TORONTO — A day before playing for a Major League Baseball championship, Davis Schneider went barefoot in the park.
Players for the Toronto Blue Jays arrived at Rogers Centre at about 8 a.m. Thursday after a red-eye flight from California that followed their 6-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series. By late afternoon, Schneider was ambling about the nearly empty ballpark, which will be filled to capacity Friday night with fans hungering to witness Toronto’s first title since the Blue Jays repeated as MLB champs in 1993.
The 26-year-old utility player wore a tank top and ski cap with no shoes.
“Walking around the outfield, get a feel of the grass, or turf I should say,” he explained of his stroll on the synthetic playing surface. “I try to do that every single day, just walk around and get my body going.”
Schneider’s home run on Blake Snell’s first pitch launched Toronto to Wednesday’s victory that gave it a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. Schneider had one of the 55 rooms with a view of the field at the Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel for the first two games of the World Series last week, but he was given regular lodging when he checked back in.