‘They’re our Jays’: baseball fans rally on the last day of the season - Toronto Star

This year, the Jays didn’t even make the playoffs. It stung for many, but when the last game day of the season arrived on Sunday, the fans still came.

A fan holds a Max Scherzer shirt as the Toronto Blue Jays play their final game of the season against the Cincinnati Reds at Rogers Centre in Toronto. 

Last year, the Toronto Blue Jays almost won the World Series. This year, they didn’t even make the playoffs. It stung for many, but when the last game day of the season arrived on Sunday, still, the fans came.

The city was awash in shades of blue, as hundreds of bejerseyed fans from not only Toronto but all across the country streamed down to the stadium to cheer on their boys one last time as they faced off against the Cincinnati Reds. After losing 83 games this season, the Jays pulled it out one last time, beating the Reds handily five to one. The triumph was bittersweet, given how rough the season has been for the fandom compared to last year, as they suffered through superstar losses (including fan favourite Bo Bichette), pitcher injuries, and sub-par offence, including a terrible performance by $500-million man Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Ruth and Lester Simmons rode the No. 79 bus down to the subway to attend the game. Ruth still thinks the team did well, especially during the thick of the wild-card race, considering the injuries and player losses the team has endured.

“It works its way through the whole team and puts a damper on it for them and makes it harder for them to play, but it doesn’t make it harder to watch,” Lester said. “They’re always fun to watch.”

Compared to last year, “we’re all a little disappointed,” Ruth said, “but we’re still steadfast fans.”

She’s also enjoyed watching players like George Springer, knowing it could be his last season as a Jay. “You get to know the people on the Jays so well that when they go — I cried like a baby when (Kevin) Gausman was traded,” she said. “They’re so much a part of this city, this province, this country that it’s pretty easy to think of them as family.”

Hopping off the Spadina streetcar, Alexandra Niit said that the season had been a bit of a “bummer”: she hadn’t even bought tickets to the game until yesterday. “I was kind of in a funk, but then I felt like I should go — and it’s so beautiful out today,” she said. Now, she says, “I think there’s hope for next year.”

The mood at the stadium was delightfully jolly. An old couple sported matching Springer jerseys, while many wore 2025 AL championship gear. One little girl proudly showed off her handmade “let’s go, Blue Jays” sign she had spent ages working on that morning, adorned with a royal-blue heart; another young boy tottered down the road to the stadium, carrying a framed Blue Jays poster almost as big as he was. Fans took pictures of each other in front of the 1992-1993 World Series championship statue. The hot dog vendors did a brisk business as Jefferson Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” blared over the speakers. Even the scalpers were out in full force, selling tickets well after the game had started.

Many of the fans had come from afar to witness the action in person, including Edmonton-based Robert Eull. He and his mom had flown to multiple cities to see the Jays this season, including three games each in Seattle and San Francisco (where, he estimates, about half the crowd was Jays fans), and now Toronto. He watched just about every game this season and, he said, remained hopeful throughout. “It’s been frustrating at times, after how well they played last year, and then this year just kind of struggling to string wins together, but everyone stayed positive,” he said. And how does he feel now on the last day of the season? “I was hoping they’d make a run into October,” he laughed. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do with all my free time now!”

Mitchell MacPhee made the journey from Ottawa to catch the last game. It can be tough to see fan favourites move on or get hurt, he says, but it “brings everybody together in a way… as a team, you gotta come through it together, so that’s really what they’re doing. And you (as a fan) appreciate the highs and lows a bit more: at the end of the day, everybody’s in it together, so it’s a bit more rewarding.”

The lows may have resulted in a quieter end to the season at the popular sports bars around the stadium where, shortly after the final game began, the season appeared to be over already. According to multiple bar hosts, most patrons pre-gamed at the bar before attending the game or were expected afterward, leaving few fans actually watching the game as it happened.

At the Rec Room Roundhouse, Matthew Dales was one of the only patrons who appeared to be watching the game, which played on a smaller screen next to the Jumbotron blasting football.

“Last year’s success was amazing for the city. It was palpable in every facet of the vibe of Toronto, and it was so good for the city. That carried over to this year, especially the first 75 per cent of this year, where the attendance is way up, and, from a business sense, it’s thriving due to the coattails of last year’s success,” he said.

“However, in the onset of this mediocre end-of-year performance, it’s anticlimactic and a bit of a letdown, but when the bar is set so high as Game 7 of the World Series as last year, it’s hard to match that.”

Over at The Pint, there were only a few fans in the bar, while at Real Sports, the entire crowd — many bedecked in Allen jerseys — looked like they were there for the football game. As one sport ends for the season, another begins. But no matter what happens, it seems the Jays will always have the fans by their side.

“Listen,” as Lester said on the bus, “they’re our Jays.”

Briony Smith writes about culture, entertainment and lifestyle for the Star.