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<\/p>\nTORONTO \u2014 There\u2019s one word almost every player uses when they talk about the feeling that arises from returning to a place they played for so long: \u201cWeird.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s weird, Matt Olson said, arriving at an old ballpark\u2019s visitors entrance on a coach bus for the first time. It\u2019s weird, Bryce Harper said, finding your nameplate in a road clubhouse, gravitating to your former stall in a stadium that should feel familiar. It\u2019s weird, George Springer said, navigating foreign tunnels to find a field you played on hundreds of times.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the weirdness Bo Bichette has in store for him Monday, when he returns to Rogers Centre for the first time as a member of the New York Mets. Bichette, after seven years and 748 games with the Blue Jays, in January signed a three-year, $126 million deal to play elsewhere. He aided Toronto to four playoff appearances and one World Series run, and delivered a pair of All-Star seasons. He helped put a stop to a rebuild and kickstart a new era in Toronto. Now, he comes back as a temporary visitor.<\/p>\n
Bichette is far from the first star to anticipate returning to old stomping grounds. So The Athletic asked some of Major League Baseball\u2019s highest-profile players who left their longtime teams: What\u2019s it like going back home?<\/p>\n
The significance of that first game back, Dylan Cease said, depends on the temperament of the player. The boisterous fan favourites might thrive in the welcome-back spotlight while quieter types shy away. For some, such as Kevin Gausman and Harper, returns are etched in their memories. For others, they\u2019re a bit foggier.<\/p>\n
Cease remembers walking through the streets of Chicago more than his actual first start back, after five years with the White Sox. Revisiting his favourite restaurants, such as RPM Seafood and Pizzeria Portofino, resonates more than his six strikeouts back on the South Side.<\/p>\n
Olson hit a three-run homer in his return to Oakland, sparking the Atlanta Braves to a win over the team that traded him away. But, more than anything, Olson recalls just how tired he was that day. A late cross-country flight the night before left the first baseman exhausted as he hugged former teammates, chatted with old coaches and drove a deep fly ball in his old park.<\/p>\n
After spending the first six years of his MLB career with the Baltimore Orioles, Gausman will never forget his first start back in Maryland \u2014 because he remembers specifically what was missing.<\/p>\n
The 14-year veteran had seen video board tributes for returning franchise staples, \u201cWelcome Back to Birdland\u201d playing through the sound system, and standing ovations from Orioles fans. Some of his former teammates, including Dylan Bundy, received that honour. Gausman did not.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor whatever reason, they never did that for me,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s something that I\u2019ve always had in the back of my head. Like, all right, if they want to add a little extra fuel to this, that\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The righty made 150 appearances for the Orioles, climbing from the No. 4 pick in the 2012 draft to a regular in the rotation. He never fully reached his potential in Baltimore, but he still loves Camden Yards and still gets a breakfast burrito at Spoons whenever he\u2019s there, but the matchups against his old team mean more.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Kevin Gausman, who made his MLB debut against the Blue Jays in 2013, was 39-51 for the Orioles. Here he celebrates his first major-league win. (Patrick Smith \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Gausman\u2019s return to Camden didn\u2019t come until September 2022, his first season with the Jays after playing in the National League for most of the previous four seasons, but he had a shot against the Orioles at Rogers Centre earlier that year. It was a complete disaster, Gausman said, as he had \u201cexplosive diarrhea\u201d the night before his start. He sat in the back rooms of Toronto\u2019s clubhouse connected to an IV drip before the game. He sweated bullets on the mound and had to run to the bathroom every five minutes before first pitch. He allowed seven runs in 2 1\/3 innings in what would end up as the worst start of his season. Gausman was furious.<\/p>\n
That intestinal struggle made the righty\u2019s Baltimore return three months later all the more important. The fire was only fuelled further by the missing welcome back video, leading to 6 2\/3 quality innings from Gausman in a 7-3 Jays win. Every outing since, Gausman has been quite aware of what team he\u2019s starting against.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always want to pitch well against the team you played for,\u201d Gausman said. \u201cYou kind of want to show them what they\u2019re missing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those videoboard moments are brief, but they still hold meaning. They signify a player\u2019s legacy and that their contributions to a franchise are not forgotten. They give fans, if only for a few seconds, an opportunity to cheer. Chris Bassitt, who returned to Toronto in June after three years with the Jays, didn\u2019t like any of it. He didn\u2019t like having to watch himself on the big screen. He said he didn\u2019t like staring across the field at former teammates who were smirking and waving back at him. But even Bassitt, watching the montage of his greatest Jays moments, appreciated the memories.<\/p>\n
Springer appreciates his tribute more now, four years after he first returned to Houston with the Jays. The outfielder, who won World Series MVP with the Astros in 2017, didn\u2019t know how to get to the visitors locker room or find his way to the field from there. The view from the opposing batter\u2019s box, Springer said, felt like a completely different ballpark. Former teammates Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman greeted him on the field before the game with hugs and dropped ice down the back of his shirt. Then, minutes before first pitch, a lengthy reel of Springer\u2019s homers, diving catches and postseason celebrations played on the screen in right field.<\/p>\n
It was a bizarre feeling, Springer said, saluting a former fanbase as his new team looked on. In the years since, returning to Houston still chokes Springer up, but he couldn\u2019t let it back then.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was quietly emotional about it then,\u201d Springer said, \u201cwanting to be respectful to the guys in my new locker room, on my new team. In the moment I watched it and was like \u2018All right, let\u2019s go win.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
When Harper debuted with the Washington Nationals in 2012, he was welcomed as a hero with a standing ovation before his first at-bat. The promised prospect had arrived with the fanfare of a franchise cornerstone many hoped would never leave. Seven years later, the applause was gone. As Harper returned to Washington for the first time after signing with the division-rival Philadelphia Phillies, Nationals fans heckled him each time he stepped in the box. They jeered through his video tribute and booed his two-run homer in the eighth inning. The hero had turned villain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mayor called me Benedict Arnold,\u201d Harper said. \u201cThat was kind of crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper, in hindsight, gets it. He\u2019s still booed in Washington and even sometimes in Philadelphia. He didn\u2019t expect it, but he understands that\u2019s just how fanbases work.<\/p>\n
The Phillies first baseman has seen teammates Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Jayson Werth and more make similar returns. He stood in the dugout, watching players step onto the field and wave to local fans. Sometimes they\u2019re booed. Usually, they\u2019re welcomed warmly.<\/p>\n
Harper suspects Bichette, after seven seasons in Toronto, won\u2019t be treated as a traitor. He\u2019s probably right. A video tribute will play for the shortstop who ushered in a new era of Blue Jays baseball. The crowd will roar for the man who nearly delivered a World Series-winning homer.<\/p>\n
And years from now, we\u2019ll see what Bichette remembers about the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cBo had such a great run,\u201d Harper said. \u201cI think it might be a little different for him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 There\u2019s one word almost every player uses when they talk about the feeling that arises from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[5654,4996,64,63,1186,591,1830,2365,85,5161,5264],"class_list":["post-767684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-athletics","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-sports","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-washington-nationals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}