First pitch at Rogers Centre was just minutes away and I had not yet started to make my way to the game.
In fact, I was lounging in bed, watching TV.
Luckily, my commute to the Toronto Blue Jays’ home stadium was a short one. There would be no traffic, no tolls, no parking. No vehicles or public transportation of any kind.
I walked there, in my socks.
That five-foot stroll from my bed to my window took me to a field of dreams.
Is this heaven? No, it’s Toronto … in a hotel room with a heavenly view from windows that open to the field.
Toronto Marriott City Centre is the only hotel in North America located within a major league ballpark, offering guests the ultimate luxury suite.
Beginning Friday, it will offer guests views of the 2025 World Series, with the Blue Jays hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 on Friday and Game 2 on Saturday in Toronto’s first Fall Classic appearance in 32 years.
“It’s a life dream for a lot of people to be in here and sit on your lazy boy and watch a game from your room,” Julie Shorrock, regional director of sales and marketing at Toronto Marriott City Centre, told me Friday before Game 1. “It’s pretty amazing.”
I was there during Labor Day weekend, and the first-place Blue Jays were hosting the Milwaukee Brewers. I made the drive from New York with family to live out my childhood dream of staying in one of the hotel’s stadium-view rooms.
I didn’t need a ticket to the game, just a reservation and a key card.
Once I checked in, after passing through stadium-like security with wands and bag checks, I took the elevator to the fourth floor and walked down the hallway to room 408 in left field.
I opened the door to find the hotel room is like any other: two queen beds, flat-screen television on the wall, spacious bathroom.
I opened the curtain to find the hotel room is unlike any other: floor-to-ceiling windows, a pristine baseball field, and 40,000-plus people in the adjoining room.
There’s no crying in baseball, but there is in baseball’s only built-in hotel. Whether the bucket-list view made me shed a tear is a secret forever kept between myself and the baseball Gods … and the bellhop who was tipped well for his silence.
Speaking of finances, by now you might be wondering how much it costs to spend the night at a baseball stadium. Well, it’s not cheap, but it’s not Kevin McCallister at The Plaza expensive.
The base rate for my room was $544 Canadian dollars, which converts to $388.77 in the United States. Room configurations, window sizes and pricing can vary – that includes field-view suites with a separate, elevated living area overlooking the stadium.
Five guests are allowed in the room, though only four are permitted to stay overnight, which makes the cost for overnight accommodations and the equivalent of tickets to an MLB game quite reasonable when splitting the costs with friends.
The conveniences alone make it worth the price of admission.
You can get to your private bathroom within a matter of a few pitches – or shower in-between innings quicker than a ticketholder can get from their upper-deck seat to the nearest restroom and back.
You can have your hot dogs and beers delivered via room service – or head back down to the lobby and watch a few innings from the hotel’s Sportsnet Grill, which also offers panoramic stadium views and a two-foot hot dog topped with bacon crumble, bacon jam, Swiss cheese, chipotle mayo and a sprinkle of spring onions.
You can essentially attend a Major League Baseball game in your pajamas – or fewer articles of clothing without getting ejected or arrested.
But beware and behave – the windows are see-through.
I took a seat at the high-top style chair in front of the window – wearing jeans, a long-sleeved shirt and recently-purchased Blue Jays hat. But still no shoes, a first for me at a sporting event as I capitalized on the comforts of the confines.
It didn’t take long for a baseball to head in the direction of our window, with the Brewers’ William Contreras hitting a two-run home run a few sections below our room in the first inning. The Blue Jays answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning to take the lead for the first hotel-room crowd roar.
I wanted to explore the rest of the stadium early in the game while there, but as a hotel guest, you can’t access the stands without a game ticket. So, I bought one and set forth on a brief tour. Traveling from the hotel lobby to the stadium entrance is like walking out your front door and going to your neighbor’s house.
I checked out different levels and vantage points around the stadium, soaked in the backdrop highlighted by the CN Tower as the Brewers pulled even, and watched with concern in the gift shop as my brother spent nearly the amount of the hotel room on a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. jersey.
But who am I to question fiscal responsibility when I paid for a seat I never sat in? Why would I when there was a plush mattress beckoning me from left field?
Minutes later, I walked back in my hotel room, kicked my shoes back off and sprawled out on that mattress. For only a few at-bats, I watched the game on TV – switching over at times to “Seinfeld” — and listened to the crowd through the window, just to be able to say (and write) that I did it.
Then it was back to my window seat to fully take in what truly is one of the most unique perspectives and experiences in sports.
Guerrero validated the mortgage my brother took out to purchase his jersey by hitting a go-ahead RBI single in the fourth inning. The Blue Jays tacked on three more runs in the fifth en route to an 8-4 victory in what would become their first pennant-winning season since 1993.
After the final out, I watched as 41,488 people made their way to an exit that my fellow hotel guests and I wouldn’t have to pass through on this day. Left alone amongst a sea of empty seats, the blue skies above gave way as the stadium’s retractable roof slowly enclosed us like a tent being zipped up on a camping trip.
The stadium lights shined down on the grounds crew as they began to break down and cover the field, giving us a peak behind the curtain at the intricate process. The work continued and the lights shined through the night, with trucks coming and going through the fence in center as the field was converted before our eyes into a stage for an upcoming Morgan Wallen concert.
I continued to look out from my perch at an area that holds thousands being occupied by dozens. I occasionally met the eye of a fellow hotel window-watcher and gave a slight head-nod, acknowledging our membership inside this exclusive overnight club.
Within its walls, just feet from where I would soon be sleeping, is where Joe Carter hit a home run to win the 1993 World Series, where Ultimate Warrior defeated Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania VI, where Taylor Swift performed six sold-out shows during her record-breaking Eras Tour.
Where the 2025 World Series would soon be played and perhaps won.
I got out of my chair, closed the windows and shut the curtains to block the stadium lights that still managed to peek their way through.
I made the short walk back to my bed, in my socks.
