{"id":257815,"date":"2025-11-03T01:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T01:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/257815\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T01:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T01:36:08","slug":"the-blue-jays-had-a-team-canada-like-role-united-the-country-during-the-world-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/257815\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blue Jays had a Team Canada-like role, united the country during the World Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Blue Jays fans bearing Canadian flags cheer during the Game 7 World Series watch party at Nathan Philips Square in Toronto on Saturday. The Blue Jays, Canada\u2019s only MLB team, were a salve for a country hit by President Trump\u2019s threats and tariffs.Duane Cole\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

As he strode into Rogers Centre on Saturday, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. chose an outfit to meet the national moment. <\/p>\n

Rather than the over-curated drip so often associated with the modern athlete, he chose to don the hockey jersey of one of Canada\u2019s greatest clutch performers, Marie-Philip Poulin. Known for scoring gold-medal-winning goals in three of the past four Olympic Games, Ms. Poulin is one of the best to play Canada\u2019s national sport. <\/p>\n

The Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> star\u2019s sartorial choice was an implicit acceptance of a role Ms. Poulin has often shouldered \u2013 Captain Canada \u2013 and an acknowledgement that this iteration of the Jays took on a significance that transcended any single city or province. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those Team Canada moments,\u201d said long-time fan Aaron Bast, who brought his 12-year-old son, Carter, to watch Game 7 live. <\/p>\n

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

A Toronto Blue Jays fan reacts to Game 7 of the World Series at a bar in Vancouver on Saturday.ETHAN CAIRNS\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

A resident of Kitchener, he considers himself part of the team\u2019s bedrock fanbase, always there through bad trades, bad managers, bad records. He noticed that with every stage of success this season \u2013 securing first place in the American League East, beating the Yankees, beating the Mariners, pushing one of baseball\u2019s historically great teams to the brink \u2013 the Blue Jays added another boost in support. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got these concentric rings of support, true baseball fans, then Torontonians, then those who see it as Team Canada,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s what makes this team great and always will.\u201d <\/p>\n

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

Fans at Calgary’s Trolley 5 Brewpub cheer for the Jays on Saturday.LEAH HENNEL\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The term Team Canada is a relatively new phenomenon. In the weeks before the 1972 Summit Series pitting Canada\u2019s best professional hockey players against those of the Soviet Union, the Canadian organizers hired the Toronto ad firm Vickers & Benson to do marketing. Team manager Al Eagleson had been calling them the NHL All-Stars. Nobody liked it. Copywriters for the ad firm came up with a list of roughly 20 names. Team Canada stuck for its easy translation to \u00c9quipe Canada.<\/p>\n

In that same series, Team Canada came to symbolize something more than an athletic competition. It\u2019s estimated that 15 million of the 20 million people then living in Canada watched the final game, many drawn by the idea that it amounted to a proxy battle in the greater Cold War. <\/p>\n

Through the first five games of the World Series, Sportsnet was averaging 6.4 million viewers. <\/p>\n

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

The Toronto Blue Jays stand for the Canadian national anthem ahead of Game 7 of the World Series at Rogers Centre.Sammy Kogan\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

While the Jays vs. a series of star-studded American teams never reached the political heft of Canada vs. communism, the undertones were there. <\/p>\n

Provincial premiers of every stripe joined Prime Minister Mark Carney in backing the team at a time when President Donald Trump\u2019s fickle trade policies continue to damage the Canadian economy. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much dark and negativity out there right now,\u201d said Peter Muscat, another long-time fan. \u201cThis series, this team, they just brought so much light when we really needed it.\u201d <\/p>\n

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

Fans at Oasis, a bar in Halifax, stayed up until the early hours of Sunday morning to watch Game 7.Maria Collins\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just the wins, it was the way they won. This team, made up primarily of Americans, seemed to genuinely adore each other and having the country\u2019s backing. After his three-run homer in Game 7 against Seattle, George Springer put it most succinctly: \u201cI\u2019m happy for our team, our fans, our city, our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newer Canadians have long made this association between the team and the country. When Lucky Singh immigrated to Canada from India as a kid, he was taken with a sport that was similar to cricket. <\/p>\n

He was particularly enamoured with former Jays ace Roy Halladay, the best pitcher in baseball for much of the 2000s. A stoic perfectionist, Halladay maintained award-winning form for some awful iterations of the Blue Jays. He retired in 2013 and died in a plane crash four years later. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all wrapped up for me: coming to Canada, learning a new sport, falling in love with both,\u201d Mr. Singh said outside Rogers Centre on Saturday night. <\/p>\n

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

Toronto Blue Jays fans react after their team lost the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers.IAN WILLMS\/The New York Times News Service<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s growing enthusiasm had one downside: ticket prices. After the Game 7 loss, a disconsolate Sid Helischauer lay on a set of concrete steps looking up at the CN Tower. A life-long Jays fan originally from Toronto, he flew in from Calgary to catch Games 6 and 7 but couldn\u2019t find tickets under his $3,000 budget. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my connection to home,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m here. The whole Canada\u2019s team thing I think is just marketing, just a bandwagon thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Bast sees it differently. A devotee since he was 12 years old watching Joe Carter wallop the World-Series-winning home run in 1993, he welcomes all fans, new and old, east and west. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to my barber today and he said he was cheering for Canada more than he was cheering for the Jays,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

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

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. reacts after an inning-ending double play in Game 7.Gregory Shamus\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

For him, a single game can have a generational impact. He named his son Carter. Who\u2019s Carter\u2019s favourite player? <\/p>\n

\u201cVladdy!\u201d pronounces the 12-year-old.<\/p>\n

As Jays players emerged from their loss to do postgame interviews, many in tears, Mr. Guerrero Jr. chose to keep wearing the Team Canada jersey. <\/p>\n

While he didn\u2019t acknowledge the country in his answers through translation, he didn\u2019t really have to. The Maple Leaf was right there on his chest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Blue Jays fans bearing Canadian flags cheer during the Game 7 World Series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-257815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257815","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=257815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}