SIMMONS: In 2025, the Blue Jays gave us a World Series we'll never forget

The man on the Florida golf course asked where I was from.

“Toronto,” I said.

“Sorry,” he said.

He wasn’t sorry about our mayor, our traffic, our cost of living, weather, police chief, or our growing and spreading of hatred.

He was sorry about the way in which the World Series ended.

“Such a great Series,” he said. “I was hoping for Toronto.”

The man in the barber shop, a couple of miles from the golf course, asked how I wanted my hair cut. After telling him there wasn’t much to begin with, he heard me speak and asked where I was from.

I said: “Toronto.”

He said: “I feel so bad for you guys.”

That is the conversation almost everywhere you go. At home. South of the border. Seemingly everywhere.

It is almost two months from the night the dream died hard, but the greatest World Series in memory — maybe the greatest ever — doesn’t live on only with Blue Jays fans, but with those around the world who tuned in in record numbers.

The Series remains alive with baseball fans — and some who aren’t necessarily fans — as more than just a moment in time.

For me, the year in sport, 2025, wasn’t really about the Florida Panthers winning a second straight Stanley Cup or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander doing everything he could as Mr. MVP, leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to an NBA title, or all the moments of Summer McIntosh or Brooke Henderson.

It was about eight days in October and one in November.

It was about a time when television-watching was always in doubt and 51 million people around the world were tuning in for Game 7 of the Los Angeles Dodgers-Toronto Blue Jays showdown, the largest number to ever watch a World Series game.

The reason: You just had to watch. You had no choice, really. It was that consuming.

What makes sport so different from regular network television is its built-in unpredictable drama. There is no script writer. There is no way of knowing how any game or series will end.

But this one turned and twisted and turned again before it came to an end in the 11th inning of the seventh game, the 74th inning of the Series in whole.

This was a World Series for the ages — with an 18-inning game; with a pitcher, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who won three games including Games 6 and 7; with the journeyman Ernie Clement having the most hits in playoff history and almost had one more than that; with Bo Bichette barely able to play on one leg; with Shohei Ohtani getting on base nine times in one game; with Trey Yesavage introducing himself to the entire baseball world; with legends near the end — Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer — shining in the Series before they go next to the Hall of Fame; and with one game turning because a ball apparently got caught in the bottom of the left-field wall.

And so much of that happened before Game 7 became a Game 7 to remember — the one you can’t forget — better than Jack Morris pitching against Atlanta in 1991, for those who can remember back that far.

Game 7 was a once-in-a-lifetime epic, the kind of game that grabs you and pulls you in and doesn’t let go. And you don’t want it to end. And when it does, you’re left with a rare feeling, a combination of pride, shock and emptiness.

Every year has its sporting stories. Every year leaves us with memories. But over time, most years blend into each other. Toronto won two World Series in the 1990s, but none of them had the texture of this Blue Jays-Dodgers series.

Toronto is a place that understands almost-winning. It is usually what we do best and so much of what we celebrate.

The most beloved Maple Leafs are Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark: They almost got to a Stanley Cup final. Darryl Sittler came within one round of the Cup and so did Mats Sundin a couple of times. They live now as legends for almost doing something.

From the Blue Jays’ past, there was the Jose Bautista bat flip, the Josh Donaldson MVP season, the Edwin Encarnacion home run — those teams never made the World Series.

The Blue Jays of 2025 were a pitch away, an inning away, a base-running mistake away, a fastball away, a crazy, spectacular, unlikely catch by Andy Pages away, a Dave Roberts decision away from being champions forever.

Maybe they never get back to this place again. Teams that lose the World Series don’t often come back and win one. But this was a time and a team where everything meshed, everything felt right, everything but the ending.

From the old pitchers — Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt and Scherzer — to the nobodies becoming somebodies — the Clements, the Nathan Lukes, the Addison Bargers, the Davis Schneiders. This didn’t seem like your team, this seemed like your friends playing ball. They felt like they were a part of us.

Friends you could relate to. Friends you’d want to hang with. That wasn’t the feeling just in Toronto or across Canada. That seemed to be the prevalent feeling across North America. When was a Toronto team ever this likable? The previously irrelevant and occasionally unknown Jays were suddenly everyone’s ball team.

George Springer doing the impossible and the improbable. Maybe for the last time.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr., after signing a contract for the ages, had a post-season for the ages. His last at-bat of the season was a double in the 11th inning of Game 7 that looked like it might have been a home run.

Guerrero got to third base. He never did make it home.

The Jays lost after Jeff Hoffman, the closer, gave up a home run to bench-warmer Miguel Rojas of all people. They lost after Yesavage and Shane Bieber gave up home runs. They lost after manager John Schneider pulled all the right strings in managing Game 7, but those he handed the ball to gave up three home runs in four innings to a Dodgers team that had hit only five in the Series before that, a team hitting .203 in the Series, coming back from 3-0 to win.

The Jays had chances to win Games 6 and 7 at home, should have won Game 7 with Hoffman pitching to the No. 9 hitter, should have won had Isiah Kiner-Falefa and a coaching staff not been so conservative on the basepath. It was all there to win but the Dodgers became back-to-back World Series champions because they slugged their way to victory.

A championship lost and almost won within seconds of each other. A World Series that dominated Canadian sports and Canadian television in 2025 — a World Series we may talk about for the rest of our lives.

The Toronto ending of all Toronto endings. It still feels great and it still feels heartbreaking — we saw it, we lived it, we loved it. And then we didn’t.

ssimmons@postmedia.com