Michale Poulin shifted quickly from foot to foot as he stood on the concrete at the World Series watch party in Nathan Phillips Square, in the shadow of Toronto city hall.

As a couple dozen diehard fans settled into multi-coloured Muskoka chairs lined up in front of a giant video screen, he adjusted his Blue Jays cap, which was precariously perched on a thick woolen toque. Small crystals of ice were already forming on his long wavy beard.

His fidgeting was designed in part to chase away the stone-sharpened edge of the Toronto cold, and partly to work off his nervous energy about whether the Blue Jays were going to do something they had not done in his lifetime.

When the 2025 season started, did Poulin, 26, think the Jays had any chance of capturing a World Series championship? “God no,”

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