If you have watched any of the Toronto Blue Jay’s home games this year, you know something is odd about their turf. The new turf has really altered the game play in Toronto all season. The turf is very slow and spongy feeling, causing the ball to take very weird and unusual hops. Many teams have voiced their views on the new turf and the disadvantages of it but the Baltimore Orioles took it one step further, they considered forfeiting a game to keep from playing on the turf.
Not an excuse for sweep, but #Orioles left #Toronto thinking new Rogers Centre turf is major problem. Too spongy, slow & lots of untrue hops
— Eduardo A. Encina (@EddieInTheYard) April 24, 2015
In fact, there was consideration by #Orioles of not playing Tues night, especially after Paredes was hurt on bad hop. O's have contacted MLB
— Eduardo A. Encina (@EddieInTheYard) April 24, 2015
I’m just not sold on the fact they really would have considered a forfeit because of the turf and its disadvantages. I look at it like this, all ballparks have their own unique ins-and-outs. Some fields are shallow to right field and deeper to left, some have walls 30-feet tall that have to be cleared for home runs and other have larger foul ground area around home plate as well as first and third base. A slower spongy turf is just another unique feature to their ballpark in my eyes.
HT: DeadSpin