What is, what was, what could have been... My 2025 Blue Jays Retrospective

Retrospective may be too big a word, but it might not be big enough. I don’t know if this will make sense, but it’s something I felt I needed to document…

The Blue Jays season came to its end on Saturday night, technically Sunday morning, when they lost Game 7 of the World Series in extra innings to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4. Of course, that’s underselling everything that happened in that game, the series, the playoffs. It was an unbelievable run that ended in the worst possible way that will have Blue Jays fans everywhere thinking about what could have been for a long while.

… but this isn’t about the playoffs, it’s not about the loss, it’s about my experience as a Jays fan this year, all of the highs and the very few lows. I’m writing this for myself for a number of reasons, the biggest reason being to make sure I remember just how awesome the ride was.

The season started in a way that felt ominous. The Jays won 74 games in 2024 and finished last in the AL East. The offseason saw them making moves, but not the moves a lot of fans, or I, were hoping for. The Scherzer signing somewhat made up for the Straw/International Bonus Pool space trade that ultimately didn’t land them Roki Sasaki, but it hardly felt like enough to move out of the basement in the AL East.

But it’s funny, sometimes things work out… and that’s the first lesson I really took away from the season. Despite my negativity when the season began, I truly don’t believe that anyone in the Jays front office is TRYING to put a bad product on the field. There are a lot of smart people who spend a lot more time crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s, looking at things and making decisions that are in the best interest of the franchise. While I might not always agree with the moves, I need to chill out on being negative going into the season. Of course, how many times have I been stoked about moves that don’t end up working out?

The team caught fire after an inauspicious start. From late May into August, the Jays were the best team in baseball. This coincided with the family trip we had planned to Toronto in July around the Canada Day holiday. We had tickets to two games: Thursday night versus the Yankees, and Sunday afternoon versus the Angels for Junior Jays Sunday.

Unfortunately for Nash, Bo Bichette, his favorite player, had injured his knee in the series before they played the Yankees. We were seeing the last game in the series and got word a couple of hours before first pitch that he wouldn’t be active for the game. Regardless, it was an incredible game. A home run from another one of his favorites, Addison Barger, a couple of Springer dingers, and even a pinch hit, albeit unsuccessful, appearance from Bo. He wanted a ball the whole game, and in the 9th he got a ball from the ball boy that had been hit foul. He was over the moon, everyone was. The Jays won 8-5, sweeping the Yankees and moving into first place in the AL East. An incredible series, an incredible atmosphere, and a fantastic first game for Nash (since his actual first game in 2015 when he went at 9 months old).

I wasn’t sure it could be topped, but then the next lesson from the year hit me: that the impossible happens. At Junior Jays Sunday, the kids and I went to the CN Tower before heading to the activities outside the park. I had some of them at the bouncy castles, while my wife had Nash near the batting cage. She asked some folks from the J-Crew how she could get one of their goodie bags. She was told that Nash would have to answer some trivia questions, and he aced them. He then went into the cage, and as Amanda was explaining this to me, the J-Crew folks watched him take a couple of very healthy hacks in the cage. They asked me if he was outgoing, and if he might like to be the Junior Jamie and do a live hit in the stadium on the jumbotron with Jamie Campbell, going over some highlights from some games that were happening. I might have been more excited than he was, but he was game.

We went into the stadium early to try to get some autographs from the players. It was a bit of a wait, but after a workout and toss with some of the relievers, Jeff Hoffman took Nash’s sharpie, signed his ball, and then kept the sharpie to keep signing. He even apologized to him for keeping it for so long.

Nash got a jacket, a microphone, and he delivered some great commentary that more than 40,000 people inside the stadium got to watch. In case it couldn’t get more “one in a million,” Jamie wrapped up the segment asking who Nash’s favorite player was. With Bo being back in the lineup, Jamie said, “… and he’s coming up next, let’s see if he can get something started here for the Jays…” who were trailing 1-0 at the time. Jamie couldn’t have been nicer to him. He got more Jays swag, a signed ball from Jamie, and we got some pictures with him. As we were about to leave, it couldn’t have been scripted any better: Bichette led off the inning with a home run before we could leave. Everyone in the booth was pointing at Nash. “You did that, you did that!” they exclaimed. It’s unreal to think it’s even possible, but I tell myself in my heart that Bo was on deck, heard that, and it gave him the power to hit it out. Regardless, it certainly didn’t hurt him.

The game was fun too, though I spent most of it in the concourse with the other kids doing various activities. I did get to see a Mike Trout (my favorite player) home run in the first, but Gausman pitched a gem, Hoffman shut the door, and the Jays won, 3-2, another one for the surging Jays. This season was magical.

We got home the next day and had a ballgame that night. Nash brought those batting cage hacks and good vibes to the game and hit his first ever home run that night. The next night, he hit his second. It was unbelievable and again, just told me that something about this baseball season was different. It was special.

This just kept going the Jays’ way. Every night I watched, expecting them to win. Every night, they’d find a way to win. Up and down the lineup, every night it was someone else contributing. One night I was at a community event with a live band. I left the house with the game tied, and it went back and forth but the Jays walked it off with a 3-run 9th inning. I jumped up and down excitedly, and a number of folks mentioned how much I must have loved the band.

The slip-up at the end of the year had me worried, but the Jays rallied to win their last four games of the year, securing a bye for the wildcard round, the top seed in the AL for the playoffs, and a hope that this could be our year.

Nash watched almost every inning of the playoffs with me. The Jays downed the Yankees fairly easily, but went down 2-0 early in the ALCS against Seattle. In overthinking Luke fashion, I was overly superstitious going into that series, and that was the next thing I really learned during this run… Superstition is bullshit. It doesn’t matter what color underwear someone wears, or how you sit on the couch, or what you drink during the game. That’s a huge disservice to the players, the staff, the front offices, everyone involved in actually, you know… winning the game. Both teams try to win, only one can, none of it is on me. This is something I should have learned long ago, but it really helped me enjoy the games for what they were.

I, and everyone, remember the 2015 run. The Jays went down 2-0 to Texas in the ALDS. I was in Vegas at the time and I told everyone I saw wearing anything Jays, “we’ll get them back in Toronto.” I got a lot of high fives, and it was great. It was even better when it happened. I said I was going to take the same positive attitude, maybe it happens again (ignoring the “superstition is bullshit” bit above).

I had been scheduled to go to Toronto at a time that coincided with Game 7 of the ALCS, and I was clear about that at work. I wanted so bad to bring Nash to Game 6, never expecting it to go 7. Things didn’t work out, but when I landed in Toronto I got a ticket for Game 7. Obviously the Springer Dinger will go down in the history books, and I can crow that I have been to two “winner-take-all playoff games in Toronto where a Blue Jays player hits a 3-run homer to take the lead in the 7th inning.” (Maybe they should have flown me up to Toronto for Game 7 of the World Series… wait… no… superstition… bullshit… stop it).

Caleb Joseph put it best: “the baseball gods got this one wrong.” I wanted the Jays to win so badly for Nash. He was crushed, and they lost in the absolute most awful way possible. It sucked to see, but as I’ve sat here reflecting over the last couple of days, what if we didn’t get this? What if it was another last place finish? Or another loss in the first round of the playoffs without a win?

When Bo hit the 3-run homer in the 3rd inning of Game 7, I don’t think we’ve ever quite celebrated like that before. We jumped, we screamed, we hugged… It was amazing. No, the Jays didn’t win the World Series, but we got to experience something that, while it won’t be in the record books, it was real, and we got to be there for it, and all the other magical stuff that went around it.

I hope that everyone had as fantastic an experience as I did this season. I wish I could thank all of the players for the lasting impact they left on our family. I hope that everyone gets to experience a run like this for their team, and I know that I, or at least I hope that I, can focus on the positive side of these things in those situations for everyone else, because honestly, this was just the best.p