RealGM

Just as Toronto's boys of summer return from spring training on Florida's sunny Jupiter Island, Jack Frost will pay the city another snowy visit.

As the Blue Jays open the season tonight against the Detroit Tigers, yesterday's warm, sunny weather will be replaced by a steady rainfall that is expected to turn to snow by the middle of the afternoon.

"We're one of the few teams that's ready for (bad weather)," said the team's vice-president of communications, Jay Stenhouse. The Rogers Centre's retractable dome will keep players and a projected 40,000 fans sheltered from the bad weather during tonight's game and three more back-to-back tilts with the Tigers.

It wasn't always like this.

When the team arrived at Exhibition Place to play its inaugural game on April 7, 1977, the field was covered in snow. Workers used giant vacuums to clean up and the game got underway 40 minutes late.

While some believed that bringing Major League Baseball to such a northern locale was a bad idea, the Jays at least triumphed on the field, winning 9-5 over the Chicago White Sox.