"Exhibition Stadium was a wretched place, a football stadium with the furniture rearranged to wedge MLB onto the shore of Lake Ontario, like playing baseball in the untamed wild. Those who had the blessing and misfortune to call Exhibition Stadium home look back on it through the same romantic lens, like how you would talk about an old college apartment."
"For many of the Blue Jays' players and so many of the staff who'd built this organization, it was enough just to be invited to the party. Toronto was in the big leagues; it didn't matter if the Blue Jays didn't exactly play at the Ritz yet. Around baseball, though, Exhibition Stadium had its own folklore: the snowy northern outpost that players from other organizations whispered and warned one another about."
On April 7, 1977, the Toronto Blue Jays played their inaugural Major League Baseball game in snow at Exhibition Stadium. Grounds crews circled the snow-covered infield with a Zamboni-like machine while fans arrived bundled in coats, scarves, and blankets. Exhibition Stadium was a converted football venue on Lake Ontario with deteriorating conditions, leaking roofs, and mice, yet fans and personnel remembered it fondly as a first home. Tickets cost from $2 to $6.50 and sold quickly. Team executive Paul Beeston called it "the worst stadium in sports." Opposing players circulated warnings about the frigid, folklore-rich northern outpost.
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