A REAL BOYS OF SUMMER CLUB
When I was growing up in Scarborough, summer afternoons and evenings were coloured with the soothing sounds of pop can tabs opening, the crack of a bat and Buck Martinez. And, inevitably, my dad yelling at the TV or radio.
He was and is a devout baseball fan, never once straying from the Toronto Blue Jays. As a child, I loved whatever my dad loved, from movies to chocolate toffee to baseball. And he loved that I loved those things and that we could enjoy them together.
My first inkling of baseball being a bro-only club came in high school. Boys would guffaw in my direction when I dared to comment on a game or my love for it. “Name 10 Blue Jays right now and prove it,” they’d demand.
It was their way of reminding me to stay in my lane, an admonishment not to tarnish their notion of femininity. There was no way for me to win. Playing along and answering would make it feel as though I needed their validation. Don’t play along and be forced to hear the sneers: “Ha, ‘cause you don’t know!”
Later, when I moved to Boston for grad school, I found myself in a city built for sports lovers. I blended in, because you didn’t belong if you didn’t play along. Sure, the overcompensating naysayers still had their ways of finding me, but they suddenly stopped fazing me.
By the time I moved back to Toronto, that mentality stayed with me, and the city had developed an especially invigorated thirst for the Blue Jays. There was newfound hope, and soon we had #OurMoments, bat flip montages and the inability to walk a block without encountering dozens of blue caps. The urge to mansplain had (mostly) been decimated by the ubiquity of Blue Jays fandom.
I may not be able to grow a playoff beard, but I no longer feel trepidation stepping onto the subway in my Jays tee or cheering the loudest at a game. There’s no more fear of getting heckled just to be informed that because I am a girl, I am not a real fan of baseball. I can have an inappropriate crush on a windbreaker-clad John Gibbons and I can wear a low-cut pink jersey. I can also sit with bated breath through every inning, know just as many stats as the next guy and above all else, I can appreciate the game. Thank you for no longer asking.