Opening day at Pilot Field, 1988: As the excitement swirls around them, Bob and Mindy Rich take a moment for themselves to celebrate the Bisons' 1-0 victory over the Denver Zephyrs.

 Buffalo News file photo

Bob and Mindy Rich aren't around Sahlen Field much anymore, but don't take that as a reflection on the ballpark, baseball, the Bisons, Buffalo fans or anything else.

It's just life.

Rich Products is an international business and Bob Rich is chairman of a company that has produced more than $4 billion in worldwide revenue. Now 79 years old, passions for fishing and writing have taken up lots of free time for the Bisons' longtime owner.

Meanwhile, as president of Rich Entertainment Group, Mindy Rich's docket has been filled on Broadway in recent years with the launching of productions such as a revival of "Cats" and "Escape to Margaritaville," a salute to Jimmy Buffett.

But now the national pastime has tugged at their hearts again. This week, Major League Baseball is coming to Buffalo.

It was the Riches' dream for eight years until the National League spurned Buffalo in its 1991 expansion and instead picked Denver and Miami for its new teams. It now will come true. For 27 games starting Tuesday night, and running through Sept. 27, Sahlen Field will be the home park of the Toronto Blue Jays.

It's just a handful of games. With no fans in the stands. And in the Covid-19 world, the Riches can't even come, so they'll watch on television. But this dream is going to happen just a few weeks after the nightmare of seeing the minor-league season canceled and Buffalo thus left without baseball for the first time since 1978.

"We've got so many things going and our focus on baseball has really been on the other issues in baseball with the minor leagues," Bob Rich said last week by phone from his West Virginia summer home. "I don't think it really hit us with the full impact until some of the nostalgia things came out and we started hearing from people.

"One thing that I was really quite touched by was a picture Governor Cuomo ran on Instagram of his dad with his Bisons shirt on Opening Day (when Gov. Mario Cuomo threw a ceremonial first pitch prior to the stadium's 1988 inaugural). There is a lot of nostalgia here, regardless if it's pushed to the back of your mind or if life has changed. But a lot of us who were there since the beginning can't deny the nostalgia in all of this."

The phone calls and text messages haven't stopped coming in to the Riches or Rich Baseball Operations president Mike Buczkowski since the Blue Jays made their decision. Former Bisons and New York Mets manager Terry Collins, unquestionably Bob Rich's favorite skipper from his 37 years as owner, was among the first to contact the Riches.

"Even though you knew it was going to happen, it was a real gut punch to have the minor league season canceled," Mindy Rich said. "But we've always been focused on what's next and not what was. There's a romance to nostalgia that we appreciate but we don't live in the past. We focus on the future most of the time. I'm always about what's next, but all of a sudden we started getting calls and messages and hearing from people from the past. Organizational people, old-time fans, associates from the early days.

"All of a sudden, we realized it was really, really special. It was meaningful for so many people and for Buffalo because of the impact. This is an opportunity for Buffalo to showcase itself and for us to show the best of our city to a Major League Baseball audience."

And as happy as the Riches were to help the Blue Jays and to put Buffalo in a brief national spotlight, those who have worked for the franchise since the 1980s were happiest for them.

When announcing the Jays' decision to reporters, Buczkowski was nearly overcome with emotion while describing how the Riches had "put their heart and soul" into baseball in Buffalo.

"They were the first people I thought of. The major leagues were coming after all this time," said former general manager Mike Billoni. "I literally lived with them in those years and saw the heartache when we weren't selected, especially the unwarranted criticism they got that they weren't in this for real."

"I think about all the frustrations they went through with expansion," said former Bisons broadcaster Pete Weber. "They tried to buy the Montreal Expos, even offered them to finish their season in Buffalo (in 1991) when a huge hunk of concrete fell at Olympic Stadium and they couldn't play there any more.

"So many obstacles literally they had to cross to get here. The Riches did try so very hard. This is finally coming to pass and I can't think of many people more deserving than they are for this."

Bob Rich and his wife, Mindy, now spend much of their time on Broadway. Bob Rich has owned the Buffalo Bisons since 1983.  

The Blue Jays' schedule in Buffalo opens with some delicious irony. The opponent Tuesday and Wednesday will be the Miami Marlins, the team chosen by the National League over Buffalo 29 years ago largely because of the size of its television market.

"I know not everyone will get that irony. People who remember will," Mindy Rich said. "When someone pointed out to us the Marlins would be our Opening Day, it took me a minute, too. I was like, 'Oh, that's right.' We're past that. That's a chapter that was. But it's certainly funny."

Six years after the Marlins were chosen, the Riches were in the stands in Miami to watch a World Series ring slip through their hands when the Marlins beat the Bisons' then-parent Cleveland Indians in the 11th inning of Game 7 of the '97 Fall Classic.

"I'll never forgive Jose Mesa," Bob Rich said, referring to the Cleveland closer. "All he had to do was hold a one-run lead in the ninth and he didn't. We were agonizing sitting right behind home plate. Just agonizing. Now here come the Marlins again and they get the Covid-19 outbreak. It starts with 3-4 guys and then they're missing a bunch of games and you don't know what's going to happen. I said to myself, 'Is there no straight path after 35 years to get Major League Baseball for us in Buffalo?' "

The Sahlen Field seen by Toronto players won't be the one they were used to as Bisons the last seven years and won't be the one that's been on television multiple times locally and nationally since 1988. There's millions of dollars of temporary work to bring the park up to big-league standards that's been undertaken the last two weeks.

"We've seen the mockups but that won't be the same," Bob Rich said. "I want to get some footage of these new clubhouses and weight rooms. We'll have to see how we're treated by the cameras and to see the look. I'm getting excited about that."

"The first game, that first shot of the ballpark. I can hear the announcers in my head," Mindy Rich said. "There's those little butterflies you get in your stomach. Opening Day, a big game, Triple-A All-Star games we've had. That's the way I'm going to feel when I first see our ballpark in a regular-season game for Major League Baseball. Seeing that on TV as part of the mix is going to be one of those memorable moments of our baseball highlight reel. I can't wait."

Billoni said the Riches never looked back after the National League said no in 1991 and this is a reward for all the work done by all the associates the team has employed over the years.

"Bob and Mindy moved on and said they wanted to have the greatest Triple-A franchise and when you say 37 years as an owner, that's more than most major-league teams," Billoni said. "They fought so hard to get the ballpark. Now they will get to see the New York Yankees come to play against their parent club. I'm still looking forward to April 2021 when maybe the Blue Jays have to hoist two World Series flags – one at their home in Toronto and one at their home this season: Buffalo." 

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