Mark Shapiro

we get to the Q&A portion, was thinking through moments and, you know, thoughts and memories over the past, you know, month.

And one moment kind of summarized my awareness, my heightened awareness as to the magnitude of what was occurring, not just for us, but for our fans.

I think it was the Sunday after game two of ALCS.

I was

Walking in a park with my dog and my brother after the game before heading to Seattle.

Passed by, you know, dozens of Puget's caps, sweaters, things you might not see in October.

Got to the field where, you know, we throw the ball to Cleo and...

adults playing catch, baseball catch, you know, in the middle of the park.

There was a mom, as we progressed, pitching to her son, the kicker rake, by the way, good hitter.

You know, then I proceeded to leave the park and walked home and walked by driveways that were normally full of, you know, after seeing it for 10 years, normally full of hockey nets and sticks and pucks, but had signs, you know, Buje parking only, you know,

Only Blue Jay fans allowed.

Porches that had Blue Jay flags flying.

And as I got closer to the house, I turned to my brother and just said, man, I don't think I've been fully aware as to what's going on.

We've been flying cross-country.

We've been so absorbed in everything that had happened.

And that kind of crested...

On Sunday, when my inbox started to get inundated and my text messages were filled with hundreds of text messages, some from people that I've met briefly along the way, you know, over 34 years in MLB or people I've met, you know, in the 10 years I've lived here, some from people I've never met before.

But the stories were kind of all the same.

It was over the past month, over the past season, we've had unbelievable moments and memories and bonds with our families, with our friends.

We kept video links open during the games.