Fans and players watch a pregame ceremony prior to the season-opening game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Athletics in Toronto on Friday.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
John Schneider remembers his first opening day as a professional baseball player. It was 2002 and he was a Blue Jays farmhand with the Class-A Auburn Doubledays in the New York-Pennsylvania League.
“I was a little surprised that our uniforms were hung on the outfield fence to dry,” Toronto’s manager said Friday before his club commenced its 50th-anniversary season. “We got peanut-butter sandwiches in a paper bag and I thought it was great.”
Things have changed a bit since then as Schneider begins his fourth full season as…