TORONTO – A glance to the right offered a view of a concrete wall. Two rows of stadium lights felt like they were right overhead.

The top of the foul pole was actually below Tim Loat’s sightline as the longtime Blue Jays fan settled in to his seat Thursday afternoon at Rogers Centre. From his distant vantage point, home plate looked like a white speck and the names and numbers on player uniforms were a blurry mess.

Loat wasn’t bothered in the slightest that he was in the nosebleed seats of section 510 near the side of the stadium hotel. He was just happy to be in the building to see playoff baseball make its long-awaited return to Toronto.

“You’re not really in the game, you’re seeing it from above,” Loat said before Game 1. “Kind of like you’re in an airplane.”

The Blue Jays hosted the Texas Rangers in the opening game of the American League Division Series before a raucous sellout crowd of 49,834 fans. It was Toronto’s first post-season appearance since winning a second straight World Series title in 1993.

Loat, who works as a squash pro at a downtown racket club, lucked out when a club member had some extra tickets and offered to sell them at face value. The 36-year-old was sporting a wide grin as he surveyed the field from way, way, way up high.

“It’s a pretty incredible feeling,” he said.

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