Canada's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa May 11, 2010. REUTERS/Chris WattieCHRIS WATTIE/Reuters
The tradition, as often happens, started as a one-off.
Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's son John, a big baseball fan, wanted to see Fenway Park, so he convinced his father to plan a trip there to watch the Toronto Blue Jays.
They took in the sights, saw a few games and headed home.
"Then John sort of announced to me that we now had a tradition," Flaherty recalls, "and I said a tradition is not one year. But it became a tradition."
Father and son made trips to old Yankee Stadium in New York and the Ballpark in Arlington in the summers that followed, and this weekend they're in Detroit to watch the Blue Jays take on the Tigers.
They caught Toronto's 5-2 loss in Thursday's series opener, spent part of Friday catching up with Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston after rain washed out play, and planned to stay for the first part of Sunday's day-night doubleheader after Saturday's contest.
"John is a big baseball fan, he plays Special Olympics baseball, so this is a big deal for him," Flaherty said in an interview Saturday. "I like the parks that are built for baseball.
"I look forward to the day when we have a park built for baseball in Toronto, that's for sure."
Flaherty is no fairweather fan.
He was a student at Princeton when the Montreal Expos began play in 1969 and he would take in games at old Jarry Park when he was home to work in the summers.
"We spent a lot of time in those days out in Jarry Park in the bleachers," he said. "That was the place to go."
He became a Blue Jays fan after graduating with a law degree from York University's Osgoode Hall, and was a season-ticket holder from the franchise's first day in 1977.
Flaherty held those seats through the franchise's glory years from the mid 1980s through the early '90s, transitioning with the team from old Exhibition Stadium to the SkyDome, which is now known at the Rogers Centre. He still attends several games a year.
While few were sad to see the cold, gusty and inhospitable Exhibition Stadium go, Flaherty feels it had its charms.
"I liked the atmosphere," he said. "That's one of the reasons we travel around and see different ball parks in the American League. ...
"I'd like to see a purpose-built stadium in Toronto. It changes the atmosphere of the game, it makes it more intimate and more fun."
That opinion isn't likely to sit well with the Blue Jays, who own the Rogers Centre, but at least Flaherty sees a prosperous sporting landscape across the country for them to operate in.
Less than a decade ago, several of Canada's NHL franchises were in danger of heading south. Now, cities are in position to poach teams and bring them north.
"If I sort of put on my finance minister hat for a moment, we're a western country in which taxes are going down for businesses and that just isn't going to happen in the United States or the United Kingdom or western Europe for the foreseeable future because of the financial situations they're in," said Flaherty. "So when business people, whether it's in sports or some other line of business, look at Canada, it's a great place to invest, including in a sports franchise."
The Blue Jays haven't enjoyed quite the same renaissance and have averaged just 19,866 fans through their first 46 home dates, sitting 12th of 14 teams in the AL, despite playing well above expectations.
Speaking with his sports fan hat on, he ties it to the facility.
"I think a lot has to do with the experience people have when they're going to a ball park," said Flaherty. "I think the Toronto market is such a good market for sports overall, including even soccer now and hockey and it can be for football again, but I think it's really important that the right facilities be available so that people have an enjoyable experience."
Flaherty keeps up with the Blue Jays as best as he can around his duties as finance minister, and says son John is his best source of information.
Nineteen-year-old John, who has a learning disability, plays Special Olympics baseball and is a second baseman like his dad. Flaherty manned the same position for a Little League team called the Cardinals sponsored by Dickie Moore's Dairy Queen in Montreal.
"Dickie Moore had just retired from the Canadiens I think," he said. "I didn't play organized serious ball after Little League. I was never a great baseball player, I was adequate. Hockey was my sport, I played college hockey."
John's triplet brothers Galen, a football player at McGill, and Quinn, a huge soccer fan, took up other sports, leaving him to fill in his dad on the latest happenings with the Blue Jays.
"I learn more watching a few games with him than I do during most of the rest of the season," said Flaherty.
That hasn't kept him from starting to plan next year's trip. During their chat Friday night, Gaston brought up Safeco Field.
"He was talking about Seattle being a nice park," said Flaherty, "so I think that's where we'll go next year."