All three games of the Opening Series against the Red Sox will have magnetic schedule giveaways with all fans getting one Opening Night (Monday, April 9), plus a rally towel will be issued to the first 45,000 paying customers (insert sarcasm right here - AH YEA!!). If you don't get a magnet schedule that night, 20,000 more of them will be distributed evenly over the final two games of the series April 10 and 11 (a 12:37 pm start). I am sure the schedules will be handed out after each game in order to avoid the 2005 fiasco when the magnets were being chucked onto the field.
The Blue Jays are also handing out 25,000 team baseball card sets on Wednesday, June 13 during an afternoon game against the Washington Nationals. The last time they had such a giveaway was back in 2002. I remember it well because that was the day I took the missus to our first Jays game together. Other giveaways of note include the first 20,000 fans getting a Blue Jays batting helmet Sunday, June 17 (Father's Day) against the Phillies and another 20,000 will get a cap with the Yankees in town Sunday, August 12.
The team issued Blue Jays card set from 2002.
On Canada Day (a Sunday game at 3:07pm), there will be a street festival. Considering the lack of crowd control for last year's Canada Day game and Roberto Alomar Hall of Fame Day, expect another crowd clusterbleep those days when heading down to the Dome. Fan Appreciation Day, as usual, goes on the last Sunday home game of the regular season (note I say regular season but I expect games in the post-season! ;D) with 20,000 t-shirts being given away. Tweeting Tuesdays and Jr. Jays Saturdays are back again for another season.
At least this year's giveaways are a lot better than last year's. I wish they would more t-shirt giveaways like the Pirates, who began with t-shirt Thursdays before giving them away on Fridays. Also, I thought there would be some giveaways related to the 20th anniversary of the 1992 World Series team.
Other things I'd like to see would be the Jays wearing Negro League uniforms (which they did at home once in 2002 in the picture above, honouring the Chatham All-Stars) and perhaps Spanish-themed jerseys with the Spanish word for Blue Jays (arrendajo azul) on the front.
What do you think, Bauxites? Do you like what's on the promotional menu for 2012? Are there any other giveaways you would like to see?