There are plenty of iconic baseball towns in the Major Leagues. Cities like Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York boast plenty of history, which provides a swagger even when current results aren’t exactly there. When the 2025 American League Championship Series (ALCS) got underway on Sunday, October 12, the sport’s eyes turned to another country.
The Toronto Blue Jays had home-field advantage and, after flexing their offensive muscles in a four-game win over the New York Yankees, they were looking for more. They’re in the ALCS for the first time since 2016; a World Series title would be the franchises’ third, with their only previous championships coming in 1992 and 1993.
And as Canada’s only baseball team, the Blue Jays seized upon the spotlight. The Toronto Maple Leafs, usually the town’s top dog, showed baseball on the big screen after their home opener; the Leafs will also shift the start time of their Canadian Thanksgiving matinee to better accommodate baseball.
But, in 2025, there’s another element at play. Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, tension has spread across the world’s longest border, where crossings like the Peace Bridge and the Ambassador Bridge underscore the close relationship between the nations.
Trump, however, has spoken about Canada as the 51st state. Tariffs have come and gone and come again. Mark Carney, Canada’s current Prime Minister, surged in the polls and won an April snap election under the shadow of what felt like an existential threat on the other side of the border.
Sport, as it tends to do, has also been an arena for larger tensions. After Canada defeated the United States in the 4 Nations Face-Off hockey tournament, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remarked that America couldn’t take Canada’s country or game.
Baseball, however, is America’s pastime. For some, that makes the Blue Jays’ continued success a bit more than a game.
Toronto’s Alejandro Lameiro, who was waving a Canadian flag outside of the Rodgers Centre, felt the series meant more given recent events and was an opportunity “to prove to Donald Trump that Canada is not going to be the 51st state.”
That flag also made a major statement inside the stadium, as a massive Candian flag stretched across most of the outfield for the national anthem. The American anthem wasn’t booed, but the cheers for “O Canada,” rivaled that of a home run.
Julianne Marshall and her mother, Cindy Marshall, came to Toronto from Trenton, Ontario, about two hours away. They had their own unique ties to the team—Cindy was a bat girl for the Blue Jays’ inaugural 1977 season, and Julianne was born just after the club’s most recent World Series success and lived in Ontario’s capital for the 2015 and 2016 trips to the ALCS before away—but they both felt what the team meant to the country.
“It’s America’s pastime, but, I don’t know, Canada’s pretty good at it,” Julianne said. “And it’s kind of nice right now, when we’re not the 51st state, to maybe steal America’s pastime.”
“It’s huge. It gives all of Canada a boost of adrenaline,” Cindy added. “And that’s what we need right now.”
“It’s going to mean a lot for this country,” Joshua Jameus of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, said. “Just because Canada is a very passionate country, not only about baseball, but about hockey and so many other sports.”
And, on the subject of those other sports, the 4 Nations Face-Off was a natural point of reference. “Want to rub it in to the Americans,” Jameus added. “We beat the USA in 4 Nations, so time for number two, for our second win.”
Not everyone outside of the Rogers Centre viewed the postseason as a chance to settle the score, though.
Morgan Grant of Didsbury, Alberta (which is over 2,000 miles west of Toronto; he flew in just for the Jays), for example, noted that recent events have left a “sour taste in our mouth.” His daughter is an American citizen, but their visits have mostly moved to the northern side of the border. With all of that being said, though, his focus was on the Blue Jays and their success.
“Hockey’s our sport,” he said. “We spend so much time watching, talking hockey, and the Blue Jays always played second fiddle to hockey, but not anymore. Right now, they’re playing first, and it’s pretty exciting. … It’s a Canadian team, which gives you the Canadian pride, but it’s Blue Jays pride, you know? They’ve got an awesome team.”
For Brampton’s Trevor Miller, pride is focused more locally than across the border.
“I’m a sports fan,” he explained. “I’m a Canadian, but, at the end of the day, for me, the team is made up of predominantly American players, but players from all over the place. … If I’m being completely honest, I don’t care about a border.”
“It’s all about the city. It’s more of a city thing than it is a border thing.”
And, when push comes to shove, that pride is at the heart of the Blue Jays’ run. This is a team that finished 2024 season 14 games below .500. Even though Sunday night’s game devolved into a meek, 3-1 loss, the club is still eight wins from a potential World Series title with the hopes of a nation on their collective shoulders.
That may be geographically massive, but having one baseball team can inspire almost a small-town feel.
“Because we only have one team up here in Canada, you get coast to coast, everybody… from Newfoundland to Vancouver, that are all rallying around it, and that becomes a greater thing,” Miller explained.
Before the game, Toronto manager John Schneider specifically spoke to Canadians on the other side of the country.
“I think that fans in British Columbia, I hope, are Blue Jay fans before they’re Seattle fans.” he said. “I think we feel that. I think we feel that when we do travel there, too. So, I guess my message is ‘Try to get some tickets and meet us out there.’”
And if the scenes around the stadium were anything to go by, they’ll heed that call. Some fans in the crowd sported sou’wester hats emblazoned with the flag Newfoundland and Labrador; others had signs proclaiming they came from the Northwest Territories. Going behind in a series isn’t going to change that.
“This is going to be a hard-fought series, man,” Schneider said after the defeat. “These guys will be ready for it. I’ve said it a million times. They’re going to be ready to play tomorrow. … It’s another game. We’re trying to figure out a way to win four, and I think [Game 2 starter Trey Yesavage] will be up for it [Monday]. I think our guys will be up for the challenge to kind of show what we’ve been doing all year offensively [Monday], as well.”
“We’re behind everyone, know everyone’s name on the team and, watching them, just how amazing they are as team members to each other,” Alicia Kopores, who traveled the roughly 2,000 miles from Calgary, Alberta, said ahead of the contest.
“[This playoff run means] so much. In 1992, 1993, I was 10, 11 years old, and I made my parents buy me a Blue Jays shirt that was way too big. But I needed to have one. I just remember so many nostalgic things. … I remember I would stand in front of the TV watching and cheering,” she remembered. “This is very exciting. This is little 10-year-old-girl dreams come true.”
And dreams, especially ones decades in the making, don’t end without a fight.
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