Senior producer of The Decibel Adrian Cheung and his father Eddie Cheung as Toronto Blue Jays play Game 2 of their series against the New York Yankees at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.Courtesy of Adrian Cheung
There are a million reasons why this Blue Jays World Series run is so special to Canadians coast to coast to coast.
Let’s start with the obvious on-field ones: We’re watching a team powered by the lightning bat of a generational superstar, and a come-from-nowhere minor league pitcher shattering records in the bright lights of the World Series. Add in 49 league-leading, heart-stopping comeback wins in the regular season, and top it off with the now iconic “Springer Dinger” in Game 7 of the ALCS.
It’s easy to see why Canada is completely in love with the Blue Jays.
The off-field reasons are probably innumerable. Maybe you’re a lifelong fan who witnessed the first snowy game at Exhibition Stadium in 1977 and the mythic back-to-back World Series championships in 1992 and 1993. Or perhaps seeing Canada’s only Major League Baseball team excelling at America’s pastime just as the country’s sovereignty is being threatened gives you a very 2025 kind of thrill.
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For my dad, a die-hard Jays fan, his reasons are both simple and complex. This is a man who watches “Jays in 30″ game recaps even after the nine-inning version that he also watched just finished. When the postseason games are on, my phone lights up all game, every game – texts from my dad about questionable managerial decisions (“Why did he pull him so fast?”), the occasional futility of the bullpen, guesses on what the final score will be and, always, beaming texts about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (“Vlad shines again”) like that’s his kid out there hitting 423-foot home runs.
He loves all Toronto sports teams (a trait I’ve sadly inherited) but I’ve always wondered why he’s had a special soft spot for the Jays. For that answer, you have to go back to 1988.
That was the year my dad, mom and sister immigrated from Hong Kong to Toronto. In search of a better future for their growing family, my parents took a huge risk and moved to a place where they had no family, and no real ties in a cold and unfamiliar world. They spoke a different language, literally and culturally, and had to learn fast about how to survive and connect with their new country. Thankfully, they did, as a baby boy – me – arrived two years later.
He now says that, back then, he had no idea about what baseball was or what the rules were. Balls, strikes and outs? A complete unknown. But in Toronto, he saw how much people cared about their team. He caught on quickly, wanting to banter with colleagues. It didn’t take long before he became a big fan, outfitting his kids in Blue Jays gear and taking them downtown to the games.
A photo of three-year-old Adrian leading up to the Blue Jays winning the 1993 World Series.Courtesy of Adrian Cheung
At the same time, the Blue Jays were on the come up. The ‘92 Jays shocked the world by becoming the first non-American baseball team to win a World Series. The next year, they did it again but in even more dramatic fashion, with Joe Carter hitting the game-winning home run to deep left field in Game 6.
During those World Series pennant chases, all of Canada was locked in, gaining new fans, pushing together, just like they are now in 2025. It became way bigger than just baseball.
My dad witnessed pure joy in Canada, as millions flooded the streets of downtown Toronto and people celebrated across the country. Suddenly he was swapping talk with colleagues and new friends about Pat Borders, MVP of the ‘92 World Series and genuflecting on Cito Gaston, the manager who led the team to the championship both times. It was an instant, shared cultural language that didn’t need translation.
In this way, the reason my father loved the Jays was because they showed him the best of what Canada was capable of, what it can be, at the exact same moment he was searching for meaning and belonging in a new place he called home.
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My parents have often told me about the nostalgia they have for that time in the early ‘90s. Even when times were precarious for them, the Jays made them feel like anything was possible in their road ahead creating a new life in Canada. The World Series wins showed that Canada itself could be the best in the world. The Jays were just the baseball team, but among all its supporters, they saw pride, inclusivity and what life looks like when this country rallies together.
After the ‘93 World Series, there would be a lot of painful years ahead for the Blue Jays. The dome’s packed seats would soon become empty and the team wouldn’t go to the playoffs again for another 22 years.
It didn’t matter. My dad kept taking us to games. We watched a lot of bad baseball in the dead of summer, up in the nosebleeds. Eventually, Jays fans would finally taste playoff excitement again in 2015 – that year, I flew back from Saskatchewan, where I was working, to watch our first Blue Jays playoff game together, ever.
Adrian and his father during the Blue Jays ALCS series against Kansas City Royals in 2015.Courtesy of Adrian Cheung
My dad passed on his love of the Jays to me. And this postseason run, I’ve tried my best to repay that debt and we’ve been fortunate to go to two playoff games together, both wins.
The last one we went to, Game 6 of the ALCS, the Jays won 6-2 in a do-or-die elimination game. The Rogers Centre was shaking with excitement.
My dad went around high-fiving complete strangers with every Trey Yesavage strikeout and he leapt to his feet with a massive yell when a Guerrero Jr. home run flew by us and cleared the fences in left field.
He said his ears were ringing, the loudest he’s ever heard that building in more than 30 years of going to games.
That old feeling was back again.