On Friday’s episode of MassLive’s Fenway Rundown podcast, Blue Jays play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman joins Chris Cotillo and Sean McAdam leading up to the Boston-Toronto weekend series. They discuss where the Blue Jays stand, their struggles against the Red Sox this season, this weekend’s series, Fenway memories and much more.
You can listen to the full podcast here and subscribe on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Shulman on why there are so many Blue Jays fans at Fenway Park this weekend:
“The first word I would use is passion and I would expand it from Toronto. I would say we have a very unique situation in that we have a national team. They’re the only team in Canada. You guys will see it because it’s a weekend series. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are 3,000 or 4,000 Blue Jay fans who have come down from various spots in Canada who have come down to Fenway Park.
When the Blue Jays go to Seattle, which is always a weekend series in the summer, and that’s not a coincidence, there are, and I’m not exaggerating, 25,000-30,000 Canadians there, many from Vancouver. When the Blue Jays go to Minnesota, everybody from Winnipeg comes down. When the Blue Jays go to Detroit, Cleveland, all the towns that are close to the border, this team has an unbelievable following from coast to coast.”
Shulman on the AL East being the best it’s ever been:
“I think certainly, it’s the best a division has ever been since they went to the three divisions, five teams per division format,” Shulman said.
“Those divisions (in the 80′s) were great too, but since they’ve gone to the three division format, there’s no question that’s the best division there has ever been. And, and I’ll tell you from a Blue Jay perspective… The Blue Jays are 8-23 in the American League East. 8-23.
“They are 52-27 outside the division, they have the second-worst record in baseball within their division, only Oakland is worse. And (Toronto has), I believe, the best record in baseball outside of it, outside of their own division. So that’ll tell you how the Blue Jays are feeling about the American League East right now.”
BetMGM Massachusetts $1,000 FIRST BET OFFER
Visit BetMGM.com for Terms and Conditions. 21 years of age or older to wager. MA Only. New Customer Offer. All promotions are subject to qualification and eligibility requirements. Rewards issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets. Bonus bets expire 7 days from issuance. In Partnership with MGM Springfield. Play it smart from the start with GameSense. GameSenseMA.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org.
- Related: Mobile sports betting is live in Massachusetts on BetMGM. Get started with a $1,000 first-bet offer
On how Toronto fans reacted the other AL East team’s trade deadline moves:
“The Blue Jay fan base, I think tends to notice the Yankees first,” Shulman said. “No matter what’s going on with the Yankees, they notice the Yankees first. So people definitely took notice of the fact that the Yankees didn’t do anything.
“And we certainly talked on the air that day about how the Yankees and the Red Sox didn’t do very much at all. The Rays and the Orioles made more significant moves. Three, four days ago, the Blue Jays inched up on the Orioles and Rays, but now it’s more like, hey you got to pay attention to the Red Sox and Yankees, like if you want to make the playoffs.”
