{"id":237087,"date":"2025-10-24T14:17:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T14:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/237087\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T14:17:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T14:17:10","slug":"swole-guys-behind-blue-jays-home-plate-become-viral-characters-in-world-series-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/237087\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Swole guys\u2019 behind Blue Jays home plate become viral characters in World Series run"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Blue Jays fan Dean Angelo at Shape Fitness in Toronto on Thursday. Mr. Angelo has gone viral for his appearances in the crowd behind home plate during Jays playoff home games.Jennifer Roberts\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

At first, there was one. With biceps like a Christmas ham and mountainous traps that nearly touched his ears.<\/p>\n

In the second row, behind home plate of Game 1 of the American League Division Series between the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> and New York Yankees, a young man watched the game intensely, his arms appearing as if they were on the verge of bursting the seams of his Jays jersey. <\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019s this unit at the Yankees vs Blue Jays game?\u201d an X user asked<\/a> during the game, along with a zoomed-in video of the unit in question. Others quickly chimed in: \u201cWhy is there a refrigerator behind home plate\u201d and \u201cdude bought 3 seats, one for his torso and one for each arm.\u201d On TikTok, a grainy video simply captioned \u201cBro is huge\u201d has more than five million views. <\/p>\n

The bro is Dean Angelo, a 28-year-old personal trainer and bodybuilder from Toronto who has been attending Jays\u2019 games since he was a kid. He\u2019s also become a minor supporting character in the Blue Jays\u2019 remarkable World Series run. <\/p>\n

Then, at Game 6 of the recent series between the Jays and the Seattle Mariners, two more very muscle-y men arrived, sitting side by side at the Rogers Centre. Somehow, unbelievably, they were even bigger than Mr. Angelo. The trio of hulking fans became impossible to miss.<\/p>\n

Once again, fans were mesmerized. TikTok, Instagram and X exploded with posts about the yoked men behind home plate. Even the U.S. sports broadcasters<\/a> covering the game were dumbfounded: \u201cWhat is going on in Toronto where there\u2019s just jacked dudes behind home plate?\u201d <\/p>\n

While most have been dazzled by Vladimir Guerrero Jr.\u2019s home runs, George Springer\u2019s Game 7 winning three-run blast or rookie Trey Yesavage\u2019s golden arm, a smaller, yet passionate, slice of the internet has been obsessed with the jacked men at the Jays\u2019 home games. <\/p>\n

Mr. Angelo, who has been off social media since 2021, is shocked by his newfound viral fame. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I saw the TikTok of me, I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d be having my story told in the newspaper. That\u2019s not a follow-up thought I had,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

A long-time Jays fan, he attended his first game with his dad on June 25, 2003, against the Baltimore Orioles, when he was six years old. Around the same time, he started playing baseball in Toronto, and was eventually recruited by Trinity University in San Antonio, Tex., as a pitcher. <\/p>\n

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

Jennifer Roberts\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

But an injury in his freshman year halted his fledging professional career. He started partying and stopped exercising. At his heaviest, he weighed close to 300 pounds. <\/p>\n

Then about eight years ago, he started going to the gym again and training for bodybuilding competitions. He\u2019s currently prepping for an event next June and working out twice daily, five days a week. <\/p>\n

The seats behind home plate are his dad\u2019s season tickets, with whom he usually sits and who home viewers may recognize as \u201cthe dude that kind of looks like Danny DeVito,\u201d Mr. Angelo says. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s bonding for me and my dad. That\u2019s how we spend a lot of our time together because growing up playing sports, we\u2019d be on the road together all the time driving to play baseball. Then when that ended, we started going to more games.\u201d <\/p>\n

Blue Jays tickets are sold out and resale prices are soaring. Here\u2019s how fans are trying to score World Series seats<\/a><\/p>\n

It was through the bodybuilding community that Mr. Angelo met the two other jacked men who captured the internet\u2019s attention. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought it would be funny if we showed up since we\u2019re all pretty big,\u201d says Quinton Eriya, a professional bodybuilder who arrived to Game 6 of the Mariners\u2019 series in a cut-off shirt and a Blue Jays hat. Mr. Angelo\u2019s dad was able to help Mr. Eriya and the other bodybuilder, Blake Course, buy tickets for the game. <\/p>\n

Mr. Eriya, who eats around 400 grams of protein a day, says the response has been surprising. \u201cThe weird thing is, being around bodybuilders so much, I almost think I blend in for some reason,\u201d says Mr. Eriya, whose biceps look like overstuffed duffel bags. \u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting much, so the reaction was really funny.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: Game 1 of the World Series is a must-win for the Blue Jays<\/a><\/p>\n

He\u2019s unsure if he\u2019ll be able to make it to any World Series games, but he\u2019s hoping that he can make it work somehow. <\/p>\n

After the first TikTok went viral, Mr. Angelo says he stopped looking at social-media posts about himself. \u201cRegardless if it\u2019s positive or negative, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s good for your brain,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

Mr. Angelo has made it to every home game this postseason, except for two, although he\u2019s sometimes in other seats in the stadium, which has induced anxiety among the most superstitious fans. \u201cPeople were DMing me on Instagram when I wasn\u2019t seated in my regular seat in Game 7. They\u2019re like \u2018You need to move!\u2019\u201d he says. (For his part, Mr. Angelo only has one superstition: He won\u2019t wear a jersey to the game if it\u2019s raining.) <\/p>\n

On Friday, for Game 1 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Mr. Angelo will be back in his regular seats. He\u2019s feeling cautiously hopeful. <\/p>\n

\u201cI started out kind of pessimistic, but now I\u2019ve started to talk myself into \u2018We\u2019re gonna win the World Series.\u2019 My gut instinct is to protect myself because of all past sports traumas,\u201d he says, referring to when the Jays were knocked out in the American League Championship Series in 2015 and 2016. \u201cBut I feel like we can do it.\u201d <\/p>\n