The World Series is back in Toronto, and the bandwagon is crowded from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And almost all points in between.

Around NOTL, so many residents and visitors proudly wearing Blue Jays merchandise. People smiling and saying hello to strangers. In our world today, any positive news is welcome, and this World Series run is definitely good news.

Let me get into this Ramblings by saying, “Thank goodness for the new pitch clock.” The average game duration has been reduced by about 24 minutes by forcing pitchers to do their incredibly talented business at an expedited pace. Not staring at the baseball and wandering around the mound before every pitch.

To be clear, I don’t purport to be a baseball expert. Even though I went to many Expos games way back in the 1970s in the Big Owe. Yes, the Olympic Stadium: tens of thousands of Quebecois having way too much fun watching Gary Carter and Andre Dawson and the lads. A good ticket cost about five bucks, and those were the days, mes amis.

Another star was Youppi, the relentlessly optimistic longtime Expos mascot. After the Expos called it a day, he led the cheering for les Canadiens.

And in 1992, a business colleague of mine got me two tickets for the first-ever World Series game to be played in Canada. Against the Atlanta Braves, and let’s remember the infamous flag flap.

My dad and I sat in the first row of the 500 level out in right field, and each ticket set me back $26, plus tax, for a total of $30. Today, the same seats would be purchased online from some quasi-legal platform for about $600. I don’t understand it all, but it must be a scam.

How quickly things change.

Back in the day, there was only one colour of Blue Jays cap. Now, it’s all a ploy — a clever marketing strategy to encourage people to purchase more stuff. And not at bargain prices.

This week, I have seen so many blue Blue Jays caps. And white, and red, and green. What’s it all about?

More merchandise sales, more excited fans on the bandwagon.

And our Blue Jays players are such great athletes, enjoying this postseason run with us. Now, do me a favour, and tell potty-mouth Blue Jays manager John Schneider to clean up his language.

I worked 3,200 feet underground in a nickel mine for six months, and have been in many a hockey dressing room, but really, how can he think his profane language is acceptable?

The networks condone his behaviour, and tacitly, so do we. Or am I being a bit of a rambling prude?

The excellent close-up television images of Blue Jays and Dodgers expose them as world-class spitters.

Continually, and the floors of the dugouts must be awash in saliva, sunflower seed and chewing gum liquids. Ah, well, I suppose it’s better than the disgusting bulbous chewing tobacco chaws of yesteryear.

I hope you joined me in loving the opening ceremony before Game 1. Well over 100 singers in the choir, totally reflecting the diversity of the great city of Toronto. Dressed so elegantly, and all in such good voice. Smiling. So joyful.

The optics were indescribably fabulous, and the drone scenes of Toronto by night were so world-class.

In our unsettled world today, we need good news. I refuse to mention his name in my Ramblings, because I just cannot fathom how such a great nation can enable such a bully to be its leader. As a “small-time greaseball from the Garden City of St. Catharines,” it’s all beyond me.

Let me try to end these Ramblings on a positive note. I am watching the current World Series, without thinking too deeply. Knowing that it may be over before this week’s issue of The Lake Report is out and being perused. The curse of deadlines.

I like to put things in historical perspective, sometimes with a bit of a stretch. As I watch the current postseason games between the Dodgers and the Blue Jays, I see players with names from many countries. How about Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto?

Our world can change so rapidly. Only 80 years ago, we were at war with Japan, and now Japanese players are huge and highly paid stars in “America’s favourite pastime.”

Americans might call me their game, but I really, really hope that by the time you are reading these words, or soon thereafter, due to the World Series schedule, our Toronto Blue Jays have won the World Series for the third time.

All together now, “Go, Jays, Go!” Once more, “Go, Jays, Go!”