The Blue Jays’ education on winning has included a sit-down with TFC captain Michael Bradley | The Star
“What I took away from it most as an athlete is the importance of being a good teammate,” Biggio said. “You can tell that he’s had a very good career and that he values being a good teammate over a lot of things.”
The four athletes, joined only by a translator for Guerrero, spoke for about an hour. It was the first time Bradley has had a chance to sit down with other Toronto athletes in such a way.
“You’re always trying to take the experiences that you have and draw on them and reflect on them and think to yourself, ‘What’s similar here? What are they going through? What challenges have they faced that now may be similar to something that I may see?’ ” Bradley said.
One of Bradley’s key experiences was bringing a championship home. He wanted Guerrero, Bichette and Biggio to know what it is like to be a winner in the city. So he shared two stories that, to this day, give him goose bumps.
One was of a night shortly after Bradley arrived in Toronto, before he won anything, when he learned firsthand the kind of legacy winning in the city can leave. During a timeout early at a Raptors game, someone on the screen caused a deafening roar that caught Bradley’s attention. That someone? Joe Carter.
“At that point it was like, ‘S---, it’s 2014’ … A lot of the people in the arena that night weren’t even alive when he hit that home run (to win the 1993 World Series) but here we are … he’s at a Raptors game and he’s getting that reception,” Bradley said. “It was this moment where you realized to yourself, man, this city is different and if you can win in this city, then the pride and the respect, it never goes away.”
He got a similar reminder a little more than a year later when TFC clinched its first playoff spot in franchise history hours after Jose Bautista produced his iconic bat flip down the street at Rogers Centre.
“I joked, half-joked, because I swear, when he hit the home run you could hear the roar at BMO,” Bradley said. “It was another little reminder for me at that point, another little way to try to tell these guys, ‘There is not a better sports city in the world than Toronto.’ Yes, it’s going to take time and, yes, it’s going to take sacrifice and effort and there’s going to be pain and heartbreak and work along the way, but if you can do it here it is special.”
The three Jays later told Shapiro what a powerful interaction meeting Bradley was, he said.
They weren’t the only ones who left inspired.
“Those guys are younger than me but in a lot ways I’m a fan of theirs and I look up to them,” Bradley said. “Their energy and just motivation was so clear to see. Their desire to establish themselves as really big-time players for the Blue Jays and to help the Blue Jays now win again, that was so apparent."
“As an athlete, as a competitor, just being around other guys who have that motivation, who you can see that in their eye, not only is that exciting but that’s motivating for you as well.”