The Toronto Blue Jays aren’t officially back to the postseason yet, but by weekend’s end Toronto will know whether or not they’re headed to either Tampa or Minnesota for the wild card round. When the Jays do hit the road for October baseball, the team’s radio crew will also be making the trip.
The Toronto Sun reported on Thursday that allowing radio play-by-play voice Ben Wagner and analyst Chris Leroux to travel for the best of three series is part of Sportsnet’s all-in approach to the playoffs.
Wagner had been calling road games for the Blue Jays remotely all season. Grounding the radio broadcast crews was originally a measure taken due to COVID restrictions and the U.S./Canada border being closed during the pandemic. The team abandoned radio broadcasts of games in the shortened 2020 season and for more than half the 2021 season.
But since Wagner was brought back, Sportsnet has continued to keep him calling road games from a Toronto-based studio. The company has viewed it as a cost-cutting measure.
The Blue Jays crew isn’t the only one that was held back from road games. Earlier this year the Toronto Maple Leafs radio crew didn’t travel with the team for its first round Stanley Cup playoff series. It wasn’t until a mistake was made in the call of the series-clinching goal that the company decided to send Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph on the road for the second round.
