Buffalo baseball fans, brace yourself for an exciting summer, or at least the potential for one. The Toronto Blue Jays are looking for a summer home to play out the remainder of their 2020 season. Sahlen Field, home of the Buffalo Bisons and  the Blue Jays farm team, is in the running as the temporary host.

The Toronto Blue Jays, a Canadian based baseball team is looking to find a place to play their 2020 season after the Canadian Federal Government denied their request to play their home games at Rogres Center in Toronto. This denial came after the governments concern with the players crossing the border. Canada has not been hit too bad with the infamous coronavirus, and they do not want to risk the spread. The 2020 minor league baseball season has been cancelled, leaving Sahlen Field vacant for the major league team to use. “The Bisons organization has been in discussion with the Blue Jays for several days about the possibility of hosting major league games at Sahlen Field this summer,” said Mike Buczkowski, general manager for the Buffalo Bisons and president of Rich Baseball Operations. “We are continuing to explore the best ways to adapt the available spaces in our ballpark to meet the needs of the Blue Jays, he continued. ” The MLB announced plans to have a shortened 60-game season this summer with strict guidelines. These guidelines include no fans to attend these games. Opening day is scheduled to start on July 23, 2020.

Buffalo would be honored to host the Blue Jays this season and consider us a second home. Even without fans, this is a big break for the city and a great opportunity to continue to unite Buffalo and Toronto. We will know shortly if Sahlen Field has been selected to host the Blue Jays and we can not wait to cheer them on as if they are our own!

The year 2020 has been a very different year for most people. It has been a year of change and growth with the coronavirus, social justice movements, and protests. With everything going on with police brutality, specifically against people of color, and people are wanting to do better in 2020, major actions have been taken. Artists, sports franchises, and businesses have decided to make appropriate and needed changes based on some racially rooted names.

The first big name change came in the music industry with the country trio Lady Antebellum shortening their name to ‘Lady A’ after learning further the root of the word Antebellum. This word, meaning, “occurring or existing before a particular war, especially the American Civil War” went under fire and was dropped after realizing its association with slavery. They released the following statement on their instagram: “When we set out together almost 14 years ago, we named our band after the southern ‘antebellum’ style home where we took our first photos. As musicians, it reminded us of all the music born in the south that influenced us…southern rock, blues, R&B, gospel and of course country,” the band said. “But we are regretful and embarrassed to say that we did not take into account the associations that weigh down this word referring to the period of history before the civil war, which includes slavery.” They posted their new logo after the release of the statement. Although they received some backlash from the public, overall their change has been both respected and praised.

The next big name change that came out of 2020 was the Washington Redskins. It was announced on Monday, July 13th that they would be retiring the Redskins name and replacing it with a less polarizing one. Although the announcement of what the name has yet to be released, there are a few top runners that are being considered. The main options are The Warriors, The RedTails, The Red Wolves, and The Hogs. The team is being very careful when choosing the name to make sure they will not have any problems with it down the road. With sports teams such as The Braves, The Blackhawks, and The Indians receiving pressure to change, Washington may want to stay away from The Warriors at the risk of that being considered derogatory. Both The RedTails and the Red Wolves would stand to honor The Tuskegee Airmen, a group of all-black fighter pilots who painted the backs of their planes during World War II. With many options to consider, this change is going to make a positive impact all around the NFL and other sport franchises.

2020 is the year for change and we are happy to see major platforms taking steps in the right direction. Some may not agree with the need for the changes but many see the positive impact it will have. Do you think they made the right decision?