Born Ready

We’re going to the World Series, BAY-BEE!!! Toronto won Game 7 against the Mariners. Winning a Game 7 is weird for us Toronto fans. We’re used to the Leafs choking in Game 7, so this feeling is unusual and fantastic!

This feels historic and exciting. 1993 was the last time the Jays made it to the World Series. I keep imagining how it must feel to be in the players’ position. To be outstanding at an elite level, to work at a skill your whole life, to try to make a go at being a professional athelete, to then make it, to play on a team that rarely makes it to the postseason games but chooses to stay with it, and then to make it to the World Series! It’s a feeling that so few people get to experience.

I’ve only really gotten into sports in the last 5 or so years - mostly as a bandwagoner when I get the vibe our Toronto sports teams are doing well and heading into the playoffs. It started with watching the Leafs’ playoff games to connect with my brother, my uncles, and my dad. They are all farmers, so there is little for me (a woman who is into improv and reading while living in the city) to connect with my family.

I truly admire the dedication and hopefulness that my brother has each season, believing that maybe this year it will all lead to glory. I’ve only recently fully understood the emotional roller coaster these fans go through each year, only to have everything crash down around them into a depression. It’s like, why do it?

Because to stand with a team, to feel united with them, and to believe they could go the distance, and then to be around when it does happen - it feels like magic!

The 2019 NBA Championship win by the Raptors is probably one of the biggest highlights of my life. My partner and I watched all the NBA Finals games against the Golden State Warriors. We went to bars with friends, drank beer, cheered with the whole bar, and then walked home with the city alive with honking and cheering.

Why am I writing this? I suppose it’s because I’m so happy I found my place in watching sports. My partner and I were discussing how we wish we had gotten into watching sports earlier as kids. We commented on how it seems like there was this attitude from arts kids that sports were dumb or not cool, and we had bought into this silly misconception this whole time.

In reality, it’s so cool seeing our friends who watched these local teams as children, hoping for a championship for 20+ years and finally seeing it happen. Life is so busy, so monotonous. To have this shake-up where we’re watching a game at a bar on a Monday, saying “fuck it” to the early Tuesday morning wake-up call, to believing in the impossible, and then seeing it come to be - it feels refreshing. It feels like we’re part of something that is uniting us as a city and country for a short, but special time.

I’m so very aware of this emotional attachment I’m feeling. It’s so similar to binging a good show, watching a play that is only running for six weeks and will never be repeated the same way, or staying up late to read your favourite book, crying to a dramatic scene alone in the movie theatre, or listening to Cynthia Erivo singing Defying Gravity. I love the emotions this event is stirring up in me.

I think this is me grappling with a newfound piece of my identity. Does this mean I’m a sports fan?

Fuck. Another subscription. Another hobby to keep up with. But hey - let’s fucking do this!