Al Hummer said prior to the Herd's (Re) Opening Night against Rochester.

His wife said she was happy to be back in their regular spot in Section 112 in the first row of red seats. She's sensitive to the sun and still recovering from too much of it during one Blue Jays game this summer.

They were chatty, but wanted to make sure to unroll their sign so folks could see it. Featuring a big Bisons logo and large red capital letters, it simply said, "WE'RE BACK!"

Perfect. That's what Tuesday was all about.

Sure, there will be scores kept, standings tallied and attendance figures tabulated. But these 23 games the club will play in Buffalo between now and Sept. 26 are far more about getting people back in the habit. Everyone knows Blue Jays games were once-in-a-lifetime events, and many fans came from long distances to see some of them.

The Bisons are a summer staple of Buffalo. And they had not been here in 711 days, since Aug. 29, 2019.

The players were wowed by the clubhouse facilities the Blue Jays left behind, and the feeling before the game was that the new digs would be a huge pick-me-up in the dog days of summer. A solid 11-0 victory over Rochester sure drove the point home.

"Coming in the clubhouse today, playing catch, taking BP, all that, you can see almost a rejuvenated group," said Bisons pitcher Nick Allgeyer, who made his MLB debut here for the Blue Jays on July 2 against Tampa Bay. "And for everyone, it's like Opening Day. For a lot of the people in the clubhouse today, they've got a ton of energy and they're ready to play like it's their first game."

"This is big league stuff. Some of these guys haven't really even seen what a big-league locker room would look like, or just the how comfortable you are in the space," said infielder Christian Colon, an alum of Kansas City's 2015 World Series team. "And, really, it comes down to what I was telling them: 'Hey, you just show up and how do you not want to work in something like this? How do you not want to put all your energy into what you're doing?'" 

Manager Casey Candaele played here from 1995-97 on some of the most memorable teams of the Cleveland era. He's got huge new digs on the third-base side now.

"Pretty amazing," Candaele said. "We were totally in a different place. We're on the third-base line now and were on the first base side when I was playing here. The upgrades and everything that they've done, it's been quite amazing. It's like a new stadium underneath."

The front office and folks in Trenton took good care of the Herd, just like their counterparts in Buffalo did for the Blue Jays. The Bisons, in fact, went 29-13 in Trenton, and when they left the New Jersey capital for good on a road trip on July 25, they were tied for the most home wins in Triple-A East.

"This is amazing. And they're the third-best team in the whole league right now as far as their record," said longtime Bisons Booster Club officer Charlie Greene as he manned the group's booth just inside the stadium's main gate. "And I hope they can keep up winning here the way that they were winning in Trenton."

In the press box, radio team Pat Malacaro and Duke McGuire were going through some pregame stat readings. Even without a team to call games for, Malacaro has still been behind a mic a lot the last two years, serving as the Blue Jays' public address announcer here in 2020 and doing several Canisius College events.

McGuire, the Buffalo Baseball Hall of Famer who has done Bisons games for both TV and radio since the early 1980s, has joked that he's done a lot of walking and played a lot of golf. But not much broadcasting.

"I'm sure I'll have the mumbles," he said. "I don't want to have the mumbles the first day back, but I'm sure it's going to be inevitable."

McGuire had plenty to talk about and didn't stumble a bit. The opening ceremonies got the job done, too. The players from both teams lined up on the foul lines like it was April and not August. As Thin Lizzy's 1976 classic "The Boys are Back in Town" echoed through the stadium, Buster Bison triumphantly entered through the right-field gate to loud cheers from the crowd.

The Bisons' 50th win of the season came easily from that point. Likely team MVP Kevin Smith's first at-bat in Buffalo was an RBI triple in the first. Logan Warmoth got the new stadium lights dancing for the first time in Triple-A with a three-run homer in the fourth. 

New general manager Anthony Sprague, who actually came into his job 17 months ago, finally got to lead the team through his first game and took the mic to greet the crowd with a succinct "Welcome back everybody to Sahlen Field for Bison Baseball."

A few words that grasped the night so well. Just like the Hummers' sign.