Armed With Will and Determination
October is feeling a little bit different this year
I come from downtown, born ready for you
Grace, Too by The Tragically Hip
Toronto is a sports city. It always has been. While often joked about how the city – and the rest of Canada – only has two seasons, construction and winter, they are actually the two defined by when the two largest sports venues in the city are in use the most. In the winter, it is Scotiabank Arena that is filled with the sounds of pucks off posts and the swish of baskets. In the summer however, there is a different magic. While baseball is America’s pastime, the summertime sounds of the crack of a bat and the roar of the crowd that can be heard for blocks from the Rogers Centre when the dome is open create a soundtrack that has a bigger effect on the ebbs and flows of the summer in Toronto.
There has been periods of lackluster teams in the city, the Leafs of the 1970s and onwards are of heavy discussion as the team’s Stanley Cup drought continues still. The Raptors were at risk of leaving the city for years before they became a perennial playoff disappointment before their eventual championship in 2019 and have been middling ever since. And the Blue Jays saw a lengthy playoff drought following their back to back World Series wins in the 1990s and then became a playoff laughing stock following the miracle runs of 2015 and 2016 to the ALCS. But when a team is in it, for real, it is a magic that can’t quite be captured and explained.
There is a certain level of buzz and excitement that envelops the city when Toronto has a team in the playoffs. You start to see hats and jerseys being worn more frequently and more casually. Every conversation between family, friends and coworkers opens with “Did you see the game last night?”. While the Leafs have made a routine out of making the playoffs it’s when a team goes a little deeper, gives a bit more hope that’s when you really see the buzz start to grow.
When the Raptors won the championship in 2019 it shifted something in the city, made the desire from the people of Toronto for a championship grow just a little bit more. The pressure placed on the Leafs and Jays was a little firmer, a little heavier. There was a renewed desire to recreate the magic that was witnessed during that Raptors run, wanting other teams to have their own Kawhi buzzer beater in Game 7. To take a stab at defeating their own inevitable opponent. That time has come for the Blue Jays.
While that Raptors team avoided their playoff demons due to circumstance, having never been able to end “Lebronto” before Lebron James left Cleveland for the Lakers, the Jays have faced their own head on this postseason. First it was the Yankees, a team that has always made the long ball and the list of future Hall of Famers on its roster, devastating to any hope that this could be a team Blue Jays that has success in October long before the weather starts to cool. But it was different this year, it felt different this year. Toronto had its own solution, led by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., son of hall of famer Vladimir Guerrero. Guerrero Jr. has been with the Jays organization since he was 16 years old, for as long as the city has had Auston Matthews as its designated hero it has had Vladdy – as he is colloquially called by teammates, fans and media – as its prodigal son. It was this son who lifted the Jays to their first ALCS since a different generation of team led by a different set of future hall of famers did so in 2016.
It was as the name of José Bautista – who’s homerun in Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS launched the Jays headfirst into the meat of their first pennant race since 1993 – watched on from the Level of Excellence in right field as the 2025 Jays put up a combined 23 runs in the first two games of their own ALDS against the New York Yankees. Further than just the Blue Jays, the city of Toronto itself seemed to say with their performance “We were here before and we can be here again” even if it was just a whisper to those on the outside not paying attention as they made taking down the Yankees look like easy work in four games.
It was the ALCS against the Seattle Mariners where the Jays faced their biggest demon and forced everyone to take notice.
To understand the momentous meaning behind the ALCS and this specific matchup one must go back to the 2022 American League Wild Card series, also played between the Blue Jays and Mariners. The Jays went into this series as favorites to win but would drop Game 1 at home, no big deal. But Game 2 is what traumatized the Toronto fanbase into never quite trusting any lead, no matter the size, in the same way of Leafs fans of the past. Following an early 8-1 lead taken by the Jays in the fifth inning it would be a car crash of a back half of the game by Toronto’s bullpen and defence that lead the team to losing 10-9 and getting eliminated from the post season before the true potential of that roster could be seen.
The team and fans alike hoped that this year would be different, and it didn’t seem that way for a moment. With Toronto’s previously hot bats going quiet leading to the team to head off to Seattle down 2-0. But we were told this team is all in, that they have what makes championship contenders special. It was in Seattle where a Cy Young winner returning from Tommy John surgery would take the mound in Game 3 and the Blue Jays that fans became familiar with during the regular season took over. The series could be described as a coin toss by those who don’t understand the team that led the league in comeback wins this season. This series was a classic Jays game just extended into seven. Game 7 exemplified that.
George Springer coming to Toronto was a dream come true for fans. The team has had superstars in the past, but usually they were homegrown talent or acquired via trade. The city never had a player commit to the Toronto Blue Jays and the city as big as Springer did. He came from the Houston Astros with a career built upon being a big time player in big time moments. The opportunity presented to Springer in the seventh inning of Game 7 was about as big time as we’ve seen for the Blue Jays since 1993. A single swing on a single pitch sent the Blue Jays to the World Series.
There are so many individual players to celebrate, and this could be a paragraph of listing out each player on that ALCS roster. But I think of Ernie Clement, who has been described as the lifeblood of that clubhouse, who puts his heart and soul into this team and comes to each game with a hockey player’s attitude of “I will have to die on this field for you to take me out of this game”, who was brought to tears when the Blue Jays punched their ticket to the World Series with a strike delivered by Jeff Hoffman. I think of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Vladdy, who drifted off the team huddle to have a moment to himself as he pointed to the sky thanking God. Who looked at the ALCS MVP trophy he won with the same love and care that one would save for their newborn child. I think of all the other men and women who make up that ballclub who have given the city of Toronto something to root for, for parents and children to bond over, for coworkers to discuss around the water cooler, for strangers passing on the street to nod and smile over matching hats and jerseys being worn. We are all a part of a secret club now, one that gets to say “We witnessed this”.
It has been a “take notice” October for the baseball world to pay attention to the often forgotten team north of the border. A team born out of aging super stars, franchise faces, position players who are finally getting their big chance, and a 22 year old rookie pitcher from Pennsylvania who will take the mound in Game 1 – as his seventh start in a pro career that started this season, will play the role of David in baseball’s own battle of David versus Goliath with the threat of a lockout in the background.
So as Toronto prepares for the biggest sporting moment it has faced in the month of October since 1993 it is time to cheer, to live and die by every pitch, and celebrate folk stories in the making that will be told for generations in the same baited breath and reverence as “The Shot”, “Touch ‘em all Joe!” and many more. It is important to remember that just making it here is the object of childhood dreams of millions of kids worldwide and that no matter how the chips fall this will be a fall that is remembered and celebrated fondly.
And remember, David won.
Armed with skill and it’s frustration, and grace, too
Grace, Too by The Tragically Hip