Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider reflects on heartbreaking world series loss
Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
The Toronto Blue Jays came heartbreakingly close to ending their 32-year championship drought, only to see the Los Angeles Dodgers complete a dramatic comeback to win the 2025 World Series in Game 7 at Rogers Centre.
After the devastating 5-4 loss to the Dodgers nobody was more disappointed than Blue Jays manager John Schneider.
Not in his team or the effort, just the sting of defeat in a game that could have gone the Jays way with so many opportunities in front of them.
Schneider prided himself on one specific thing this season. He'd never held a team meeting.
He never needed to, and in Schneider's mind, the sign of a great clubhouse is one that runs itself.
Inside those walls were 26 players who loved one another, who held one another accountable, who empowered one another.
At the podium, Schneider struggled through the emotion and said:
«It's hard, you know. Had my first team meeting of the year after the game. There's so many things to unpack there, not just the series as a whole - seven games, two of them go to extras. I thought we played great baseball," Schneider said.
Schneider revealed what he told his team in their meeting after the loss.
«I said thank you," Schneider said. "I said thank you probably about 10 times. And that was the main message. I'm sure I'm gonna talk to them all again, but I said thank you, I said I'm sorry that we're feeling this way right now, it definitely could have been the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of emotions. I said thank you, and this is a group that I'm never gonna forget. They're gonna have a place in my heart, every single one of them. So that was the gist of it.»
For the rest of Schneider's life, he'll be asked what he remembers about the 2025 Blue Jays.
«All of 'em. Like, literally all of 'em. It's not very often you get a group together that genuinely likes one another and genuinely cares about one another,» Schneider said, his pride pushing through. «And I'm talking about their wives, their kids, and them. It's a special group. I think Blue Jays fans for generations are going to remember this team.»
In a postgame interview with Ken Rosenthal, Blue Jays manager John Schneider comprised himself in impressive fashion after such a gutting game seven loss.
«Blue Jays fans for generations will remember this team, not just what we accomplished, but how we went about it.»
«To the fans, I say thank you. To the fans, I say I'm sorry.»
«To the fans, I say thank you. To the fans, I say I'm sorry.»
The 2025 Toronto Blue Jays mattered. A country fell in love with a ballclub again, full of hope and wonder.
That ballclub fell in love with one another, too, and even though Game 7 finally told them this dream season was all over, none of them wanted to listen. Not yet.
TRENDING NOW
