B.C. Seattle Mariners fans savouring ALCS matchup with Toronto Blue Jays

By Canadian Press on October 14, 2025.

VANCOUVER — Not all Canadians love the Toronto Blue Jays.

A select group of baseball fans across the country have cheered while watching the Blue Jays stumble against through the first two games of the American League Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners.

“I don’t like having the Jays shoved down my throat 24-7,” said Carey O’Reilly, a Mariners fan who lives in Vancouver. “Whenever I’m changing the channel, it’s ‘Blue Jays in 30’ this, ‘Blue Jays in 30’ that. I could do without that.”

O’Reilly is one of many Mariners fans living in British Columbia.

For some, the allegiance is tied to childhood memories, while others root on the team to buck against the assumption that Toronto represents all of Canada.

Now, with their team up 2-0 on the Blue Jays in the best-of-seven ALCS, B.C.’s Mariners fans have a lot to cheer for as the series shifts to Seattle for Game 3 on Wednesday.

“I will admit I do enjoy when the Blue Jays are competitive because it spices up the conversation of baseball,” O’Reilly said.

“Because normally, it’s a very limited group of people that are pure baseball fans. And being able to have everyone talking about baseball is very exciting, even though I don’t have a lot of love for the Blue Jays.”

Nick Toren grew up in Vancouver playing baseball and cheered for both the Jays and Mariners before fully embracing Seattle as his team.

“I kind of chose with my heart. It just felt more like this was my team. It felt closer to home,” he said. “I know the whole Canada thing, but (the Mariners) are what, 200 kilometres away? Toronto’s like 4,000 kilometres away. So I just chose to go for the home team. And it’s been like that ever since.”

Watching Seattle succeed on this playoff run has been “weird,” Toren added.

“It’s been years and years of despair, much like a Vancouver Canucks fan. But there’s at least hope with the Mariners right now,” he said.

“I always watch the baseball playoffs, but having your team in it, being invested, counting every pitch, it’s truly special.”

For many years, it was Mariners games that were dominant on the airwaves. Watching greats like Ken Griffey Jr. play on Seattle TV station KSTW got a generation of young sports fans hooked on baseball.

“When I was growing up, Mariners were on TV all the time, on the radio,” said Mark Stephenson, a Mariners fan in Victoria.

TV rights deals have changed, though, and the Blue Jays became the easiest team to watch across much of the country.

“I can understand why they’ve strengthened their fan base out here, because every game is so much more accessible,” said Stephenson, who watched Game 2 of the ALCS at a local pub, decked out in his Mariners gear.

Most other patrons were rooting for the Jays, he said.

“I was probably the only Mariners fan there, so it definitely felt like I was in enemy territory a bit. But proud to support my team and glad I got to cheer them on for the win,” he said. “Everyone was nice … it was fun to be there. No one has taken this (series) yet, so there’s still a lot more baseball to go.”

Rooting for the Mariners hasn’t been easy in recent years.

The team withstood a nearly 20-year-long post-season drought before beating Toronto in a 2022 divisional series.

This year, Seattle finished atop the AL West after winning 10 games in a row — and 17 of 18 outings — in September.

The squad’s underdog nature is part of what appeals to Justin Webster.

“They don’t have a huge budget, but they always seem to have these kind of scrappy, likable players,” he said. “It’s just really good to cheer for kind of the smaller guys, I guess.”

For many fans in B.C., it’s easier to drive across the border than fly to Toronto to take in an MLB game.

Watching the Mariners play at Seattle’s old Kingdome in 1979 created a fan for life in Todd Niel. He still has a program and a batting helmet from that game, both featuring the team’s original logo.

Niel lives in Summerland, B.C., and usually goes down once a season to catch a game, but didn’t go this year because of tensions between Canada and the United States.

“I’m so conflicted this year because I’ve taken this oath of morality to boycott everything America,” he said, noting that he’s checked out ticket prices several times in recent weeks.

“It’s killing me inside, because I want to be there. I want to be in the stadium. I love the stadium, I love Seattle as a place. … But it’s not about that. It’s about how America’s treating Canada.”

Many other baseball fans in B.C. will head to Seattle for games this week, and some Mariners fans have already taken in post-season action.

Ryan Tompkins went to Game 5 of Seattle’s divisional series against the Detroit Tigers and stood cheering for nearly the entire game.

He’s also roped his two kids, ages 10 and 8, into cheering for the Mariners, and watched proudly as both donned jerseys with centre fielder Julio Rodriguez’s name and No. 44 for school on Friday.

“Now I get to turn my kids into Mariners fans,” said Tompkins, who lives in Delta, B.C. “They’ll have to wear them this week too, I guess.”

Many Mariners fans are feeling confident heading into Wednesday’s game after Seattle cruised to a comfortable 10-3 victory on Monday.

There’s still ample skepticism, however, that Seattle can finish the job and make its first-ever World Series appearance.

“They’re up 2-0 on the Blue Jays now, but by no means do I have any sort of confidence,” Tompkins said. “I’ve been burned too many times.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 14, 2025.

Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press