{"id":235126,"date":"2025-10-23T19:23:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T19:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/235126\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T19:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T19:23:12","slug":"the-blue-jays-are-the-perfect-antidote-for-all-that-ails-canada-at-the-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/235126\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blue Jays are the perfect antidote for all that ails Canada at the moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The 1992 and 1993 World Series trophies on display during a pre-game presentation celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Toronto Blue Jays’ back-to-back at Rogers Centre, in August, 2018.Jon Blacker\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Every summer, usually over a July weekend, a wonderful ritual takes place: a cavalcade of cars and trucks, many bearing Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> flags and bumper stickers, makes the journey down the I-5 from Vancouver to Seattle.<\/p>\n

Then the folks take over the city.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been there for many of those weekends and let me tell you, they\u2019re something. Often it feels like a home game for the visiting Jays, with literally half the ballpark decked out in white, blue or red jerseys and hats. It is a phenomenon that has come to annoy the Seattle Mariners\u2019 organization, which has, over the years, been frustrated by how many Canadians take over their stadium when the Jays are in town.<\/p>\n

This is long way of telling you that the love for the Blue Jays does extend far and wide in this country. And as boisterous as the Rogers Centre was on Monday when George Springer stepped to the bat and hit one of the biggest home runs in Jays history, one that helped launched this team into the World Series, the roar that went up across the country was even louder.<\/p>\n

The Toronto Blue Jays face the L.A. Dodgers in the World Series. Here\u2019s how they match up<\/a><\/p>\n

The moment might have been even more special for baseball fans in Vancouver, who support a single \u2018A\u2019 professional baseball team \u2013 the Canadians, known as the Cs \u2013 that is a farm team of the Blue Jays. Over the years, dozens of Blue Jays players have started out their careers in Vancouver en route to their big league destination. This year\u2019s team is no different. Pitching sensation Trey Yesavage<\/a> had a brief stint with the team at the beginning of his meteoric rise through the farm system to his star turn in the playoffs. Addison Barger played for the team, as did Mason Fluharty. Manager John Schneider skippered the Cs in 2011, 2014 and 2015.<\/p>\n

So, feelings for the Jays run a little deeper here on the West Coast.<\/p>\n

That said, Canada has a somewhat complicated relationship with sports teams from Toronto. Well, maybe it\u2019s not that complicated. The country cheered the Raptors on when they were making their unlikely march toward an NBA championship in 2019, even though it was certainly difficult to watch for those living in Vancouver, still bitter about losing their team 18 years earlier<\/a>. Still, it was hard not to root for a team that ended up beating the darling of the league, the team everyone said would win \u2013 the Golden State Warriors. And cheer on the Raptors the country did.<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs are another story. It is not easy, nor will it ever be, for the country to applaud Toronto\u2019s NHL team. One reason, of course, is that most big markets in Canada have their own NHL team and the idea of cheering for an opponent, regardless of the circumstances, is just simply wrong. And many Leafs fans are, well, let\u2019s just call it like it is \u2013 hard to take. Their smug air of superiority, despite the pathetic, anemic, humiliating post-season record their team boasts stretching back almost 60 years now is beyond irritating. (Edmonton, by contrast, has been easy to cheer for in the Cup finals the last two years).<\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: The U.S. can spare the Blue Jays its pity World Series fandom<\/a><\/p>\n

And then you have the Jays. It\u2019s been far easier to cheer for this Toronto team. Let\u2019s face it, they were the second favourite MLB team in Canada (outside Toronto) for a number of years. Then Montreal, and to some extent the country, had its heart ripped out when the Expos were sold and moved to Washington in 2004. After that, the Blue Jays had no choice but to accept the mantle of \u201cCanada\u2019s Team.\u201d And, for the most part, they have accepted that responsibility with seriousness, performing quite ably in the process. It should also be noted that it was certainly easier to embrace the Jays nationally after they did the country proud by winning back-to-back World Series in 1992 and 1993.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I understand,\u201d Jays pitcher Kevin Gausman recently told reporters. \u201cYou have one team for an entire country, and a lot of things come with that. There\u2019s a lot of extra pressure that comes with that, but there\u2019s also a lot of love that comes with that from fans who might have never even see you play in person. That\u2019s the advantage we have being one team for a whole country.\u201d<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s face it, the last nine months hasn\u2019t been the greatest for this country thanks to U.S. President Donald Trump. The tariffs, the threats of annexation, it\u2019s drawn us closer together. We don\u2019t like the idea of someone trying to push us around, trying to bully us. It\u2019s made us all a little angry.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays have helped put a smile on our collective faces for the first time in a while. And damn, it feels good. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The 1992 and 1993 World Series trophies on display during a pre-game presentation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,2922,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-235126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-noastack","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}