I used to take sports very seriously. I was a Major League Baseball fan, a big hockey fan and a British soccer fan. That was until I learned a valuable lesson that took years to learn. The lesson is this. In the end, only one team wins the championship. Everybody else LOSES. It is the ultimate truth of the sports universe. In baseball, there are now 30 teams spread equally between the National League and the American League. Only one of those teams wins the World Series. The others go home empty handed. They are losers.

In the NHL, there are 32 teams. Fifteen of those teams are located in the United States. The other seven are here in Canada. Only one team wins the Stanley Cup. Everybody else loses. I learned that too late in life.

In 1960, I was sat in the bleachers at the old Memorial Stadium when St. Pat’s defeated by beloved St. Bon’s team for the Boyle Trophy in senior hockey. I was 14 and I was heartbroken. I was in tears. I thought my world had ended. It was for me the triumph of evil over good and the natural order of things had been violated. There was no consolation at all in the fact that a Catholic St. Bon’s team had been defeated by a Catholic St. Pat’s team. I still cried and walked home from the Memorial Stadium to the west end. It spoiled the entire year.

In 1971, I watched the Chicago Blackhawks lose the seventh game of the Stanley Cup final to the Montreal Canadiens in Chicago. The Hawks had a lead in that game and blew it. My dad, who had died some years earlier, was a Black Hawks fan. I always remember that. It made the loss even worse. In my house, watching that deciding game was Dave “Snowy” Carrol. He was a renowned sprinter in Newfoundland and was also a rabid Montreal fan. Even worse is that he was a St. Pat’s boy. When the Canadiens came back and tied the score and eventually won that seventh game I was crushed. I couldn’t stand to be around “Snowy” and the other people in my house that night. They were all Canadien fans. When the final whistle sounded, I went outside and around to the back to the garden and then climbed up a long ladder to my roof. It was a three-story house. On the roof I was at least alone in my sorrow. I was away from the Montreal crowd down in my living room.

Now that is the depth of my blind partisanship days as a sports fan. I have come to understand that the victors aren’t always “the bad guys” and in the end it is just a game. So, it is with this year’s edition of the Toronto Blue Jays. I became more than just a fan halfway through the 2025 season. I watched a lot of televised games because I had time on my hands, and I liked the Blue Jays style. They were a good mix of ball players, and the team was put together very well. They had a few superstars like Vlad Guerrero and Bo Bichette. They also had a lot of solid players and some less talented ball players who were “over achievers.” They were punching above their weight, as they say in sports. It all made for a great summer and a great fall.

I knew that if they finished first, they would avoid that first playoff round and get a “bye” into the second round. That they did. They moved on and along the way through the Mariners and even defeated the hated Yankees. All was well with the world when they got to the Word Series. They started slow but came back to take a three game to two lead and were headed back to the friendly confines of their Toronto homefield advantage. Then the wheels fell off.

The Dodgers won the final two games as Toronto absolutely snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. It wasn’t easy. They ran themselves out of two separate innings with those games within their grasp. They left enough runners on base in scoring position to have scored 20 runs but they didn’t cash them in. They had a nice lead in the seventh inning of the deciding game and couldn’t hold it. Etc. etc. etc. are the next appropriate words.

The Jays weren’t even big underdogs. They and the Dodgers had two of the highest payrolls in baseball. Goliath versus Goliath. In the end the Jays lost.

Here is the good news. I’m not even angry. I didn’t need to go up on the roof in the dark of night this time round or go even for a long walk. I slept like a baby after that final game. I didn’t rail against the universe and how unfair it could be because I have come to understand that sports can break your heart if you let it.

I am older now and at peace and philosophical about it all. Toronto crafted it own defeat. To quote Ray from Trailer Park Boys and his immortal words of philosophy… “It’s the way she goes boys. Sometimes she goes. Sometimes she doesn’t. It’s the way she goes.”

You can contact Jim Furlong at [email protected]