On being ... a buzz in the air

By Ingrid Sapona 

I’m not much of a fan of professional sports. In college I loved going to football games and in high school I dreamt of being a hockey broadcaster. But for the past 30+ years, I’ve been rather down on professional sports. I’m bothered by the staggering sums the players are paid; the sky-high cost of tickets and branded paraphernalia; and the amount of taxpayer dollars spent on sports arenas and the like. 

But, having spent most of my life in cities (Buffalo and Toronto) with multiple professional sports teams, I’ve come to accept the ubiquity of conversations about the home team(s). Indeed, “How about those (fill in the team name)?” is actually a pretty handy conversation starter because it works whether the team is winning or losing!

Anyway — as you’ve probably guessed, this is top-of-mind this week because the Toronto Blue Jays are in the World Series. Though true baseball fans probably paid attention during the entire (162 game!!) season, most of the rest of us began paying attention during the playoffs. Indeed, when your town’s team is in the playoffs, there’s a kind of civic duty to care — if not for the team, then for all those who do care about them.

That said, I was caught off guard by the incredible buzz in the air here since the Jays made it into in the World Series. And by “here” I don’t just mean Toronto. As the only MLB team in Canada, the Jays are the nation’s team.

I’m amazed at how many human interest stories the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) has found to report on related to the Jays. For example, the other day there was a piece about the guys who wrote the “OK Blue Jays” theme song. In 1982 the owner of the team wanted a song and he hired a couple of commercial jingle writers. The owner told the writers that he didn’t want to promise too much (the Club was only five years old at that point) and he told the writers they should just say they’re “OK”. Who’d have guessed?

The CBC also did a piece on what being a sports fan does to your heart rate during a game. The cardiologist featured in the piece called it “fanxiety”, the increase in heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure of fans who are emotionally invested in the outcome of the play. It all has to do with the increase in cortisol and adrenaline pumping through their bodies. The stress on the body is, apparently, similar to doing a strenuous or moderate workout. I guess that sort of explains the results of an informal poll I’ve taken of acquaintances this past week. I can’t tell you how many people admitted to me that they just can’t take the stress of watching the game. Instead, they find it best to just flip to the game every now and then to catch the score. (And that’s not just for games that take 18 innings!)

The good news is that for most fans, the changes to one’s heart rate and blood pressure won’t make a clinical difference. And, the cardiologist pointed out some benefits of cheering on a team that I’d not thought of: in addition to a spike in dopamine, a team win can bring you closer to your friends who also share the excitement.

Even so, I do wish folks would keep their enthusiasm somewhat in check. Yes, I remember the excitement when the Jays won back-to-back World Series in the early 1990s. But, I also remember the disappointment of Bills fans as they cheered their team through four Super Bowl losses (in a row) in the early 1990s. That said, I guess a true fan is better than me at enjoying the moment and better at taking comfort in the notion that there’s always next year.

With the Series down to a best of three series (at the time of writing this) and feeling stoked on others’ excitement, I realize it’s time to hop on the bandwagon. Besides, it’s nice to have something to rally around and cheer about these days. So:  Let’s go Blue Jays!

©️ 2025 Ingrid Sapona