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2025 Blue Jays

Someone needs to grab Matthews by the balls and make him watch the springer home run over and over and say ‘this is how it’s done you jackass’
 
My kids are in and around the same age I was when the Blue Jays won their World Series. This is surreal. Hope they don't have to wait just as long to see it again.
 
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Baseball was the first "American" sport I ever got into, probably cos it was kind of like cricket which is a sport I’ve played since I was about 9 years old.

I remember watching a baseball game on TV when I was on a holiday in the USA in the early or mid 1990s when I was anbout 11 and instantly loving it.

Then over here a new TV station, channel 5 started up and one of their things was a weekly through the night coverage of two MLB games on a weekend night in the mid to late 90s. I watched every week. First World Series I really remember watching was 1997 Florida Marlins v Cleveland Indians.

I didn't really have a team as such then, just watched whatever game was on and loved all the nuances and stats of the game.

Then I went on a holiday to Toronto in 2002 with the specific aim of seeing my first live baseball game. I went to 4 games, Toronto v Cleveland twice, and Toronto v Boston Red Sox twice.Toronto lost all 4 games. But for whatever reason, I decided since they'd been my first home team, they were my team now. (I actually just looked up the details of those games and they were swept in both series, even the game Halladay pitched).

On a side note: This trip was also the same week of THAT game 6 between the Leafs and Carolina which cemented me as a Leafs fan, again, despite a loss! Maybe I should have taken all these losses as a sign 😂. But that trip was when I really connected with Toronto and Canada and is why now I’m still sitting on message boards talking about these things from across an ocean.



It's been a long 23 years since to get to this point, and I genuinely thought it would never happen. Jays in a World Series. I was even less optimistic after some of the “better” prior teams didn’t make it this far.


Also I dug back into some old photos of that trip. They look like a different era.

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I grew up watching Joe Carter jumping like a mad man after Mike Timlin lobbed him the ball to close out the Braves, and I also watched Joe Carter touch them all after ripping a walk off winner off Mitch Williams. I wish they could have made more hay with Halladay (RIP), and the Anthopolous Jays were very fun. Haven't really followed them much until late last year and the latter half of this season, but this group plays good fundamental ball. Really nice to see a lot of Jays alumni really rooting for this team.
 
Grew up going to games. I was my son's age (Grade 7) the last time they were in the World Series. It was fun allowing him to stay up late last night and watch it together. The Leafs haven't delivered a moment like that in his lifetime.

Outside of Carter/Alomar and Edwin/ Bautista some of my favorites over the lean years included Delgado, Green, Rios, Wells, Stewart, Cruz Jr., and Hill. My all-time favorites were Shawn Green and Alex Ríos.
 
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Last game for me was 2001 to watch Barry Bonds chase the home run record. If memory serves they kept walking him and we were booing them as was most of the crowd. They finally pitched to him in his last at bat a boom, 1 of the 73 he hit that year.
 
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