Halloween and the World Series: How Game 6 is changing some fans plans

Trick-or-treat, the Toronto Blue Jays gave baseball fans something good to eat as the World Series comes back to the city on Halloween.

The Blue Jays are up 3-2 against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, coming back home to the Rogers Centre for Game 6 on Friday night.

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This is the exact scenario Jamie Schacter was hoping to avoid.

“When the schedule came out and it was like Game 6 is Halloween, I just went, ‘It’d be so nice if the Jays could win it in four or five and view it on the road.’ But you know, that’s going to be hard to do,” Schacter told CTV News Toronto in an interview on Wednesday.

Halloween is essentially a holiday for Schacter and his family, an honoured tradition passed on between generations as he says his older brother’s love for horror films made the holiday fun growing up and his grandmother would make caramel apples for the children on her street.

Schacter, 53, has been decorating his home for the last 20 years, starting off with a few things strewn on the lawn to now running multiple air compressors and sourcing custom-made props being flown in from different places in the United States.

“It’s a pretty big effort,” Schacter said, adding that they have turned the holiday into a charity event, where his law firm matches donations for Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and Toronto Western Hospital. “Lots of people from not just the city, the GTA people, people come in from out of town, and they’re like, ‘Oh, we were told we had to come here.’”

Typically, Schacter says they see upwards of 1,500 people come by the house on Halloween night, with the peak of the visits happening between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Hundreds more people come by in the days leading up to the big day.

As a season’s ticket holder for the Blue Jays, Schacter said his phone has been blowing up for what his plans will be for Friday.

“What are you going to do? Because it’s Halloween, you’re going to have hundreds of people, you have to be home,” Schacter said.

Rest assured, it is essentially a win-win situation for Schacter and his 19-year-old son.

“My son and I, who will be dressed up in makeup… zombies with Jays jerseys, Jays hats, and heading down to the game,” Schacter said, adding they will likely miss opening pitch to help with the Halloween “madness.”

“My wife was like, ‘You got to go to the game, we will be fine at home without you. We will be able to run everything.’ So, I’ll be leaving probably a house full of people and sort of having the best of both worlds, doing Halloween and making it to the game,” Schacter said.

Schacter says they plan to put out a portable projector screen to show the game for passersby on Friday night.

“There’s some thought of putting the projector on maybe a neighbour’s lawn, if necessary,” Schacter said.

While it’s a bit chilly in Zahir Ratanshi’s opinion to watch the game outside, the Stouffville resident said they plan to have a World Series watch party with some of his neighbours. As many don a costume on Friday, Ratanshi said everybody in his family will be “draped in Jays gear.”

“Everyone’s going to be expected to go to school or go to work from this house in their Jays gear… no question’s asked,” Ratanshi said.

The Jays spirit will also come alive by way of “Jack-o-Jay” lanterns, Ratanshi adds.

“The pumpkin will (not) be a ghost or a werewolf or something like that. It’s still a work-in-progress, but it will be the Jay’s logo,” Ratanshi said.

Toronto takes the field at Rogers Centre at 8 p.m. EST for Game 6 in the World Series.