Olympians, Olympic hopefuls pay tribute to Blue Jays

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When the Toronto Blue Jays baseball season ended with Josh Donaldson grounding out to third on Friday night (or early Saturday morning for most), an outpouring of support from Canadians on Twitter followed.

Among those tweeting were Olympians and Olympic hopefuls who didn’t dwell on the 4-3 loss in Kansas City, but united in their approval of a strong season that saw a Canadian city enjoy postseason baseball for the first time in 22 years. A small collection:

Olympic Champs chime in

Some views from the 6

A nation united 

There was one major bright spot for Toronto in Jose Bautista, who slugged a pair of home runs, the second of which tied the game 3-3 in the eighth inning swinging the momentum – albeit temporarily – in Jays’ favour. That received a few mild reactions.

Baseball has recently been shortlisted for a possible return to the Games at Tokyo 2020. Last time baseball was on the Olympic calendar was at Beijing 2008. This has been a big year for baseball in Canada, with Blue Jays success coming after a thrilling gold medal win at the Pan American Games of Toronto 2015 for the national men’s team.