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Crazy Toronto winter once caused a player to park team bus after driver 'knocked out' on way to Blue Jays game

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
|
Jul 23 2025, 7:50 pm
Crazy Toronto winter once caused a player to park team bus after driver 'knocked out' on way to Blue Jays game
Roy Harris/Shutterstock

Being the only MLB team in Canada, the Toronto Blue Jays have certainly had some unique stories during their nearly five decades in the league.

And sometimes, the unique weather conditions of Toronto have led to less-than-ideal road trips for their opponents.

Speaking on the 6ix Inning Stretch podcast that he co-hosts alongside Toronto sports reporter Lindsay Dunn, former Blue Jays player Whit Merrifield spoke of a road trip to Toronto before his time with the franchise that nobody on it will ever likely forget.

A wild ice storm in April 2018 caused the Blue Jays to have an extremely rare postponement of their series-opening game against the Kansas City Royals, the result of a tear in the Rogers Centre roof.

On the way downtown after a late-night flight from Pearson Airport, the Royals’ players saw a big blob heading towards their bus from off the top of the coaches’ bus in front of them.

“We realized quickly that it was a big sheet of solid ice, and it hit the windshield and exploded. The windshield knocked our driver out,” Merrifield shared. “We’re on the bus after a long plane ride, so a lot of us aren’t paying attention to what’s going on. Thankfully, Brandon Moss is sitting in the front row… and was very aware of what was going on [and grabbed the steering wheel].”

Merrifield might’ve remembered one detail about the incident incorrectly, however, as a 2018 Global News piece identified Royals teammate Blaine Boyer as the sudden driver (and Fred Folkerts as the unfortunate bus driver in the incident).

Fortunately for Merrifield, Moss, Boyer, and their teammates, the bus came to a halt without more major injuries.

“The driver gets knocked out… [Boyer] jumps up, grabs the wheel. As the driver’s foot slips off the gas because he’s knocked out, [Boyer] slowly guides our bus to the side of the road,” Merrifield continued.

The Global News piece also countered with a quote from Boyer that Folkerts was hit by “glass hanging out of his nose, his face, right under his eye,” but “came to” within two seconds.

“It was crazy… [we later] found out that a huge icicle fell off the CN Tower and punctured a hole in the roof of the Rogers Centre,” Merrifield added.

Merrifield was a three-time All-Star during his nine-year MLB career, including in his lone full season in Toronto in 2023. But while he might’ve made some good memories on the field during his time in the big leagues, we might recommend a further read-through of his notes next time he tells the story of his wild bus trip in 2018.

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