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For Vancouver baseball fans, it doesn’t get more conflicting than this.
On one hand you have “Canada’s Team”: the Toronto Blue Jays, an extremely lovable bunch that are also force-fed to every sports viewer in the country.
On the other hand, you have the Seattle Mariners, the team that, odds are, more Vancouverites have seen in person than any other. After all, Seattle is only a short drive away. Many Vancouver residents (especially those born in Vancouver) cheer for the Mariners. The Mariners are also coming off one of the most miraculous postseason games in MLB history, a 15-inning battle that ended in a bases-loaded single.
But there’s also the question of Canadian pride, which looms larger than it would have had these teams faced off in the playoffs even two years ago.
For the baseball agnostic, you have to be able to appreciate what this means for sports fans in B.C. Here are five questions we’re grappling with before the series starts on Sunday.
Just how crazy will game prices be in Seattle?
The Canadian dollar doesn’t get you very far in Canada these days, not to mention the U.S. Baseball is known among the major league sports for actually having reasonable prices, but that’s probably not going to be the case for the games in Seattle, which will start on Wednesday. Count on them costing a pretty penny.
Will Canadian fans be allowed to buy tickets in Seattle?
That’s even if Canadian fans will be allowed to purchase tickets. It’s common for people with out-of-town addresses on their credit cards to be denied purchases during the playoffs. It might be time to book those flights to Toronto. (Tickets also won’t be cheap there, though.)
And should you go even if you can?
It also brings up the moral quandary of, with everything going on in the U.S., should you go down there? Opinions are going to vary on this from person to person, but we’d bet that more than a few people are willing to bend on their previously very strong convictions and take a peek across the border.
Which former Vancouver Canadians might be part of the series?
We know Trey Yesavage will play. The Pennsylvania-born pitcher is one of the best stories in sports this year. He started this season in Single A, then Single A long-season with the Canadians before rising to Double A and Triple A and then joining the Blue Jays. It’s essentially unheard of, and what he’s done on the Jays is even crazier.
Last round, against the New York Yankees, Yesavage was the Jays’ second starter and he struck out 11 batters and allowed no hits in just over five innings. He will likely be the Jays’ second starter again against Seattle.
As for the others, you can bet on Addison Barger, Davis Schneider, and Mason Fluharty to play big roles for the Jays. We’ll see who else gets the call.
Who’s going to win?
We obviously don’t know, but Seattle essentially playing a second game in Game 5 of their series against the Detroit Tigers won’t help the Mariners’ cause. Seattle ended up using three starting pitchers in that final game. And now they have to fly across the continent to play Toronto on Sunday.
Toronto was able to rest its pitchers. Star hitter Bo Bichette was also able to get some additional healing time in hopes that he might be able to play this upcoming series. There’s no news on that yet, but more rest time is undoubtedly a positive.
The betting markets have Toronto as a slight favourite. The winner, in case you weren’t aware, goes on to the World Series. No pressure or anything.
(Fine, we’ll make a prediction: Jays in six.)