Saskatoon Blue Jays fans supporting local businesses through playoff run

The Toronto Blue Jays beat out the Seattle Mariners on Monday, and Saskatoon fans are sharing their excitement. Hallee Mandryk reports.

As the Toronto Blue Jays head into the World Series, baseball fans in Saskatoon are showing their excitement.

“It’s so exciting. Everybody in comes in here for Blue Jays stuff ... they’re looking for everything, jerseys, hats, sweaters. And now that they’re in the World Series we’ll have World Series stuff here,” Hudson Funk, a sales associate at Olympic Sports explained. “So, everyone’s gonna be in. And I just love talking to people about the Jays.”

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While the sporting goods store saw a lot of Jays merchandise fly off the shelves during playoffs, the team’s recent win over the Seattle Mariners has drawn in even more fans.

“Everybody wanted Jays stuff. It goes it’s crazy here ... It just brings a whole country together,” Hudson said.

One of the many patrons in the store, Katrina Funk, shared that she vividly remembers the last time the Jays won in 1993.

“I used to work at the shell station on 8th and Louise. It’s no longer there, so way back in the 1900s. And I had a little small 4.5-inch TV that I brought to work that night, and as soon as the Blue Jays won it was crazy,” Katrina said.

The lifelong Jays fan shared that it was a night she’ll never forget.

“People were going up and down 8th Street, and they’re climbing the lampposts. That’s all my boss and so we got to close up the store. He just lived a little ways away. He came on his bike because he couldn’t drive, because everybody was crazy. And we closed down the store and we just celebrated on 8th,” Katrina said.

Adding that her excitement at the Jays win on Monday night extended far outside her home. Katrina shared that she was video calling her kids to share in the celebration.

“We were excited. We’re just jumping up and down. I was holding the phone with the FaceTime session, trying not to jump too much so that they could all see what was going on, but super proud of that, especially when the Springer hit the dinger,” she added.

A number of folks in Saskatoon chose to watch the game alongside other baseball fans at bars like Hudson’s Pub downtown.

“We had a full house. The home run happened in the seventh inning, our buzzer went off, and you couldn’t even hear it because of everybody and how excited they were. High fives all around. They were jumping. They were dancing. They were so, so happy,” Morgan Rohatynsky, a server and bartender at the Hudson’s Pub said.

While many fans in the city would love the opportunity to physically attend a game, it’s not an option for most due to the price tag and location. Rohatynsky shared that many people come out to sports bars to get a little closer to the atmosphere of being at a game.

“Watching at home is just boring. Here, we bring you the beer, we bring you the food ... We’ve got the 999 challenge going on, nine beers, nine hot dogs, 999-challenge it’s bringing a true baseball game atmosphere to the pub that you can’t do at home,” Rohatynsky said.

The bartender added that the love of the game is certainly evident while watching fans interact throughout the nine innings.

“[It’s] so much fun to watch how our pub patrons can bond together over the course of a three-hour game,” Rohatynsky added. “And sure, they don’t know each other at the beginning, but they truly are best friends by the end because we’re all cheering on the same team.”