Ontario Blue Jays temporarily close facility, suspend season until further notice

Photo: Ontario Blue Jays

April 10, 2020

Official Statement from Ontario Blue Jays

As released to the Ontario Blue Jays Family on April 10, 2020.

As we are all well aware, our daily lives have been drastically impacted as a result of the Corona Pandemic. Government recommendations and guidelines are changing hourly. The trend is for greater social distancing and a community effort to reduce the rate of spread from community transmission, “flatten the curve.” While we expect this situation to continue to be fluid, we know that the situation is expected to worsen before it gets better.

We have been patient and made our decisions based on facts and direction from government health officials. We also believe we have a duty to consider not just the health and well being of our coaches and players, but the health of all members in our community.

Given the above, we have made the difficult decision to close the facility and suspend the OBJ Season until it is deemed safe to reopen the facility and/or practice as a team. This was a difficult decision but we feel it is our only option in the short term. The Ontario Blue Jays and The Athlete Matrix will reopen as soon as possible and we are committed to doing everything we can to prevent the loss of the development year. In saying that, our OBJ Coordinators have sent documents that players can be following to continue to prepare themselves during this time for a season whenever that may be.

We are currently working with the CPBL on a contingency plan for the summer whether that be with or without US Tournaments. More details are coming, please give us time to develop these plans for what the rest of the season could amount to.

For our graduating players who are uncommitted to this point, we are continuing to work for you. As you can imagine the whole baseball world is upside down right now with everyone attempting to figure out their course of action. We are working to continue placing each and every one of your for this Fall. Please be patient with us as we continue to work through each day.

Please everyone take care of yourselves. You have to put your own health first if you want to do your part to reduce community spread. The solution to this problem rests within our community. Let’s play our part.

Thanks,

OBJ Management