January 20, 2020

By Melissa Verge

Canadian Baseball Network

Former Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Adam Lind is back in the city where it all started. He sits at a table overlooking the Rogers Centre field Sunday, a Jays jersey on, his hair slicked back into a clean ponytail.

“It will always be my second home,” the 36-year-old said, who spent the majority of his MLB career playing in Toronto.

He was called up in 2006 from the Blue Jays triple-A farm team at the time, the Syracuse Chiefs, and went on to play for them until 2014. He switched between designated hitter, outfielder and first baseman during his nine-year career with the team. He later played for the Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners and Washington Nationals.

On this slushy Sunday in January, baseball has once again brought him to the Rogers Centre. He’s been uprooted from the warmth of his Florida home, and thrown rudely into an unforgivingly cold Canadian morning. The current free-agent is here for Blue Jays Winter Fest where dozens of prospects, current players and alumni join the swarm of fans on the field for the two-day interactive event. It brings a welcome taste of baseball in an otherwise barren off-season.

His wife “strongly suggested” that he come, so he took her advice, he said with a laugh. And, he’s glad he did.

For fans, it’s a chance to meet their favourite players, but for Lind, it’s more of a reunion. He’s catching up with players and staff, many of whom he hasn’t seen since his last game with Toronto in 2014.

“We just kind of relived the glory days,” Lind said of reuniting with former Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia and first baseman Lyle Overbay. “It’s funny, people don’t really change. We’re all the same guys, just at different stages in our life.”

Most of his fond memories come from those early days in Toronto. When he was first called up, he must have made at least 30 phone calls to anybody who he thought would like to hear the news, he said.

He flew to Boston to play fresh out of triple-A, sitting out the first game but going on to start game two.

“Getting to hit a double off the green monster, seeing my family after the game, going to dinner, just being able to consider myself a big leaguer after that, (there have been a lot of good times to remember),” he said.

When he was traded from the Blue Jays to the Brewers for right-hander Marco Estrada on November 1, 2014, he had just returned from a vacation with his family. He said it didn’t feel real at first because the regular season had ended, but when Spring Training rolled around, that’s when it set in.

“Walking into a different clubhouse, that was when it finally hit me that I was actually traded to a different team,” he said.

It ended up being a positive experience. He’d also later suit up for the Mariners and the Nationals, which gave him the chance to live in four different cities across the United States. He last played professionally with the Boston Red Sox triple-A affiliate in Pawtucket in 2018.

“You get to live somewhere (new), and have a job and get paid and be able to experience what it’s like for people in the west coast, the east coast, the nation's capital and small town midwest,” he said.

The home of the Blue Jays still has a special place for him, Lind said, who’s venture into free agency has him waiting for the call that will continue his big league career.

“Of course, Toronto is my favourite,” he said.