HIGH ACHIEVERS: Baseball superfan Peter Bachelor optimistic for Blue Jays in 2026, after dramatic World Series loss

By Martin Cleary

Peter Bachelor is a baseball fanatic.

When the World Series rolled around this fall, he was in his element as his team, the Toronto Blue Jays, were front and centre on the sport’s grandest stage.

He watched his beloved Blue Jays win the World Series in 1992 and again in 1993 and was hoping to stretch that double into a triple. Somewhere in his Greely, ON, home he has a baseball from the 1992 Toronto-Atlanta World Series. A successful retired high school baseball coach, he once attended a Blue Jays reception at Rideau Hall.

In the aftermath of an Ottawa radio station pulling the plug on broadcasting Blue Jays baseball games in 1987, Bachelor stepped forward and started a fan club called Friends of the Blue Jays, which operated from 1987-2007. The name was suggested by now Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, who was part of a disgruntled group of baseball fans wanting to maintain a connection with the Blue Jays.

The 2025 World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers was magical in the eyes of Bachelor, the former Friends of the Blue Jays president, who was thrilled to watch millions of Canadians form an instant, country-wide Blue Jays fan club for 10 straight days.

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If you asked him who he thought would win the World Series, you didn’t really have to ask. It would be the Blue Jays.

“I was sure of it, really sure of it,” Bachelor said in a recent phone interview, after the Dodgers captured their second straight World Series in Toronto in the maximum seven games. “The pattern of the season proved it.

“Ohtani (Dodgers’ start Shohei) said the Blue Jays had momentum.”

The Blue Jays, who were up and down for the first two months at 30-28 by the end of May, played a critical four-game series during the first week of July against the New York Yankees and swept their archrival. That lifted their win streak to five games and they stretched it to 10, which moved the Blue Jays into first place in the American League East Division.

The Blue Jays maintained first place for the rest of the regular season, going 64-46 at the end of July, 79-58 at the end of August and closed out the campaign in September at 94-68. In the postseason, the Blue Jays defeated the Yankees 3-1 in the best-of-five series and the Seattle Mariners 4-3 for the American League championship and their third berth in the World Series.

When the World Series returned to Toronto with the Blue Jays leading the best-of-seven series 3-2, Bachelor was keen to watch and support his team. But he also had conflicting commitments at the same time.

On the evening of Game 6, Bachelor and his wife attended a Halloween dance at a Royal Canadian Legion. He confessed he wasn’t much of a dancer, but he found a TV that was showing the game and joined another six Legion members to watch potential history in the making.

While the Blue Jays outhit the Dodgers 8-4, the West Coast team scored all its runs in the third inning and hung on for a series-tying 3-1 win.

“We accepted what happened. There will be another game and another day to move ahead,” he stoically said.

Game 7 followed the next day and the result was the same for the Blue Jays in a match dripping with drama – extra innings, three heartbreaking solo home runs in the final four innings by the Dodgers and miraculous defensive efforts.

The night of the game also featured a dinner party at the Bachelor household. But after the meal, everyone settled into their private box around the TV to see if Bachelor’s Blue Jays could protect their 4-3 lead entering the top of the ninth inning. It didn’t happen as the Dodgers won 5-4 in 11 innings.

“They had a good start (up 3-1 after five innings), but as it happened all year, good pitchers came in and the other team takes advantage of it,” Bachelor analyzed. “Well, in 120 days (off-season) they’ll come back together.

“We were disappointed, but there was no anger. They went as far as they could; not enough pieces fell together. I got over it in an hour.

“They created a situation that impacted the whole country. They are examples of leadership and team play.”

Bachelor knows about team play as the retired high school teacher served as a volunteer coach during his 29-year career with the Ottawa-Carleton District School board. His baseball and boys’ junior soccer teams won multiple championships as his team-first approach saw his players win far more games than they lost (101-44-1 in soccer and 50-30-1 in baseball).

As Major League Baseball prepares for its winter meetings, Bachelor is hoping Blue Jays’ management can do some fine tuning, but mainly focus on re-signing star infielder Bo Bichette.

Bachelor was excited by the play of former Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber and the instant success of young pitcher Trey Yesavage.

Bieber has decided to return to the Blue Jays, after posting a 4-2 record and winning a World Series game. He was acquired at the trade deadline from the Cleveland Guardians. Bachelor hopes Yesavage can continue his impressive development, after being called up late in the season and winning four of his five playoff starts and setting a rookie record for strikeouts in a World Series game at 12.

“We had a great year and will be better next year,” he predicted. “I have heard that from a lot of people.”

Bachelor added the Toronto-Los Angeles World Series was an uplifting stretch of time for all Canadians and baseball in general.

“This event ignited the whole country to baseball. It was like a good virus spreading across the country,” he said.

Bachelor can hardly wait for the start of Blue Jays’ spring training in February and looks forward to the 2026 Major League Baseball season. Utility player Ernie Clement feels the same way.

“Ernie Clement said these are my friends. We work together. He said he can hardly wait for spring training,” Bachelor said. “There’s a sense of calm and anticipation.”