American League Notebook : Oh, Canada!--Where Baseball Was Born?

While success in big-league baseball is a novelty for Toronto, the game itself is not. The city had a franchise in the International League from 1885 until 1967.

Local historian William Humber, in his book about baseball in Canada, notes a 19th-Century newspaper account of a baseball game played in 1838 in nearby Beachville, Ontario, “one year before the now spurious story of the game’s invention in Cooperstown, N.Y.”

But when Toronto won an American League expansion franchise in 1977, there had been no local team for a decade, and the fans were a bit rusty, given to cheering foul balls and other routine plays.

Times have changed. Relief pitcher Bill Caudill said before Tuesday’s game that the Blue Jay players could tell local fans became more attuned to baseball’s subtler points during this championship season.

In turn, the Blue Jays--four from the Dominican Republic and 21 from the United States, began to feel more at home in a foreign land.

“We feel like we’re Torontonians, we’re Canadians,” Caudill said. “We live as much here as we do in the States.”

Even before Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney threw the ceremonial pitch opening the first American League playoff game ever to be played outside the United States, it was clear that Toronto fans saw the series against the Kansas City Royals as a fight for Canada.

Canadian flags waved throughout the ballpark as Mulroney made the opening toss to start what his wife Mila said was the “beginning of a long line of wins” for Canada. “The Blue Jays are pulling together all Canadians,” she said.

And so it might be. The Blue Jays defeated the Royals, 6-1.

Toronto has definitely caught playoff fever. Fans began lining up almost 12 hours early to grab the best bleacher seats.

At times, the crowd resembled those that gather for rock concerts, which also are held at Exhibition Stadium.

Fans draped Canadian flags over ramp rails outside the stadium as they lined up on blankets, sleeping bags, chairs and plastic milk cartons, waiting a grab at the best of 15,000 bleacher seats in the north grandstand.

About 3,000 last-minute tickets went on sale Tuesday morning for $19 in Canadian currency--nearly $14 in American money.

Among the early fans was Doris Marley, a 68-year-old grandmother who sat through a snowstorm at Exhibition Stadium on April 7, 1977, as the Blue Jays played their first game, defeating the Chicago White Sox, 9-5.

“I’ll never forget it,” she said. “I had a ski outfit on with goggles and mitts. It was cold.”

It was not anywhere near that cold Tuesday night. The temperature at game time was 63 degrees and winds were north-northwest at 10 m.p.h. when Dave Stieb threw the first pitch--a fastball high and inside to Lonnie Smith--at 8:33 p.m. EDT.

Toronto bars and taverns began preparing early for the capacity crowds that came to watch the game on television and at the same time hoist a few in honor of their team.

“It’ll be crazy tonight, it’ll be wall-to-wall people,” said Cy Landriault, assistant manager of the Wheat Sheaf Tavern, which opened in 1849 and is the unofficial home of hordes of Blue Jay fans.

The Hard Rock Cafe, another regular spot for Toronto baseball fans, changed its light bulbs to blue-tint and set up its Blue Jay Sliders and Blue Jay Shooters, a concoction of peppermint schnapps and blue Curacao in a test tube.

Manager Martyn Simonsky said that regular customers had been given a password in the event the crowd goes over capacity.

The NHL’s New York Islanders had their minds--and money--on Game 1 of the A.L. playoffs.

The message board Tuesday in the Islander locker room was filled with warnings from Mike Bossy concerning the team betting pool. After practice, the star right wing cornered players with his accounting sheet, demanding payment.

There was a decidedly pro-Toronto sentiment by the mostly Canadian Islander team.

“Now it really is a World Series,” left wing John Tonelli said.

The Montreal Expos, Canada’s other baseball team, are rooting for the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Expos, who finished third in the National League East, took out advertisements in major newspapers Tuesday.

“You can win it all,” read the ad, which included lines from the Blue Jays’ theme song. “Good luck from the Expos and all of Canada.”

No charges will be pressed against the 19-year-old blonde who dashed to the mound to give Toronto pitcher Dave Stieb some loving encouragement before the second inning.

“Dave Stieb, he’s such a real turn-on to me,” said Juanita Smith after being escorted from the field by police. “I just had to give him a kiss.”

Smith, wearing a black mini skirt and black garter, said she earns about $4,000 a week as a stripper.

At the request of the Blue Jays, no charges were filed against Smith.

“I’m going home to watch the game on TV,” she said. “And you can tell him (Stieb) I’m blowing kisses to him.”

Toronto’s newspapers have taken to charting the biorhythms of key players on the Blue Jays and Royals.

And the results, printed in Tuesday’s Toronto Star, pointed to a possible Blue Jays’ victory in the opener Tuesday night of the American League playoffs.

The biorhythms--the lines charting physical, emotional and intellectual rhythm--showed Stieb moving up on all three cycles while Royal pitcher Charlie Leibrandt’s was on a down cycle.

They’ve dubbed him “Phony Balboni” in Canada.

A man posing as Royal first baseman Steve Balboni talked his way into Mayor Art Eggleton’s office, chatted to the mayor for a while and left with his autograph. He later talked his way into a city hall reception for United Farm Workers of America leader Cesar Chavez, obtaining the unionist’s autograph as well.

“That was Steve Balboni of the Kansas City Royals, the team that’s about to lose,” Eggleton told a local newspaper on the eve of the first playoff game between the Royals and the Toronto Blue Jays.

But when told the man was an imposter, Eggleton responded: “Is that right? Who was that man?”

There had been reports that tickets for field-level seats for Tuesday night’s game were being sold by scalpers for up to $620 a pair. But scalpers denied the rumors.

“The game’s being televised and the media has scared people away with their reports,” said one scalper.

Given his choice of relief pitchers, Kansas City Manager Dick Howser would take his own man, Dan Quisenberry.

Howser said because Quisenberry is not a strikeout pitcher, he throws less pitches and can pitch more often.

“In a series like this, you can almost plan on him being in there every day,” Howser said.

Not really. Quisenberry did not pitch in the opener.

Toronto Manager Bobby Cox said the change in the playoff format--from a best-of-five to best-of-seven series--takes some pressure off the Blue Jays.

“Going to a seven-game format is a big factor about being nervous,” he said. “The first game is not so big. Sure you’d like to have it, but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t.”

On the other hand . . .