Toronto fans blessed to cheer on Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Auston Matthews

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/04/2022 (1615 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Auston Matthews meet Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. meet Auston Matthews.

Some day …

The exceptional Maple Leafs scorer and the extravagant Blue Jays slugger have never actually encountered one another. Live in the same city, play professional sports in the same city, surely share a crossover rabid fan base in the same city. Yet not once have the twain megastars intersected.

That’s just weird.

Toronto is blessed to have these two young men, in the barrelling prime of their careers — Matthews 24, Guerrero, 23 — doing their corresponding sublime thing at a concurrent time. A metropolis that has so long pined for sporting glory is now savouring a banquet feast: the Leafs about to embark on the playoffs, in the wake of historical records attained, most glitteringly by No. 34; the Jays off to one of their best starts ever that featured the largest Major League Baseball comeback opening-day victory in more than seven decades.

Not since October of 1993 has Toronto witnessed such a symbiotic splendour of sporting prestige — the Jays capturing their second consecutive World Series championships, the Leafs blasting out of the starting gate with 10 wins in a row. A baller cast of Roberto Alomar, Paul Molitor, Joe Carter, John Olerud and Pat Hentgen, with Cito Gaston at the helm. A puck crew of Doug Gilmour, Dave Andreychuk, Wendel Clark, Nik Borschevsky and Dave Ellett, with Pat Burns behind the bench.

A sports lover scarcely knew which way to look, particularly during that thrilling autumn fortnight when the rockin’ teams overlapped.

Shout-out here as well to the Toronto Raptors who got off the 0-3 mat to push Philadelphia to a six-game first round playoff series, a gritty if ultimately vanquished effort by a vastly overmatched team. A handful of Leafs, including Matthews, sat courtside Thursday night to support the NBA team.

But with apologies to the Raptors’ wildly ardent devotees — and a club just three years removed from an inceptive NBA crown — Toronto is still predominantly a hockey town and, these days, a renascent baseball town. Also, you’re done, Raptors.

The megastars are Auston and Vladdy. They exist in a kind of sports silo landscape, however, on parallel-track distinction, even as their exploits sit cheek by jowl on the sports pages.

The question was put to Guerrero the other night: Do you like hockey?

“No.”

Have you ever been to a hockey game?

“No.”

What do you think of Auston Matthews?

“I only heard his name for the first time a couple of minutes ago.”

Ouch.

Matthews’s ego can doubtless absorb the blunt honesty, with no offence intended. There’s decidedly no shortage of admiration in which to bask, were Matthews the basking sort. Guerrero, born in Montreal to a future Hall of Fame baseball dad — his No. 27 a tribute to Guerrero Sr. — and raised in the ball-crazy Dominican Republic, precisely one (1) ice rink on the island, has had precious little exposure to hockey.

“I tried skating once, a long time ago, in Miami with my sister,” he recalls. “I had to hold on to the boards.”

Teammate George Springer, from New England, is notably mad for hockey, growing up 15 minutes from the Hartford Center in Connecticut, formerly home to the NHL Whalers, later morphing into the Carolina Hurricanes. The clutch headliner has been spotted at Leafs games, as — just recently — was teammate Matt Chapman.

Guerrero’s fanboy inclinations extend instead to basketball, where he’s taken bows to standing ovations at Raptors games.

“I’d love to attend a Leaf game,’’ he quickly adds, speaking through interpreter Hector Lebron. “To see all the big stars. But I’d have to go with somebody who knows the game so they can tell me what’s going on. I’m very open to that.’’

Not much opportunity amidst a 162-game schedule.

That day-in day-out performance sounds staggering to Matthews. “The baseball season is long, man. It’s crazy.”

Matthews’s father was an accomplished college baseball player, and he too grew up playing plenty of ball in Arizona.

“I played Little League and a year of club when I was around 12, 13. It was getting really time-consuming, I was missing a lot of practices. So I had to make a decision. I picked hockey obviously because I was just more passionate about it and wanted to go that route. But I really enjoyed playing baseball. I still keep tabs on it.”

Matthews has taken in the occasional Jays game, trying to keep a low, incognito profile — like the pink and white bucket hat he’s wearing on this afternoon. Neither Matthews nor Guerrero can step outside their respective milieus without creating hysteria. That comes with hero chops.

“I haven’t been in a couple of years, mostly because of the pandemic. It’s always fun watching the Jays, especially towards the end of the season, like when they made a really nice run, and the post-season. The atmosphere at Rogers Centre is pretty amazing.

“Seems like they’ve got a really good team this year, Vladdy and some of the other young guys coming into their own. There’s a lot of buzz around the team and that’s exciting. Someone was telling me the other day the Jays have the second-best betting odds to win the World Series. I’ll be pulling for them, that’s for sure. It’s definitely an exciting time for Toronto.’’

Although Matthews has some Hispanic ancestry — his mom, Ema, was born in Mexico and he frequently visits relatives in her hometown — there don’t appear to be many outward similarities between the two Alpha athletes.

Guerrero can hardly repress his buoyant personality in the dugout: frisky, often goofy, occasionally mischievous down there in the Barrio Boys end of the bench. Matthews has been somewhat of an enigma, although more openly displaying his persona on the ice of late, particularly in emotional cellies when he tied, then surpassed, the franchise record for most goals in a season. And when he hit the 60-goal plateau on Tuesday that has been reached by only three NHL players in the 21st century.

Matthews has made a compelling Hart Trophy case for himself as league MVP, to go along with his Rochet Richard silverware for most goals in a season. Guerrero finished second in voting for MVP last season and has all the attributes to cop a Triple Crown in baseball, which hasn’t been achieved since Miguel Cabrera in 2012.

If they ever did get together for a pint, Matthews and Guerrero would nevertheless be sporting mirror images. There is the fundamental correlation of being generational virtuosos for a pair of Toronto franchises — summer game, winter game — with all the attendant stature and pressure. Is there a subliminal connection, Auston?

“I don’t know. That’s an interesting question. I think it’s just really an exciting time in Toronto for all sports. Scottie Barnes, Vladdy, so much young talent. I still think I’m young too.”

Guerrero’s advice to the Leafs: “Stick together, play hard, have fun.”

It’s been 29 years since the Jays prevailed as World Series conquerors, 55 years since the Leafs hoisted a Stanley Cup.

There have been simultaneous multiple championships — two, never three, among the four major league sports — 18 times in North American cities, most recently the NHL/NFL combo of Tampa Bay Lightning and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020.

Why the hell not Toronto?

This city of the sports-damned is due.

Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno