British Columbians divided over loyalties to Mariners or Blue Jays

The Blue Jays – the Mariners’ opponent in the Wild Card playoff series this weekend – may call Toronto home, but they also have a lot of fans out west in Vancouver and in other parts of British Columbia. As it turns out, the Mariners may have a few supporters north of the 49th parallel as well.

First, a couple of quick “All Over The Map” facts.

Vancouver, BC is named for British explorer Captain George Vancouver. One of the best nicknames for Canada’s westernmost metropolis is “The Terminal City” for its role as the terminus of the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway. One other fact: Vancouver is a slightly younger city than Seattle; the first non-Indigenous settlement dates to 1862, which is a full 10 years later than the Emerald City.

To find out how this Wild Card series is playing out north of the border, KIRO Newsradio talked to Justin McElroy, municipal affairs reporter in Vancouver for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

McElroy is also the guy who has his finger on the pulse and his ear to the ground of British Columbia culture and history more than just about anyone else working in media. He routinely delves into all things BC through survey-based stories such as which small town has the best ‘welcome’ sign, or where the best ‘pit stops’ are for junk food on the way to vacation spots in the interior of the province. He has a huge fan base all across British Columbia.

McElroy is a fan of the Toronto Blue Jays and has been since he was a kid in BC around the time when Toronto won back-to-back World Series in 1992 and 1993. But he also followed the ’95 Mariners, and he’s been to many games in Seattle between the two teams over the decades.

“If any Mariners fan has seen 20,000 Blue Jays fans invade their stadium for the annual series … I’ve been one of them, and I apologize for the camping,” McElroy told KIRO Newsradio on Thursday.

With the playoffs about to start, McElroy says “Blue Jays Fever” has not exactly spread like wildfire throughout British Columbia.

“But if you’re a sports fan, this has been probably the biggest topic of conversation over the past three or four days [with] a lot of chats [and] debates on social media on which team you should cheer for, [or] if it’s fine to like both teams equally,” McElroy said.

“It’s because it’s a fun one, where there’s not an obvious rooting interest,” McElroy continued. “But if you asked a hundred sports fans [in British Columbia] to name your top ten teams in North America for anything, chances are, the majority of them would at least put either the Blue Jays or the Mariners in there.”

This might come as news to Seattle-area Mariners fans who never imagined in 45 years that Vancouver baseball aficionados would ever be anything but Blue Jays fans. British Columbia fans do not have their own major league team, of course. Although, it does seem that it comes down to a choice between proximity to the Seattle Mariners versus nationalism and loyalty to the only Canadian baseball team still in the major leagues (since the Montreal Expos headed south and became the Washington Nationals).

One critical fact became clear as McElroy was speaking to KIRO Newsradio: this 2022 Wild Card series is the very first time when there’s ever been anything ‘official’ at stake in a game or series pitting the Mariners against the Blue Jays – not counting the natural rivalry between the two expansion teams, who both first took the field in 1977.

To hear McElroy tell it, these new and higher stakes are having an effect on our ‘neighbours’ (spelled with a ‘u’ to the north).

“There’s never been a time where they’ve both been in the playoffs at the same time,” McElroy said. “And so it’s sort of been easy for fair-weather fans to sort of hop from one to another depending on which team has been doing well. And so this is actually forcing people to choose one way or the other for the first time, which makes it add to the fun.”

Who will McElroy be rooting for this weekend?

“You know, I’ve got to go with the Jays,” McElroy admitted. “At the end of the day, they were the first team that I cheered for because of the ‘93 World Series. They’re the ones that pull at the national heartstrings a little bit more.

“I’ve been a big Mariners fan in the past,” McElroy continued. “But I’ve got to say, the 10 to 15 years of consistent mediocrity there sort of made it more difficult, shall we say, to be passionate all the time for the team. Regardless, I get to see my first and second favorite teams in baseball go against each other, and that’s super cool if you’re any sort of baseball fan.”

One more “All Over the Map” fact about Canada’s calendar that might console those unhappy Blue Jays fans if this weekend’s series ends with the Mariners advancing to the American League Division Series: come Monday, all Canadians can commiserate over the end of their baseball season while simultaneously celebrating their nation’s Thanksgiving.

You can hear Feliks every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien, read more from him here, and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea or questions, please email Feliks here.

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