Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list inclu...
by Sharif Hassan
TORONTO — Mike Chisholm had a pager with him when he came to watch the Toronto Blue Jays play against Philadelphia in the World Series in 1993.
His wife was nine months pregnant, so he needed to check in every half-hour to make sure she was OK.
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He said he was called home during the fourth inning of Game 2. His daughter was born that night.
Thirty-two years later, daughter and father were at Rogers Centre to watch the Blue Jays play against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the World Series.
“That’s why we are here today, to celebrate that,” Chisholm, 62, said on Friday. “So, she’s here with me to watch the World Series game tonight, so her first World Series, my third one.
“She’s a huge fan. She keeps score, we went to about a dozen games this year. This is our thing. This is what we do. We like going to ball games.”
The Blue Jays’ 1992 World Series win brought a kind of joy to the fans that they had never seen before, Chisholm said.
However, he said, the ’93 win was more fun because of Joe Carter’s famous home run in Game 6 to clinch the championship.
“I’ve never seen a stadium so loud in my whole life,” he said. “It was amazing.”
With the Blue Jays back in the World Series this year, a generation of Canadians who witnessed the team’s glory days say the Jays’ current playoff run has brought back memories of the two championships.
1993 Game 2 ticket only $58
Blue Jays fan Lenny Bruce said he was also at the stadium in 1993, and remembers paying only $58 to watch Game 2.
“It was ecstatic, that’s all I can tell you,” he said of the World Series win that year.
Single-game tickets for this year’s World Series went on sale Tuesday and sold out in about an hour. As of Thursday, the cheapest Game 1 resale ticket for general admission was more than $1,000 on Ticketmaster.
Given the high prices this time, Bruce said he will attend watch parties at Nathan Phillips Square and also Rogers Centre when the Jays are playing in Los Angeles.
Even though the Dodgers are considered the favourites, he said he believes the Jays have what it takes to win the title for a third time.
“It’s a really different team, much more power-oriented and so forth like all of baseball is,” he said.
“They actually got a chemistry, they’re a team, they work together, they’ve got the great defence, so I think they’ve that certain intangible factor and they could upset the mighty Dodgers.”
Among those at Rogers Centre on Friday for Game 1 was Drake.
The Toronto rapper was seen at the game wearing a Don Bosco Eagles letterman jacket with Rob Ford’s name embroidered on it. The former Toronto mayor coached football at Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School.
Monday night saw Toronto clinch a World Series berth in a nail-biter Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners.
A go-ahead three-run homer by George Springer led the Jays to a 4-3 win, securing Toronto’s matchup against the defending champion Dodgers in the Fall Classic.
At a press conference Thursday, Blue Jays manager John Schneider said he sees the series as being between the “two best teams left standing.”
“There’s a reason we’re here, and there’s a reason they’re there,” Schneider said. “I got all the confidence in the world in my guys.”
Fans believe in Blue Jays
Kevin Turcan, who came to Rogers Centre with his father and son, said he also believes in the Blue Jays.
“I think we got a better depth in our team … in the lineup now than we ever had,” he said outside Rogers Centre.
Turcan said he wasn’t at the stadium when the Jays won their two titles, but he watched on TV.
“In 1993, Joe Carter’s home run was the epitome of baseball for me,” he said. “I was still playing in those days and it was a lot of fun, so I’ll never forget ’92 and ’93. It was awesome.”
Turcan says Shohei Ohtani, the two-way Dodgers superstar, is a “game-changer” and a “major threat.”
“But I think our pitching staff are going to shut him down, I hope,” he said.
Turcan said his love for the Jays will never diminish even if the Dodgers win.
“If they lose, we’re going to be disappointed, but they’re still Canada’s team and we’re still going to support them no matter what,” he said.
“They’re in our hearts forever.”
– with files from Cassidy McMackon and Rianna Lim
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