From British Columbia to Newfoundland, more Canadian kids are picking up baseball mitts and swinging bats. The Toronto Blue Jays’ World Series run has stirred the nation, and a surge in youth baseball registrations is not far behind.
What is the ‘Blue Jays Bump’?
Whether or not Toronto wins its third World Series title, the “Blue Jays Bump” is happening, as a new generation of young athletes gets caught up in the hype and celebration. Adam Morissette of Baseball Canada has seen it a couple times before.
“It’s baseball fever nonstop. I mean, the entire country or most of it, is locked into these games,” Morissette told Straight Arrow News.
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The first surge in youth baseball participation hit after the Jays won back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993. But the team doesn’t necessarily have to win it all for Morissette to see a rise in registrations.
“Even if you look back at the Blue Jays teams, 2015, 2016, so 10 years ago, it was the same type of thing,” Morissette said. “They didn’t reach the World Series, but had extended playoff runs. We did see an excess of five to 10% registrations in the following years. COVID kind of impacted things a little bit, but we’ve been steadily increasing since that time and fully expect that for next season as well.”
How many kids play baseball in Canada?
Baseball Canada, the sport’s national governing body, is in charge of nine amateur national championships, including three for girls, and has about 280,000 youth members, according to Morissette. Players in organizations like Little League Canada and provincial partners, such as Baseball Quebec, bring the total number of kids playing baseball across the nation to approximately 9% of the youth population (ages 5-17), or around 485,000 kids, according to a 2022 Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute Survey.
“I’ve got young kids at home and their friends and families are really tuned into this, and people that you don’t necessarily expect are watching baseball. They’re not baseball fans, but they’re paying attention because everybody literally is talking about it,” Morissette said.
According to Sportsnet, the Canadian rights holder for all Blue Jays games, the first two games of the World Series are the two most-watched games in the nation’s history. An average of seven million Canadians watched Game 1. In a country of 41 million people, that’s more than one-sixth of the population. After a 32-year absence from the Fall Classic, the Blue Jays are capitalizing on their success to help grow the game.
“The Blue Jays have a pretty unique opportunity because they’re not just a regional team like the other 29 clubs in the United States,” Morissette said. “They get the opportunity to market across the country, and they do a terrific job at the amateur level with programming across the country that really extends their brand coast to coast.”
Are there challenges to growing the game in Canada?
Despite the growing enthusiasm among young athletes, some challenges threaten to slow the sport’s momentum beyond the short season that comes with colder weather. Communities are facing a shortage of fields and facilities, and the lack of volunteers, coaches and umpires makes it harder to keep leagues running smoothly.
There is no shortage of role models. Twenty-four Canadian-born players saw time in the major leagues in 2025, and an additional 1,100 Canadians are currently playing college baseball in the U.S.
Blue Jays fans had their hearts broken by Dodgers star Freddie Freeman in Game 3 on Tuesday when he ended the longest game in World Series history with a walk-off home run in the 18th inning. Perhaps a little of the sting was taken out of it with the knowledge that Freeman holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Canada. His parents were born in Ontario, and he has played for the Canadian National Team. Canadian kids likely took note, even if he does play for the enemy.
