Phillies Notebook: Phillies and Blue Jays glad to be in Philly, not part of G20 chaos in Toronto

Toronto usually ranks among the top road cities for major league players. Good shopping, great nightlife, fine weather.

Unless, of course, cop cars are burning in the streets and tear gas is being used to control rioting protesters.

The G20 Summit, held in Toronto this weekend, resulted in violent protests and aggressive reactions from authorities as world leaders convened to discuss global economic strategies. This was precisely why the Blue Jays and Phillies agreed in early May to move the weekend interleague series from Toronto to Philadelphia.

"The wisdom of this decision not to be there is evident to everybody," Phillies president David Montgomery said yesterday.

Like many residents, Blue Jays manager and a longtime face of the city, Cito Gaston, decided to limit the danger. He lives downtown. He sent his wife, Lynda, to stay with her sister north of the city. Gaston rued the image that the usually peaceful, clean, cosmopolitan city was projecting.

"It's a great city to visit," Gaston said. "It should be OK today in the city."

Actually, before Gaston spoke at noon yesterday, police had already raided a building on a university campus. In a separate incident, a riot squad had used rubber bullets and blank rifle shots to deter protesters. The number of arrests in the city had reached 600 for the weekend.

So, dangers remained. The Phillies would have been right in the middle of them.

The usual team hotel and the Rogers Centre, where games would have been played, are situated in the midst of the affected area.

Players might have been essentially locked down in their hotel – a restrictive, if plush, detention.

Players who routinely arrive especially early at the ballpark would have been discouraged from walking or hiring cabs to take them from the team hotel to the Rogers Centre; rather, they would have been sequestered at the hotel and ferried in team buses, probably with an extra early bus added.

"It's great not to be dealing with that sort of thing," said Frank Coppenbarger, the Phillies' travel director.

Considering the gravity of the dangers, a postponement or doubleheader might have been forced.

"That sort of thing might have actually messed up our games," rightfielder Jayson Werth said. "That's a situation nobody wants to be in."

The teams wouldn't have been the only ones inconvenienced. Fans would have been diverted to a limited number of entrances – at least, the fans who got there, since public transportation was interrupted.

It was a mess, which is typical for these types of summits. The Phillies gladly forfeited a pleasant trip north for security.

"People setting cars on fire? Riots? Finding people with explosives?" asked veteran catcher Brian Schneider. "It's a good trip, but there's no reason for us to be up there."

For the second straight day, No. 2 hitter and third baseman Placido Polanco was given the day off to rest his chronically ailing left elbow, which he aggravated on a dive Friday night.

Polanco, yesterday, told the Daily News that he felt better yesterday than he did Saturday, which means he probably will avoid a stint on the disabled list, though manager Charlie Manuel made it sound as if Polanco might rest another day or 2.

On Saturday, Shane Victorino, who usually hits seventh, replaced Polanco in the No. 2 slot, where Victorino hit for most of the past 2 1/2 seasons. Lefty hitter Ross Gload hit seventh and replacement third baseman Juan Castro batted ninth.

Yesterday, with lefty Brett Cecil starting, Gload was back on the bench (cleanup hitter Ryan Howard returned to first base after two games as the designated hitter). Utley moved from third in the order to second, Jayson Werth, from fifth to third, Victorino to fifth. Replacement third baseman Wilson Valdez batted eighth.