色色啦

In the bottom of the eighth inning with George Springer at the plate, Baltimore pitcher Shawn Dubin threw to first base trying to pick off Myles Straw, who had stolen a base earlier in the game.

As they do at every single baseball stadium in North America, the home fans booed.

Play-by-play voice Kevin Brown, who auditioned for the Jays radio job in 2018, questioned the reaction.

“It’s very silly to me that people boo the pickoff moves now,” said Brown. “A pickoff move helps you now, with the disengagement rule. It’s like booing when the pitcher throws a ball.”

That’s a more than reasonable observation, given that pitchers are now only allowed to come off the rubber twice per plate appearance. But analyst Roberts pulled out his broad brush and decided to paint a whole country.

“I’ve got to be real, real, real careful what I say,” said Roberts, who instead came off as real, real, real ignorant. “But sometimes we had some major questions about the baseball IQ of some Canadians. At times it felt like maybe they enjoyed or knew a little bit more about hockey than baseball.”

Brown tried to shut the conversation down playfully, leading Roberts to ask: “We’re not on the air in Canada, are we?”

It’s not unusual for the baseball knowledge of Canadian fans to be disparaged. After all, what would our hockey-mad nation know about the game?

In the Orioles TV booth before Saturday’s game, the Star gave Roberts a chance to clarify his remarks.

“Honestly, I related it more to, like, I live in Florida,” said the 47-year-old Roberts, in his eighth season as an Orioles broadcaster. “My hockey IQ is very low, to be honest with you, but I go to games.”

There didn’t seem to be a recognition that one can understand both hockey and baseball at a high level, or that many Canadians know their baseball.

“It’s not the native sport of Canada,” said Roberts. “The same as baseball would generally be considered the native sport of America.”

Roberts’ opinion is coloured by his experiences as a middle infielder in the American League East from 2001 to 2014 with the Orioles and New York Yankees.

“A lot of things that were said to us in the dugout didn’t really make sense when it comes to understanding the game,” said Roberts. “There are other cities that are not that much different, but I felt like here聽鈥� and I would say a lot of my teammates would have agreed, and we talked about it at times聽鈥� things that were said just didn’t make as much sense sometimes as other really, really good baseball cities.”

Current Jays say that’s simply not the case.

“I’m surprised that (Roberts) would say that,” said infielder Ernie Clement, who grew up playing hockey across the lake in Rochester, N.Y. “He played in this division and played against this team for a long time, and it’s a shame that’s how he feels. The more I play here and the more I get to know the people in 色色啦, the more I gain a respect for what they know about baseball.

“We get 40,000 a night here. I mean, they probably get 5,000 a night, so it makes sense that you’d be a little salty about that.”

Roberts had been under the mistaken apprehension that Jays attendance, second in the AL at almost 35,000 per game, was more middle of the pack.

Buck Martinez, who did Orioles broadcasts for seven seasons before returning to the Jays in 2010, just smiled and rolled his eyes.

“They don’t know 色色啦,” Martinez said of Roberts and others who criticize Canadians’ baseball knowledge. “And it’s true with ballplayers, too. Remember when (pitcher) Mark Buehrle came here kicking and screaming, and about two weeks into the season he was recruiting people to come here. It’s a phenomenal place to play.”

滨苍蹿颈别濒诲别谤听Isiah Kiner-Falefa not only loves playing in 色色啦, he thinks Jays fans know the game.

“You saw it (Thursday) night,” said the 30-year-old Hawaii native. “Vlad (Guerrero Jr.)‘s first at-bat, he hits a ground ball to first (to advance a runner) and the crowd erupted. I think the Canadian fans are awesome.”

Guerrero agrees: “They understand baseball and they’re the best fans in the world.”

Roberts seemed surprised that anyone would have been offended, and apologized to those who were.聽

“It was not meant to be an insult,” said Roberts. “It was meant to be like, to me, it’s what I just voiced when it comes to my own life. I would not have as much hockey IQ as everyone in this town that I would talk to. And I would say that most Canadians聽鈥� and maybe that’s a generality,聽but I would say that there’s a decent amount of Canadians who would come to America that wouldn’t know a lot about baseball compared to a general amount of Americans that play baseball. And those are all generalities and I don’t even know if they’re true or not.”

Didn’t stop him from saying it on live television, though.

“Baseball was considered America’s pastime,” Roberts said with a smile. “It’s not Canada’s pastime. That’s the truth.”