Phillies-Blue Jays Series In June Moved To Philadelphia

Major League Baseball has announced that the June 25th-27th series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies in Toronto has been moved to Philadelphia. The reason for the move is because of the G20 Summit that will be taking place in Toronto that same weekend.

“We regret we had to make this decision,” Blue Jays president and CEO Paul Beeston said. “But given what’s happening on those three days, and the focus that will be on the downtown core of Toronto, and the fact that we are situated right next door to them, where the G20 is going to take place, we felt it was in the best interest of everybody to move the games.

Am I the only one who has a problem with this?

Why exactly is this game moving to Philadelphia? For security reasons? No disrespect to Toronto, but the New York Mets and Yankees play at a heightened security risk every time they take the field for a home game.

As a citizen of New York City, there is a security risk every time I walk outside my apartment to get a slice of pizza. It’s just the world we live in. I am sorry, but it’s true.

And just for the record, the G20 Summit was in Pittsburgh last year and the Pirates had no problem playing two home games against the Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Not only do I not agree with baseball moving the game in the first place, but then they issue compounded by moving the games to Philadelphia. How is this fair to the rest of the teams in the National League East? Or how is this fair to a team like the St. Louis Cardinals, who might be battling the Phillies for homefield advantage in the National League playoffs?

Granted this series will be played under American League rules and Toronto will be the “home” team, but in no way will this be a home series for the Blue Jays. There maybe 10 Blue Jay fans in Philadelphia for those games.

I don’t understand why MLB didn’t move this game to Detroit or Cleveland? Both teams are away that weekend and would have been ideal neutral game locations.

The obvious answer to the question above is revenue. MLB will get more revenue from a three game series held in Philadelphia than they would in a neutral site game.

While I understand revenues are important, doing the right thing is even more important. MLB should do the right thing and move this game to a neutral site.

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