Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and John Schneider had an unusual Toronto problem Thursday: the World Cup was in town, and the Blue Jays still had a game.
That was the mood around the clubhouse as FIFA's tournament finally hit the city. CBC reported that some Blue Jays players admitted they wished they could be watching the soccer instead of getting ready for their own night at Rogers Centre.
Guerrero was right in the middle of that reaction. So was Nathan Lukes. CBC's Greg Ross spoke with both players about the tournament arriving in Toronto, and the tone was easy to understand. Big events like this do not hit your city every year.
For the Blue Jays, it creates a strange split-screen night. They are still trying to win baseball games, but the biggest global sporting event on the calendar is suddenly sitting right outside their own ballpark area.
That is what makes this story more fun than dramatic. Nobody is checking out on the season. The players are just saying what plenty of people in Toronto were already thinking: this is one of those nights when the city's attention gets pulled in 2 directions.
And really, that says something good about Toronto. A World Cup match landing in the city is big enough that even major-league players are looking around and thinking they would not mind being in the crowd instead of in uniform.
The Blue Jays even warned fans to plan ahead because the downtown core was expected to be packed with extra traffic and road closures tied to the World Cup, while the club strongly encouraged public transit to Rogers Centre.
The World Cup gave Toronto baseball a rare backdrop
That backdrop matters because baseball players do not often get to feel like part of a citywide festival while still going through the normal grind of a regular-season game. Thursday gave the Blue Jays exactly that kind of setting.
Guerrero's reaction fit the moment. He is one of the faces of the franchise, but he is also a sports fan living in a city that just got handed a global event. It would be stranger if he did not want to watch some of it.
Lukes landing in that same conversation made sense too. Players notice energy around the city, and this kind of event changes the whole feel of downtown before first pitch even arrives.
It also gave the Blue Jays a reminder that their game was sharing the night with something much bigger than the usual sports calendar. That does not happen often in June.
John Schneider's job, of course, is making sure that feeling stays light and does not drift into distraction. But this did not sound like a distracted clubhouse. It sounded like a clubhouse being honest.
And honestly, that is what made the reaction so relatable. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Nathan Lukes said the quiet part out loud: on a night when the World Cup arrives in Toronto, even Blue Jays players can wish they had tickets instead of batting gloves.
Should Vladimir Guerrero Jr be more focused on his game than the World Cup?
Also read on Blue Jays Insider :
John Schneider describes tough conversation had with Tyler Heineman
