The next day at just after 10:00 a.m., Peter and I left Montreal aboard VIA Rail train #57 for the five-plus-hour ride to Toronto. I took this same train three or four years back. The equipment is the same and the on-board crew is the same, meaning they are quite competent in their duties and genuinely friendly. The most noticeable difference is the quality of the food. Three years ago, I had a very nice lunch aboard this same train. This time ’round, the food was mediocre … no doubt a direct result of the cost-cutting that has been forced on VIA by the Canadian parliament. And it’s a damn shame, because cost cutting of that nature is always counter productive. It does save a relatively few dollars, but it turns off passengers. As a result, ridership drops and that leads to more cut backs … and so on and so forth.
At any rate, we arrived in Toronto on time and, towing our bags, headed off on foot for our hotel, the Marriott Renaissance. Many baseball fans will know that this hotel is literally part of the Rogers Center, the ballpark that is home to the Toronto Blue Jays. I checked into my room which overlooks the street, while Peter headed off to find his.
Not five minutes later, the phone in my room rang. It was Peter. “Come up to my room immediately,” he said. “you have got to see this!”
When he let me into his room a few minutes later, I could immediately see why he was so excited. The entire rear wall of the room is glass and, spread out below, is the baseball diamond were the Blue Jays-Red Sox game will be played in a little over three hours. It’s really quite amazing.
That’s when Peter — a prince of a guy! — told me he was going to swap rooms with me. He said that, between the two of us, I’m the big baseball fan and therefore I should be in the room looking down at the entire field. I went through the motions of protesting, but the trade was arranged and we actually watched most of the game from what was now my room.
In fact, I woke up two or three times during the night to find some of the stadium lights still on and handful of people bustling around taking care of all the little details that are essential for the complex operation of a modern major league ballpark. The Red Sox lost 9-7 last night; I’m hoping that will change tonight. We’ll be there … this time in our assigned seats down on the field.
