in my sports arc

7/6/2026

last year, the baseball team i support, the toronto blue jays, made it to the world series! i guess most people would call me a bandwagoner because i was not actively invested in the sport until they were playing the alcs (semifinals), but in my defense, i have always had a soft spot for baseball...! growing up, everyone in my immediate family played some version of the game (softball for my parents, baseball for my brother) so i spent many week nights hanging around local parks making fun for myself. baseball has become something very dear and very nostalgic to me as a result.

i also have extremely fond memories of the 2015 postseason. though we didn't make it past the alcs, it was the first time i ever actively followed a sports series and enjoyed talking about it with others... i remember thinking at the time that i finally understood why people got into sports and that it was something i could see myself getting into too, but it didn't really stick at the time.

this time was a different story though!!!

during the postseason, i caught wind that they were actually promising this year and started tuning in. i tweeted about it a few times and i guess the twitter algorithm showed it to an oomf-in-law from golden kamuy twitter because he followed me and started responding. he's a dodgers fan, and while i have personal beef with the los angeles dodgers that actually predates that postseason, it was a genuine joy messaging him through a world series where our teams were facing each other.

that joy wasn't something i just experienced with my new internet friend (who has become quite dear to me as we have a lot in common!) though, i also had a ton of fun watching the series with my parents and my boyfriend. i remember watching game six at my friends halloween party and thinking man, i kind of hope they lose this one, because if they win the next i want to be watching it next to my dad. and while that didn't end up happening, i'm still glad i got one more game out of the year to watch with everyone.

overall, the whole thing was so much fun that i've been watching the regular season very closely this year! and man... it's been... i mean it's been one of the years of all time to be sure...! on the one hand, i really need whatever etsy witch is cursing our guys to injury to step off asap, but also it's been really interesting seeing all these new and promising players being called up from the minors? it's a very bittersweet season so far!! mostly bitter. but i'm an optimist by trade.

i'm hoping to have a very baseball summer and i've already made it to a couple games so far! i hadn't been to a jays game since halladay was pitching (a fact that oomf said made me sound a hundred years old), but i knew i definitely did not want to miss when the dodgers were in town. and i didn't!

shohei ohtani is in this pic btw if you even care

we lost spectacularly. it turns out getting to see an ohtani homerun in person as an ohtani fan is not as fun when it is against your team. i still had a good time overall though! i'm also glad i got out to a game before they sent davis schneider back to the minors... rip davis toronto loves u

the other game i made it out to was actually yesterday! i was going back and forth on if i wanted to go to the pride night game or not because, admittedly, i thought the free hat for the giveaway was pretty meh. but even though we lost again i'm really glad i did! it was SO fun. the stadium was all done up and they had invited a bunch of local drag queens. and the dome was open for a bit!!! so good!!

i also got some compliments on my outfit so even if the jays lost i still won

in addition to baseball, i also had fun watching some of the stanley cup playoffs this year! for hockey, my family supports the montreal canadiens, so you already know we were tuning into every game right up until they were sadly eliminated. between baseball and hockey, i feel like i bonded a lot with my dad during the month of may... at the start of regular season baseball i was watching most games in my room via my boyfriend streaming on discord, but since i was in the living room doing con crunch sewing through may, i was watching every jays and montreal game with my dad.

my dad and i don't have a lot of interests in common. i think the only thing we've really been able to talk about together is music, and that is still a relatively recent development in itself. that isn't to say i have a bad relationship with him, i think we get along as well as anyone with a stereotypical emotionally constipated father can, but that there's never been many things for us to enjoy together. getting to learn more about hockey from him during the montreal games and getting to talk ball with him in general as this seasons progressed has been something kind of special in that way!

actually, during one of the montreal games after a moment of silence he said to me "would you like to have been in hockey?" it isn't something i ever really thought about but i always loved skating as a kid and in some ways i kind of think i would've... i wasn't an athletic kid by nature so i never really went into sports of my own volition, and it wasn't something that i was put into involuntarily like my brother was (that makes it sound bad. my brother loves hockey and played it voluntarily well into adulthood. i just mean when he was like, 4 years old lol). more than anything, it was kind of a weird experience to hear that kind of question from my dad. it made me wonder if maybe he realized that if he extended the same effort to me as he did my brother when it came to sports, could i have enjoyed sports this way with them all along? i don't blame him for not doing so. my dad is, for better and often for worse, a product of his time. i don't think not putting his daughter into hockey or other sports was an active perpetuation of gendered society but rather a learned behaviour of living in one. but it does make you think, huh!

anyway! a bit of a weird note to end an otherwise fun diary entry off on!!! but i have nothing else to say so uhhhhhh go blue jays!!!!

your wildest dreams - the moody blues