As if this year couldn’t get stranger, the Toronto Blue Jays will share PNC Park with the Pittsburgh Pirates for the 2020 season
So far, this year hasn’t really went as planned for baseball, and life in general. Things just got weirder as the Pittsburgh Pirates will share PNC Park in 2020.
As we are now just three days away from seeing a regular season game, the Toronto Blue Jays have been forced to move parks temporarily. The Canadian government denied the Jays approval to play in their normal home park, The Rogers Center, on the 18th as reported by Rob Gillies:
TORONTO (AP) _ AP source says Blue Jays denied Canadian government approval to play games in Toronto amid pandemic.
— Rob Gillies (@rgilliescanada) July 18, 2020
This was just reported just six days before the team was scheduled to take on the Tampa Bay Rays in Tampa for their first game of the regular season. The Jays considered their Triple-A stadium, Sahlen Field, which is located in Buffalo, New York, as the location for their home games.
However, Jason Mackey, on the 20th then reported that the team was looking into PNC Park, and home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, as the destination for the team’s home games.
The Pirates are going to try and help accommodate the Blue Jays: pic.twitter.com/LDA61d46MJ
— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) July 20, 2020
Mackey also stated in another tweet that if the Blue Jays were to play in PNC, they would have to work around seven different dates as the Pittsburgh Pirates were also schedueld to play on said dates. It was also reported that the Jays were consiering Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles, to play home games in.
Late last night, the team finally finalized that they would play their home games at PNC Park, meaning that we’ll get to watch the Tornto Blue Jays play in Pittsburgh for the 2020 season. This was reported by Hazel May of Sportsnet:
Can confirm the Blue Jays have been told they will be calling PNC Park “home” this season per MLB source. @longleysunsport was first to suggest Pittsburgh as option.
— Hazel Mae (@thehazelmae) July 22, 2020
Now with the Jays in Pittsburgh, we can get the chance to watch a young core that was mostly built and developed by our very own general manager, Ben Cherington, that includes Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio, Danny Jansen, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and eventually prospect Nate Pearson.