News

The Blue Jays fans at Safeco Field here might just be louder than Blue Jays fans at Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Surely that's a premise Blue Jays starter A.J. Burnett could agree with, right?

“It depends on what day it is and what they're giving away,” said Burnett, who mocked the silence at home gatherings last month. “No, I'm just kidding. It just sounds that way because they're outnumbering the [local] people here. The guys in Toronto get to see us every day, so maybe the fact that these fans only get to come down once a year and see us, they're in full effect.”

Yesterday, on the country's 141st birthday, the place to be for baseball fans was – of all places – Seattle, and the colour to wear – of all colours – was blue.

Though their shades are nearly identical, Blue Jays shirts outnumbered Mariners shirts on the streets of the Emerald City this week. At every turn, you could find jerseys adorned with “Halladay” or “Wells,” even outside the stadium, where a souvenir retailer had set up a table with Jays merchandise.

Jeff Scoma, owner of the Seattle Team Shop, said he only does that for teams with national fan bases, such as the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers, and on special occasions, such as when former Mariners hero Ken Griffey Jr. returned with the Cincinnati Reds, or when Barry Bonds made a special interleague appearance with the San Francisco Giants.

“It sold pretty well,” store manager Aaron Cervantes said, adding that about 50 retro-style Halladay shirts were snatched up in about two hours. “It always sells pretty well. A lot of fans come down from Canada. It's actually pretty cool to see.”

For a second year in a row, the Jays, who wore caps with a stylized red logo complete with a maple leaf, spent the national holiday in this West Coast border hub in front of thousands of boisterous fans from British Columbia. They cheered when the Mariners finished batting practice, and were chanting the name of old-turned-new Toronto manager Cito Gaston, whose popularity seemingly stretches far beyond the borders of the Greater Toronto Area.

“Lots of fans come down from Vancouver. I must have run into 10 of them on the street today,” Gaston said after Monday's 2-0 victory. “They were very loud.”

Canada Day celebrations at Safeco Field included a pregame ceremony honouring the 50th anniversary of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). There was a fly-over from four jets – two CF-18s and two F-15s – as part of a military salute to both countries' armed forces. The ceremony included RCMP officer Martha Cormier, the sister of Jays' designated hitter Matt Stairs, who is based in Kelowna, B.C.

“It's unbelievable,” Stairs, of Fredericton, said of the support in Seattle. “It started in [batting practice] as soon as the gates opened.”

This phenomenon of Blue Jays support in B.C. has withstood the test of time – and uncompetitive baseball – given it has been 15 years since Canada's only major league team was a contender.

It has also withstood media penetration, as regional sports network Rogers Sportsnet and Vancouver all-sports radio station Team 1040, carry Mariners games as though they are a home team.

“I'm a Mariners fan as well,” said Harry Cool of Surrey, B.C., who attended the game last night with his family. “When the Jays aren't playing, I watch the Mariners.”

Support for the Jays some 3,000 kilometres to the west has conquered perhaps the biggest Canadian divide of them all: the tendency of all non-Torontonians to despise everything about Toronto. In that regard, this team and this sport have done more for national unity than the many divisive and tribal allegiances of the NHL.

After all, British Columbians don't treat hockey's Toronto Maple Leafs this way.