SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife man said getting to see the Toronto Blue Jays win a playoff series live was one of the most thrilling moments of his life.

Yellowknife resident Rohan Brown, second from left, celebrates at the end of last Sunday's Blue Jays-Texas Rangers playoff game at Rogers Centre in Toronto. With him from left are his cousin Alan Perkins, his sister Elisabeth Brown and her boyfriend Adam Szilva. - photo courtesy of Rohan Brown

Rohan Brown, a lawyer for the territorial government, was at Rogers Centre in Toronto on Sunday night as the Jays scored in the bottom of the tenth inning to beat the Texas Rangers 7-6 and sweep their American League Divisional Series (ALDS).

Brown was one of about 50,000 screaming fans who went home happy after Toronto's dramatic win.

"It was fantastic," Brown said. "Pretty nerve-wracking at times but they came through in the end."

Brown bought four tickets from online ticket broker StubHub after the Jays won the American League Wild Card game a week ago over Baltimore.

"I ended up going with my sister, her boyfriend and my cousin who is a baseball fanatic and who was trying to make it big in the sport as a pitcher until he badly injured his shoulder and had to give up on his dream," Brown said. "They all live in Toronto and I went on a vacation."

Brown said he paid US$110 for each ticket, which he said had a face value of C$55 or $60. Considering that, he says just prior to the game tickets were going for at least four times their face value. He said it was money well-spent.

Brown, who describes himself as a Jays fan, said even though he was a fair distance from the field, it was an unreal atmosphere.

"Our seats were in the 500 level - pretty much behind home plate ... it was a bit more of a rowdy crowd than you would experience in the 100 level," Brown said.

"Anytime there was cheering or booing it was one of the louder sections. At the very end it was insane."

Brown said he did not see any bad behaviour from Jays fans. In the Wild Card game against Baltimore on Oct. 4, a spectator threw a can of beer on the field in the direction of an Orioles outfielder. It didn't hit him but the video went viral and a man was eventually charged with mischief. Because of that incident, Rogers Centre decided to sell beer in plastic cups only.

"It caused a bit of a delay. They had to have one employee doing the pouring only and it slowed things up a little bit," Brown said. "It was a passionate but well-behaved crowd. They yelled some chants trying to get into the players' heads but it wasn't anything derogatory."

He wasn't the only Yellowknife fan watching the game: Bob Stewart, owner of the Kilt and Castle Pub in downtown Yellowknife said the Jays winning has been good for his business.

"We had a great crowd Monday night for the Wild Card game," Stewart said, but adds it can be a little difficult to tell whether patrons are specifically there to watch the game.

But Stewart says of the several TV screens in his bar, it is safe to say that the ones showing the games are getting the most eyeballs on them.

"The closer they get to the World Series the more excited people get," Stewart said. "When the Jays do well, Canadians love baseball. I'm loving it. I'm having a blast. I don't need to go to Toronto. I'm having enough fun at my bar."

The Blue Jays' first home game of the American League Championship Series is scheduled for Monday night, after playing the first two games against the Cleveland Indians on Friday and Saturday in Cleveland. This will be a seven-game series, as opposed to the just-finished five-game divisional series. But Brown will be catching this one on TV, after returning to Yellowknife.

He said he sees no reason that Canada's baseball team can't win the World Series in light of the run they are on now - six wins in a row including four playoff games.

"They've got to play smarter though. They were trying to go for glory," Brown said.

"It's a matter of sacrificing for the team. Otherwise they look to be in very good shape."

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