Blue Jays vs Cincinnati Reds – April 3 and 4, Olympic Stadium

The Blue Jays are hoping for another home run in Montreal.

The Blue Jays will face the Cincinnati Reds in a pair of pre-season games April 3-4 at Olympic Stadium. Last year’s two-game series against the New York Mets drew more than 96,000 fans to the Big O.

“The fans of Montreal, the way they welcomed us, it was a no brainer for us to come back here again this year,” Blue Jays president and CEO Paul Beeston said at a news conference. “I don’t think we could ever have expected what we received last year.

“There was an atmosphere in there you can’t describe. I said to the commissioner ‘You had to be there and feel it.’ It may not be a World Series game, but it certainly had the feel of a playoff game.”

General manager Alex Anthopoulos said he hopes to play at the Big O every year until Montreal lands its own team.

The event will include tributes to former Blue Jays star Roberto Alomar and manager Cito Gaston as well as Tony Perez, who starred for the Reds and the Expos. The games will be Toronto’s last before their regular-season opener on April 6 against the Yankees in New York. Instead of playing before a few thousand fans at a spring training game, they expect a boisterous throng in the domed Big O.

The last major league baseball game played at the Olympic Stadium was on Sept. 29, 2004 when the Montreal Expos played the Florida Marlins.

For tickets and information: www.evenko.ca 514-790-2525 or 1-877-668-8269