After a heartbreaking Game 7 loss with the Blue Jays just falling short of a World Series win, this baseball superfan shares his reflections on a momentous season and a team that taught a country the meaning of true togetherness.

Randy “Batman” Berdan knows ball. His love for the game spans decades as a player and avid fan with a wicked tattoo to prove it. He doesn’t remember a time when baseball wasn’t a part of his life. As a season seat holder for over 40 years, he has seen several iterations of the Blue Jays roster. Though he was in the Skydome (now the Rogers Centre) during the back-to-back championship seasons, he says he has never seen a Jays team quite like this one. 

“This team was just—it was family.” [They were] the most cohesive kind with an attitude of ‘Put me in, coach, wherever you put me in, I’ll do what you want.’ They were all in it for each other.  Not every team has that kind of thing going. Like, the Yankees, to me, got way too many egos over there.”

Berdan says star player Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was not only a key element in their success but a testament to the team’s ethos. 

“He gives 110 per cent in everything he does. And he’s one of the smartest ball players, period. He does things that aren’t conventional. For example, [in Game 3 of the American League Division Series] when he dove into home plate and [the Yankees] are trying to tag him, he basically went over the guy’s arm and touched the plate. Most people slide to the bag but he touched the plate over the guy’s arm to be safe. 

“I would expect, when you’re in that dressing room, Vladdy doesn’t have an ego.  He doesn’t think he’s the best player on the team, right? He thinks he’s part of a team, and whatever he can do to help and be part of that team to make them successful. That’s what his goal is.”

Blue Jays pride was infectious this October and spread across the country like wildfire. There were watch parties from Newfoundland to Nunavut. We were in it together in a way Berdan had never seen before. 

“I think back in ‘92 and ‘93 there was some of that, ‘This is Canada’s team,’ but not to the degree I think I’ve seen this time around,” Berdan said. 

“I’m not taking anything away from the 1993 champion team, but you know what

they were, that was more of a big name, bought team. I don’t know how to explain that, other than, you know, like Alomar and they brought over Dave Winfield, and they’ve got Jack Morris at the deadline, and these are all Hall of Famers they’re bringing in at the last minute kind of thing to shore up the team. 

Berdan acknowledges that the Jays did secure some “very helpful” players like future Hall of Famer Matt Scherzer, but the odds were still not in the Blue Jays’ favour at the start of the season. 

“What I thought was very interesting was Milwaukee, who was the best team in baseball period, was lucky to score four runs against the Dodgers in their series, and the Dodgers won it easily, and we were deemed to be the third best in baseball. If Philadelphia was better than us and we took [the Los Angeles Dodgers] to extra innings in a seven game series, then yes we were David. But, [we proved] we were just as good as anybody. 

As someone who has been on both sides of the fence, Berdan’s perspective on what it means to win has evolved.

“I’ve played in a lot of championship games. I’ve been in a lot of finals in baseball, and I got to the point where my attitude became: ‘We’re now the two best teams left’… and I’m not embarrassed about anything in the end, because I got there, so if I lose, yeah, I’m not happy about it, but you know what, I got there. And the same thing with the Jays.”

While he sympathises with the disappointed fans, he encourages them to “look at what they gave us.” 

“[They] united us. You got to look at what they did for us, not what they didn’t do.”

As for Berdan’s biggest disappointment: 

“One of the saddest moments, which I understand why it happened, I mean, the Dodgers won, so you clear the benches, [but] I was disappointed that I couldn’t show my appreciation for the season they gave us. But, there’s opening day next year.”