I got a lot of texts like this on Monday night:
For all the talk about hockey, Canada comes alive when the Blue Jays are doing well. Bolstered by being the only team that’s broadcast across the country,
not unlike the way TBS made the Atlanta Braves a nationwide brand in the 90s, 40 million-odd people all of a sudden become very invested in deep drives to left field. I was walking downtown to a board meeting in the middle of the sixth inning on Monday, passing a block of restaurants of nearly every cuisine. Every single television visible from the street was locked onto the seventh game of the ALCS.
People who do not follow baseball, like my lovely friend Josh above, or coworkers who live in places inaccessible by car are talking to me about baseball. On the one hand, I like this. Canada saw a real boost in youth baseball at the U9 and U10 levels over the past couple years, right on track with young families that were captivated by the 2015-16 Blue Jays teams. I want the sport to grow, I want people three thousand miles from Toronto interested in what consumes so much of my time and energy seven months of the year. My dad is a bleeding blue Toronto sports fan and in my lifetime has only seen the city take one title — and at 74, let’s be honest, there may not be many more chances for Hogtown teams.
But also, boy this is going to be a miserable World Series.
I actually do think this is worse than 2018. Losing to the Red Sox stings more than the Blue Jays, sure, but in both years the Yankees were bounced in the division round by a division rival, one who eclipsed them for the AL East title. That this year’s race for the East was so much closer, that the Yankees were much more a match for their ALDS opponent — at least on paper, if certainly not practice — means this all kinda sucks a little bit more. On the NL side of the field, I don’t hate the Dodgers, but they’re kind of the Kansas City Chiefs now, I’m tired of hearing about them. I don’t wish physical harm on anyone in Dodger blue, even if I hope a couple of them forget how to read, I just don’t want to have to pay attention to them for a couple of years.
And yet here we are, the World Series is set against my very best hopes. While this means it’s a “cheer for the meteor” type of series, I’m not that lucky. Someone that makes me roll my eyes will lift the Commissioner’s Trophy, and for at least four games those 40-odd million people stretched across the second-largest country on the globe will be tapped into baseball in a way they haven’t been since Kim Campbell was Prime Minister.
George Springer doesn’t have quite the pizazz of Jose Bautista, but it’s still going to be one of those home runs that is replayed for years to come, a “where were you when” kind of moment and the biggest moment in Toronto sports — as so often, Canadian sports — since Kawhi Leonard put up a floater against the 76ers.
If nothing else, at least I get to listen to Dan Shulman a little while longer.
