Ottawa
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‘#WANTITALL’ is an unlikely hashtag for a nation that stakes its model on being humble and good. But for this World Series, Canadians are embracing it and belting it out far and vast as the slogan for their beloved Blue Jays.
The 2025 World Series between Canada’s solely MLB staff, the Toronto Blue Jays, and the storied Los Angeles Dodgers has seized the complete nation and jolted it with a sense of pleasure not often felt in Canada – besides, of course, for the heights of worldwide hockey drama.
From the streets of Whitehorse, Yukon, in Canada’s north to St. John’s, Newfoundland, greater than 5,000 miles to the east, Canadians have galvanized round an unlikely band of heroes, many of them American – a bit of a cross-border love story at a time of unprecedented tensions between the US and its northern neighbor.
In the phrases of the Blue Jays’ American supervisor John Schneider: “It’s cool to play for a country.”
And no matter the outcome now, many Canadians say the Blue Jays and their followers have already received one thing.
“I just think it’s their will to win and to represent Canada,” stated Jays fan Shirley Pitre, 93, from Ottawa, who provides that watching the staff in the playoffs has been a welcome distraction from the nation’s issues.
She and her husband, Marcel, additionally 93, haven’t missed a minute of the motion they instructed NCS Sports, even staying up till 3 a.m. ET for an epic Game 3 that went 18 innings.
The collection now heads again to Toronto with the Blue Jays main three video games to 2, only one victory away from successful the Commissioner’s Trophy at home.
For many Canadians, it has been a reminder of what’s potential even with a staff that completed final in its division simply final season.
The Blue Jays’ inconceivable journey has moved in tandem with the fortunes of Toronto’s rookie American pitcher, Trey Yesavage.
Everyone from his supervisor to his dad and mom have reminded the world that the 22-year-old was taking part in at the lowest stage of the minors to start out the season and that he solely made Toronto’s roster in September. And but, he has dazzled followers along with his pitches and poise ever since.
The followers’ embrace of Yesavage has been next-level, proving this isn’t a cross-border grudge match however a true “world” collection, with Americans, together with Yesavage, main the manner in connecting with Canadian followers.
“We knew he was in good hands with all of our Canadian family,” stated Yesavage’s father, Dave, as he gestured his appreciation to the Jays’ followers surrounding him throughout a mid-game interview on the Canadian broadcast of Game 1.
The Blue Jays went on to stun the Dodgers that night time, taking the first sport 11-4 and quieting early hypothesis that they’d be swept in 4 video games by the defending champs.
To add to the already iconic standing of the 2025 Blue Jays’ run, the staff has been led by the solely Canadian on the staff, who additionally simply occurs to be its star franchise participant, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Guerrero Jr. was born in Montreal when his father, Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero Sr., performed for the then-named Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals).
“You ask me if I’m ready, I born ready, I born ready,” stated Guerrero Jr. to adoring followers at the Rogers Centre in Toronto after a defining Game 6 that stored the Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series towards Seattle.
Guerrero Jr., who was raised most his life in the Dominican Republic, is now a Canadian sporting hero regardless of the end result of this collection. He has develop into an inspiration to Blue Jays followers who are as numerous as the staff and the nation they cheer for.
And there’s something else Canadians have embraced by means of this stellar playoff run: an uncharacteristic bit of swagger.
“Jays in 6!” yelled Marcel Pitre, sporting his classic Blue Jays ballcap and a newfound confidence in what a gritty ball staff can do to spice up a complete nation.