‘We couldn’t figure it out.’ Who was the Blue Jays’ mystery arm behind the hotel-room toss that went viral?

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This article was published 04/09/2021 (1510 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Before the most exciting Blue Jays game of the season was played on Friday night, — an improbable comeback capped by Marcus Semien’s walk-off home run — there was a moment captured on video at the Rogers Centre that had social media buzzing.

A small group of Jays fans were in a room at the Marriott Hotel overlooking the field from above the 500 level. One of them was perched in the window during batting practice as someone dressed in Jays blue and white threw a ball in his direction from way down in the outfield. It sailed perfectly into his bare right hand.

“Everybody was saying in the room, just let it come in the window so that way we for sure get the ball,” said Domenic Coccia, a high school teacher from Richmond Hill, Ont. who was celebrating his birthday with friends — friends who didn’t have much confidence in his ability to make the catch. “But I just stood up on the chair, put my hand out and grabbed it mid-air. It was hilarious.”

The Star obtained and posted the video on its social media channels and it was quickly reposted by other outlets, including Sportsnet and The Score, racking up over 40,000 views on Twitter alone.

An investigation ensued inside the hotel room and on social media. The big question: Who was this mystery Blue Jays player who made the perfect throw?

“We started looking at pictures of all the players. We tried to match their faces with what we had on the video. We couldn’t figure it out, so we just assumed it was (Alek) Manoah because of the beard,” Coccia told the Star. “I would have guessed he was a major-league baseball player based on how he threw it.”

But the reason nobody could solve the mystery is because the man behind the viral throw was a Blue Jays staffer who works an important role but mostly flies under the radar.

“The guys do it a lot, but to see it on video with that angle, it looked sweet,” said Blue Jays mental performance coach Jimmy Van Ostrand after seeing the video. “It’s probably one of the coolest things about the Rogers Centre is you’ve got the hotel in the background, so you have people up there in Jays jerseys hanging out before a game for batting practice. The guys will drop dimes all the way up to the fifth deck, it’s pretty sweet.”

Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who’s tied for third in the American League with 11 outfield assists, is one of the players dropping dimes into windows up in the sky. It’s customary for Van Ostrand to spend some time on the field before a game, but this was his first time completing the hotel throw. And he found the range on his second attempt.

“The first time he just missed the window, but the ball bounced off the wall below the window and went right back to him,” Coccia said. “We all said, ‘Come on, give it a second chance!’ And he just beamed it right to me.”

When the Star posted the video with the caption “Did this Blue Jays fan just make the catch of the year?” it was heavily scrutinized online.

“Blue Jays fan catches UNREAL throw before the game. There, fixed it for you,” said Twitter user Dallas Nitz.

“How in the world is the catch the thing in this video that you tweet about? That throw was unbelievable,” added Sean O’Connor.

There were dozens of other comments just like it.

“I was getting destroyed on Twitter, it was funny,” Coccia said. The fact that the throw didn’t come from a Jays player surprised him until he was informed of Van Ostrand’s resumé.

An eighth-round draft pick in 2006, Van Ostrand was a first baseman and outfielder who bounced around the minor leagues for eight seasons between the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals. The Vancouver native played for Canada at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was part of the bronze-medal World Cup team in 2009.

Now his job with the Jays is to support players and staff in any way he can. And on this night, his efforts extended to one lucky fan celebrating his birthday with friends.

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“Honestly, that’s the cool thing about those throws, is seeing how happy they get after. It’s awesome, it’s cool,” Van Ostrand said. “I’m not surprised nobody guessed it was me. That’s a good thing.”

While the catch was framed as the crowning achievement in the Star’s tweet, the throw really was something to behold. Even the one on the receiving end of it can admit that.

“I gotta say the throw was much better than the catch. I just stood there. My hand was a pretty small target, so you’d have to be pretty pinpoint accurate to get it in there,” Coccia said.

“I’ve gotta give it to him.”

Braydon Holmyard is a Star digital producer based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @braydonholmyard