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Diehard Toronto Blue Jays fan Natashia Moody is reflecting on her favorite baseball team’s trip to this season’s World Series — the first in 32 years.
The last time the Jays made it to Major League Baseball’s Championship Series was eight years ago.
He remembers going to watch the final game between the Jays and the Philadelphia Phillies on TV in 1993.
The enthusiasm stuck to him.
“When the Blue Jays won, it was like, Oh my God, this is so amazing! Just that feeling as a kid, I could feel it so alive,” Moody, who lives in God’s Lake First Nation in northern Manitoba, said in a phone interview.
Natashia Moody of God’s Lake First Nation, Maine, poses in this undated handout photo. The Canadian Press/Handout – Natashia Moodie
Toronto prepares for long-awaited World Series return
This was the second consecutive championship win for the Jays, who also won in 1992.
They are now looking to lift the trophy for the third time. In Monday’s thrilling Game 7 of the American League Championship SeriesToronto defeated the Seattle Mariners 4–3.
The comeback victory, in which George Springer hit a three-run shot in the seventh inning, prompted Jays fans to share their World Series memories on social media, including Joe Carter’s walk-off homer in 1993.
“I just remember Joe Carter basically hit a home run and that was it,” Moody said.
Now 40, she said she has spent her life surrounded by baseball. Her family played this game when she was growing up.
And in 1999, Moody and her sister Alexandria performed the national anthem in Cree before a Jays game in Toronto. It was the first time O Canada was sung in a language other than English or French at a Jays game, Moody said.
“It was like a dream come true. Watching him my whole life, basically, and becoming a singer and then getting a chance to sing for his favorite baseball team. It’s still a surreal moment for me to this day.
“What I would do to sing for him again,” she said.
Lisa Pateman of Lethbridge, Alta., poses in this undated handout photo. The Canadian Press/Handout – Lisa Pateman
A childhood memory that never fades
Lisa Patman doesn’t call herself a baseball fan. But that was in 1992.
When the Jays faced the Atlanta Braves in the World Series that year, Pateman sidelined his secondary studies in Moose Jaw, Sask., to watch the game at a local bar.
“It was a great crowd. Every time Toronto won, there was just huge camaraderie … it was one of those things, even if you weren’t a fan, you loved the feeling you got there watching it,” Pateman said from Lethbridge, Alta.
“It was epic. Like, you can’t even really describe it.”
Pateman, 51, admitted he hasn’t watched a game since. But she still proudly wears the Jays championship sweatshirt — a memento she wants to share with her husband and their 19-year-old son.
“The three of us are kind of fighting over it,” she said, laughing.
It has not been decided who will wear the coveted shirt on Friday. Pateman said the family will be on hand to watch the Jays face off against the defending 2024 champion, Los Angeles Dodgers, in Game 1 at Rogers Center in Toronto.
“There’s just something [the Jays] The only Canadian baseball team in the league. America has been getting hockey [Stanley Cup]We’ve got to get their game,” Pateman said.
‘Man cave’ filled with superfan memorabilia keeps the spirit alive
Toronto superfan Curtis Halliday said a headache didn’t stop him from tuning in to the final game of the 1993 series when he was in a hotel room in Halifax.
His current wife had to ask him to be quiet so he wouldn’t wake up the other guests.
Holliday said, “I said no worries. We opened the door, and there were just people running up and down the hallways and corridors. Everyone was alive.”
Heading into Friday’s game, Holiday said the hype is the same — the difference is he’s “not as young anymore.”
Holliday, 52, has been collecting Jays memorabilia since he was 12 and has some from past World Series wins.
He created a “man cave” in his home in Barrington Passage, NS, and it’s filled with everything from a bar displaying his Jays baseball cards to hanging Jays jerseys and Jays peanut dispensers.
That’s where he plans to watch Friday’s game.
“We’ve been here 32 years, and will probably have another 32 years. So, you know, enjoy every second of it.”