It’s Fun to Visit, but Locals Are Left With Red Faces, Red Ink

Toronto’s $600-million SkyDome was the centerpiece of Tuesday night’s All-Star game. President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Mulroney watched from a luxury box.

Audiences all over North America saw television cameras zero in on the SkyDome’s retractable roof, built-in hotel, cafe and starched-linen restaurant in center field.

But this diamond Disneyland is not such a novelty to some Toronto natives. To critics, as a matter of fact, it’s an embarrassment as a stadium with financial problems in a city haunted by a poor economy.

“I remember walking into (Chicago’s) Wrigley Field and bursting into tears, it was so lovely,” Christie Blatchford, a columnist for the Toronto Sun, wrote Tuesday. “I walk into SkyDome, and what I burst into is laughter.”

There was more local enthusiasm for the facility when there was a chance Toronto might land the 1996 Olympic Games. When that didn’t happen, disillusion set in.

“It’s a great facility, but it cannot carry the current debt load,” said Bob White, president of a Canadian auto workers union and head of a committee trying to bring the stadium’s cost overruns under control.

Trivia time: Only one player has hit All-Star home runs for each league. Name him. And for two bonus points, name the teams he played for at the time.

Room service: The SkyDome layout offers sights never before seen on a baseball field.

For example, during batting practice before Tuesday’s game, players warming up attempted to throw baseballs to fans hanging out of the hotel windows in center field.

At least one throw made it.

Who’s He among Who’s Who: Outfielder Harold Baines may have had some good years with the Chicago White Sox. He may be a member of the American League champion Oakland Athletics. And he may have been an All-Star Tuesday for the second time.

But a lot of fans still don’t know who he is.

“Ozzie! Ozzie!” they chanted at one pre-All-Star game autograph session, mistaking Baines for St. Louis Cardinal shortstop Ozzie Smith. Some thought Baines was Willie McGee, a former teammate who wasn’t even at the game.

“They still don’t know me,” Baines said. “Not even getting to the All-Star game has made me recognizable.”

It’s not all bleak--sounds as if he’s a prime candidate for an American Express commercial.

All-Star wars: The Colorado Rockies, one of two National League expansion teams, are nearly two years away from even playing their first game, but they’ve already set their sights on getting the All-Star game.

Colorado General Partner John Antonucci is aiming at the 1996 game. The Rockies will begin play in 1993 and hope to move into their new park in 1995.

“We’re going to aggressively seek to bring the All-Stars to Denver as soon as possible,” Antonucci said. “We surely want to beat Miami (the other expansion team) to the punch on this.”

Trivia answer: Frank Robinson hit a home run for the National League in 1959 while playing for the Cincinnati Reds, and for the American League in 1971 while with the Baltimore Orioles.

Quotebook: All-Star catcher Benito Santiago, on why he wears 09 on the back of his uniform: “There are too many 9s out there. But do you think there’s another 09?”