Canadians have been especially preoccupied recently with watching an epic season of Blue Jays ascendency to baseball’s most golden competition, the World Series. It’s been a seesaw event with the LA Dodgers in which the Toronto Blue Jays won the first game handily but lost the second game badly — both in Toronto. The third game played in Los Angeles, with its eighteen innings, turned out to be one of the longest in World Series history, but in the end was also lost to the Dodgers. But the Blue Jays came back to win the next two in Los Angeles gaining the advantage of three wins over two losses. Game six back in Toronto put the Blue Jays behind again to even the series 3 – 3.

Everyone in Canada was hoping and expecting a celebratory win for the Blue Jays in Game 7. Things were looking very good when Bo Bichette delivered a three-run homerun in the third inning. But the Dodgers loaded the bases in the fourth inning and managed to squeeze in a run to make it 3 – 1. They did it again in the top of the sixth closing the gap by just one run to make it 3 – 2. But in the bottom of the sixth, Ernie Clement slid triumphantly into home to make it 4 – 2. Again, things were looking really good until the Dodgers’ Muncy, slammed a homerun to make it 4 – 3. Most everyone in the Stadium and across the country, at that point, was feeling a little bit nervous yet hopeful — until Rojas of the Dodgers, in the top of the ninth, made a devastating homerun off of pitcher Hoffman.

So the game was tied in the top of the ninth at 4 – 4. Then, though the Blue Jays loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, they weren’t able to gain anything because of a rather questionable ‘out’ at home plate and an incredible fly-ball catch by the Dodgers’ Pages. In the tenth, the Blue Jays were able to buy more time in the top, but couldn’t capitalize in the bottom. Then, at the top of the eleventh, the Dodgers, with another home run by Smith, gained a lead of 5 – 4. And though, in the bottom of the 11th, it looked like the Blue Jays, with runners on first and third, were set to come back, Alejandro Kirk broke his bat on a weak hit that enabled the Dodgers to gain a double play and win the game — and the World Series!

Of course, Blue Jays fans at the Rogers Centre, and an estimated ten million more screen-watchers across Canada, couldn’t believe what they had just seen! After the Jays great comeback from 2024 and their very successful late regular and post-season victories — along with their successful fight to Game 7 of the World Series in Toronto — everyone couldn’t have been more devastated by that very difficult loss. It was, not only deeply emotional for regular Blue Jays fans, but a very real experience of grief for the entire nation. On the very cusp of the final victory, it was hard to believe that the Blue Jays and all of Canada, choked!

For me, it’s an occasion to reflect on the meaning of sport — especially in this circumstance. What is it about sport that gets people so engaged, and, in this case, an entire country so invested in this experience? Why pay attention to something that is really mostly American and whose entire team (except for Guererro) is non-Canadian? Why should Canadians bother with something that is really all about America — especially in a time when we are at such odds with the US over trade matters? But, more importantly, why is it that we get so excited about sports, and especially with national sports such as hockey, soccer, basketball, and baseball? Why do we invest so much time and money, conversation, and social interaction over these pastimes? Why do we celebrate when our favourite team wins, and then grieve so deeply when they lose?

This year, I must admit that I have felt this much more personally — possibly because my wife, Carolyn, has been an avid fan of the Blue Jays for many years. Each year, we follow the highs and lows of the Jays attempts to become ALS champs. Two years ago, near the end of the season, we even got to Toronto to see a couple of games that turned out to be winners against the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays! Carolyn especially, has been a faithful fan who follows the games closely and feels the team’s wins and losses deeply. And, this year, of course, was exceptional in that regard.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason we love sport so much and come to identify with a particular team is because everyone, ultimately, wants to be a winner. It is not uncommon for all of us to find some measure of our identity in those whom we come to admire in any field of endeavour that interests us or is close to us. In this case, it is our national baseball team, the Blue Jays. Because they are the only Canadian, American League team, the Jays are an icon of national identity and pride.

This fact of everyone’s desire to identify as a winner raises another reality about life that wherever there are winners there are also losers. In fact much of our lives, in one way or another, is taken up with trying to figure out how to be winners. And, no doubt, one of the reasons we love sport so much is because we want to identify with winners. We applaud those who become heroes — especially if we identify with them — who work hard, have talent and know how to come out on top.

Sport, though it seems like just a lot of fun, is really a serious matter because it is a kind of caricature of what life is really all about. The reality is that our very existence, whether we are conscious of it or not, is defined by our actual participation in a great cosmic battle. We know there is good and there is evil, and often it seems that one or the other is winning or losing.

The Christian view of all of this, based on the Bible, is that there is a great spiritual battle currently being waged between the forces of evil (led by Satan and his demons) and the forces of good (led by God and His angels). There are allusions to Satan’s earlier demise in such passages as Isaiah 14:12, Ezekiel 28:16, and a direct reference to it in Revelation 12:7-9.

As in sport, so in the cosmos to which we belong, there are winners and there are losers. And most seriously, according to the Bible, so it will be at the very end of time. The final chapters of Revelation (20 – 22) describe God’s final victory over sin, evil, and Satan, as well as over those aligned with him. As in our great sport events today, in the end, not everyone wins. There will be winners and there will be losers in the most serious outcome imaginable!  And it is sport, as in the World Series, that points us to this ultimate end!

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