Blue Jays Announce 2018 Promotional and ‘Events’ Schedule, Including Pride Night, and Opening Day Halladay Ceremony

The Jays’ PR department hasn’t had a lot of wins lately, but it feels like they might have actually managed one on Wednesday, with the announcement of the club’s 2018 promotional schedule, which was unveiled in a tweet this morning, and an accompanying press release providing additional details.

Notably, the schedule includes a ceremony in honour of Roy Halladay on Opening Day. “In light of the tragic passing of franchise icon Roy Halladay, the Blue Jays will commemorate Roy’s life and storied career during the pregame ceremony at Honda Opening Day on Thursday, March 29,” the release states. “Further details, including additional honours in Roy’s memory, will be announced in the coming months.”

Simple words. An obvious gesture. But they got it right.

Another win comes with the return of Pride Night to the ballpark, which will include a Pride hat giveaway. Stacey May Fowles wrote an excellent, incredulous piece about the Jays’ lack of a Pride Night for us back in 2016, and similar outcry was heard this season, as the club continued to lag behind other organizations in terms of outreach to the LGBT community — especially in the wake of Kevin Pillar’s suspension for saying a homophobic slur. The Jays had held Pride events in the mid-2000s, but for years they have been absent, and it’s good to see the Blue Jays right this wrong. That they were ever stopped in the first place is absurd. This is Toronto.

There are some other interesting giveaways and nights that have been announced, too. A Buck Martinez “Get Up!” alarm clock? Holy shit yes! (September 9th). An “R2-D2oque”? Sure, whatever that is! (September 8th). There’s a batting helmet (August 25th), two jersey giveaways — Kevin Pillar (May 13th) and Aaron Sanchez (August 8th — a Wednesday!), t-shirts, sunglasses, a bucket hat, a Back-to-Back World Series sweatshirt commemorating Roberto Alomar’s 1992 ALCS home run and Joe Carter’s Series winner (April 18th), a “plaid raglan,” and bobbleheads galore-ish: Justin Smoak (March 31st); the Marcus Stroman Shimmy Wobble Bobble (June 6th); J.A. Happ (July 2nd); and a Roberto Alomar, Paul Molitor, and John Olerud one on August 11th, as the club will celebrate the 25th anniversary of their early-90s World Series winners.

I mean, I don’t want to give anybody too much credit for hitting the bare minimum here, but some of these giveaways are pretty good, and it’s at least nice to see that they get it when it comes to Halladay, when it comes to Pride, and when it comes to the two most iconic ’92-’93 moments — moments that more than just a sweatshirt (*COUGH* get rid of the Ted statue *COUGH*), though this is at least a start.

And though it’s a bit ridiculous to try glean anything about future player movement from a club’s marketing materials, it’s interesting to note that the only current player who has a related giveaway after the trade deadline is Aaron Sanchez — a player with probably the lowest chance of being dealt of anyone on the big league roster. Hmmm.

Also of note, as pointed out to me by @BlueJaysLee, is the fact that it’s not just the Sanchez replica jersey, but a lot of these giveaways taking place on weekdays. If the club believes that these things can drive attendance themselves — and judging by some of the lineups for Sunday giveaways in recent years, that’s probably a safe assumption — this is probably a smart move on their part. Provided it doesn’t alienate fans, that is. Personally, as someone who almost never goes to weekend games, I certainly appreciate that they’re doing it this way — at least, in as much as I give a shit about giveaways, which is… uh… not very. I guess we’ll see!