It’s taken me a few days to get around to writing this. Obviously, I was saddened by the Blue Jays’ Game 7 loss to the Dodgers. It’s funny, because I really didn’t believe this team could win it all, but I had been enjoying the unexpected run. It was SO MUCH FUN! As underdogs all season, it wasn’t until they were coming home up 3–2 in the World Series that it suddenly seemed like it would be disappointing if they didn’t win. And, of course, they didn’t. And it was.

Still, it’s hard to complain. Like I said, it was so much fun. And this team was so easy to root for. Sure, you can blame Isiah Kiner-Falefa for not getting a bigger lead (though I fault Daulton Varsho even more), or Jeff Hoffman for the ninth inning homer (I was already envisioning the perfection of a final out where Ohtani grounded to Bichette, who fired to Vladdy). But really, the Jays had so many opportunities to score more runs. After doing exceedingly well at hitting with runners in scoring position all season, they left too many runners on base throughout the World Series — especially in Games 6 and 7.

But why wallow in the disappointment at the end when it really was a season to celebrate?

I think what I’m saddest about now that it’s over is that it’s over.

No game tonight. Winter is coming.

Another part of why this has been hard to write is that my relationship with the Blue Jays runs so deep that there’s so much I could write about. I was lucky to attend plenty of games throughout the playoffs. (See the pictures below.) Our family has had season tickets pretty much since the day they went on sale back in 1977. Our subscriber number is 840, which I assume means we were the 840th people in the city to buy seats. I wonder how many of the 839 people ahead of us still have their tickets? I was at Opening Day on April 7, 1977, with my brothers David and Jonathan. We were 13, 11 and 9 at the time. We were all there again for Game 7 on November 1, 2025. We’re currently 62, 59 and 58.

I wonder how many other people were at both of those games?

I wonder if any of them were as young as we were?

Our mother is the reason we’re baseball fans. My father was a sports fan, but my mother loves baseball. Those of you who’ve seen her on TV (she had plenty of media hits this postseason, in addition to her almost annual Opening Day appearances since 2018) have heard her explain that baseball was the only sport she really understood as a girl. She played in gym at school, and went to the minor league games of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. She became a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers when a teacher she liked brought a radio to class to listen to the World Series. She was in Grade 7. Which would make her 12 years old. Which would make this 1949.

When we learned in 1976 that Toronto was going to get a Major League team for the 1977 season, my mother told my father we had to get tickets. And we did. I had not been much of a baseball fan before that. I played hockey and football as a boy, and was pretty good at those sports. I started playing softball in 1972, but I was terrible. Even so, I started watching World Series games with the Oakland A’s and Cincinnati Reds that October. The A’s won in 1972, 1973 and 1974. I would sometimes watch the Expos in those years too, but it was the legendary World Series of 1975 between the Reds and the Boston Red Sox that really captured my imagination. I’m pretty sure my Dad woke me up to see the end of Game 7 on Wednesday night, October 22, 1975.

But what really made me a baseball fan wasn’t so much the 1975 World Series itself, as it was the official film of the 1975 World Series, which I watched in a blue-and-white-striped tent promoting baseball in Toronto just outside CNE Stadium at the Canadian National Exhibition during the summer of 1976. My guess is this was on opening day for the Exhibition, August 13, 1976, when the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (who we had season tickets for in those days) were hosting the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. If so, this would have been one day after the name Blue Jays was announced for Toronto’s new American League expansion team. I do remember learning about the name in a story in The Toronto Star while up at our summer cottage, but I don’t connect it at all in my memory with attending the CNE the next day. Still, I do remember how enthralled I was by the behind-the-scenes look presented by the World Series movie.

I would pretty much say I’ve been hooked on baseball, and loved the Blue Jays, ever since.

The Blue Jays were terrible in the early days, but no one seemed to mind. In our house, when a game was on — home or road — there was a radio on in practically every room. (Not a lot of TV games in the early days.) And when the team was home, on weekends especially, we were there! Sometimes, we got to sit in “the good seats” with one of our parents, or even two brothers by themselves. But, as often as not, we were headed down in a group on the TTC. We needed to take a bus, a subway, and a streetcar to get there from where we lived. It took about an hour-and-a-half, but kids could do that in those days. You could buy bleacher seats for $2, and even sometimes get them for $1 at Dominion grocery stores, but we always preferred to buy the $3 seats down the right field line. That way, we were in the main grandstand and could “sneak down” to “the good seats.”

Honestly, it’s great how many new fans the team has attracted with this successful season and World Series run. The same thing happened in 2015 and 2016, but hopefully it’ll last longer this time. Still, I honestly feel sorry for people who haven’t gotten to follow the Blue Jays since the very beginning. Learning to love a terrible team in the 1970s, watching them grow into a contender in the 1980s, and finally winning it all in 1992 and 1993… If you weren’t along for the ride, you really missed something!

Those 17 years took me from age 13 to 30, so I truly did grow up with this team. And I loved it. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve often said I feel like I’ve only stuck with the Jays out of loyalty to my younger self. But this year reminded me again how good it can be!

I joined the Blue Jays ground crew in 1981. My father had a cousin (Herb Solway, technically a cousin by marriage) who was a big wig with the team. He helped get me the job, but when I showed up for what turned out to be my first day — I thought it was only a job interview! — I was wearing nice clothes and spent the day shoveling sand into a big wooden box that broke before we could fill it! So, we shoveled it into a nearby … closet … room … I don’t really know what to call it, but there was still sand in there five seasons later!

I was with the ground crew through the 1985 season, so truly in the “Worst to First” years. I don’t remember the year for this picture, but it might be 1985. It looks like it must have rained at least a little that night, but we’re actually rolling out the tarp to cover the field after the game was over. No matter what the weather forecast, we covered the infield every night.

That’s me on the field (identified by the red ME) when the Blue Jays clinched the American League East for the first time in 1985.

I still have a champagne bottle (empty) that I took from the Blue Jays clubhouse at Exhibition Stadium after the 1985 celebration. It’s currently among the boxes of Blue Jays items from over the years that are being stored in Jonathan’s basement. And that’s me, in the clubhouse again at Skydome in 1989 while working for Digital Media, holding a tape recorder in front of Blue Jays GM Pat Gillick and George Bell.

Jumping ahead to this year, that’s me in the stands, repeatedly saying “I don’t believe it!” after George Springer’s seventh inning homer put Toronto ahead of Seattle in Game 7 of the American League championship series, then hugging Jonathan after the game was over.

The Jays celebrating their 2025 American League pennant on the field after the game. I didn’t get into the clubhouse this time!

But I did get to celebrate with my brother Jonathan. In the picture of me on the field in 1985, I’m looking at Jonathan in the seats while I’m clapping.

Game 1 of the 2025 World Series. Addison Barger and company coming off the field after Barger’s pinch-hit grand slam. Barger’s blast was part of a seven-run sixth inning that broke open a 2–2 tie en route to an 11–4 victory. It was fun!

David and I were at Game 1 of the World Series, as we had been in 1993 (and also at Game 4 in 1992). The win that night ran our World Series record at games together to 3–0. Unfortunately, the streak wouldn’t last.

With Jonathan, his daughter Zara, and wife Sheri in our season ticket seats before the start of Game 7 of the World Series. David and his wife, Carrie, were seated elsewhere. Maybe David and I should have been sitting together. Oh, well…

Three shots of Bo Bichette heading for the plate after his three-run homer in the third inning put Toronto up 3–0. Though I hoped we’d score more runs to make the lead a little more comfortable, I really thought the Blue Jays were going to win the World Series at this point…

But no. This is the Dodgers celebrating on the field shortly after Alejandro Kirk’s broken bat double play ground ball ended the game in the bottom of the eleventh. Boo!