Mark Shapiro crashes Toronto Blue Jays crowd at the perfect time
Toronto Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro couldn’t have picked a better time to visit the crowd in the Rogers Centre on Tuesday night.
While he’s not typically watching the game among the members of the public, Shapiro opted to take a visit to the 500s to check out the newly dubbed “Plakata Place,” named after Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s signature home run cry.
The Plakta Place crowd were coming together to celebrate “Gate 14 night” at the ballpark, with the popular Gate 14 Podcast run by hosts Avery Chenier and Johnny Giunta selling out an entire 500-level section as part of a special promotion for fans of the show.
And as soon as Shapiro followed Giunta into the back row of the section to meet up with Chenier, Blue Jays player Ernie Clement connected with a pitch for a three-run homer en route to a 5-1 Toronto victory over the Chicago Cubs.
Mark Shapiro shows up to Plakata Place and Ernie Clement immediately hits a Home Run pic.twitter.com/fpFC9Misld
— Gate 14 Podcast (@Gate14Pod) August 13, 2025
“I just didn’t need a beer at that time,” Chenier said in an interview with Offside. “I had no idea he was coming.”
Wanting to pay the hosts a visit, Shapiro made the decision to do a bit of a crowd walkthrough on a whim, high-fiving and being cheered on by the sold-out section.
“Mark had texted Johnny about coming up, but we believed that was just on the concourse. He ran into Johnny there, and he asked where I was, so Johnny told him to just come up top,” Chenier said, explaining how Shapiro found himself wandering through to the back of the ballpark mid-game.
If there’s a video that invokes a similar feeling to this one, Shapiro’s walkout to the crowd is a little reminiscent of Lil Yachty coming out during the 2021 music festival Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash.
Giunta and Chenier started the podcast in 2022 and have since climbed up the charts to be the top independently owned sports show in Canada.
Shapiro connected with the podcast earlier this year for an interview, and that conversation later turned into one that led to last night’s Plakata Place activation.
“We approached Mark Shapiro with the idea originally, but the Jays came back and had the idea for a Vladdy fan section,” Chenier explained. “I believe we sold more than 500 tickets, and they were able to open the top rows for the section beside us as overflow.”
Shapiro even shared the video of his walkout himself, captioning it “let’s go boys!”
Let’s go boys! https://t.co/Z3HDM6G9Y4
— Mark Shapiro (@MarkShapiro) August 13, 2025
“It was an awesome night,” Chenier added. “I think everyone involved was happy with the turnout and execution.”