It is hard to believe that this October 14 it will be 10 years since José Bautista hit the notorious home run that sent Toronto to the American League Championship Series in the first Blue Jays postseason appearance since 1993. Right after hitting the home run in a moment of unbridled joy José Bautista celebrated the moment by flipping his bat.

The bat flip instantly became a cause célèbre in the media and social media. It even became a very funny meme. Some folks have criticized the bat flip as being disrespectful to baseball. Perhaps because I grew up in the Dominican Republic (DR) the country of José Bautista to me the bat flip was not controversial at all. It simply captured the warmth and strong emotions Dominicans feel for their national game baseball which I had the good fortune to experience as a toddler watching ball games in the DR. You could say I witnessed their love for the game firsthand early in my life. Therefore, to me the bat flip was a perfectly normal reaction to a very special and momentous occasion. And the moment called for passion. After all, as Ken Burns wisely said, how can you not be romantic about baseball?

A work of art captures this moment perfectly. At 99 Spadina Avenue you can find the ‘Bat Flip’ mural from acclaimed artist Paul-Glyn Williams. This breathtaking masterpiece is a must see for anyone living in or visiting Toronto.

The Wonderous Baseball Career of Joey Bats

José Bautista is my namesake. In Spanish the word namesake is tocayo. However, tocayo not only means that two people share the same first name. The word tocayo implies that you and your namesake share a special bond and perhaps even a spiritual connection.

Like Bautista who also goes by Joey Bats, I too have used an Anglicized version of my name. I started to use Joseph instead of José in job applications years ago, because Joseph is easier for anglophones and francophones to pronounce. The j or the jota in Spanish doesn’t exist in English or French. Hence when people mispronounce José, my name I have sympathy for them. Also, at the time I believed that someone named Joseph was less likely to be discriminated in the job interview process than someone named José, although essentially, they are the same Biblical name.

Bautista means Baptist in Spanish. It’s a beautiful surname which also exists in French, for example famous jazz musician Jon Batiste. 

Long before José Bautista became Joey Bats, he opted to focus on university studies before starting his career in Major League Baseball (MLB). Bautista only made the jump to MLB by joining the Pittsburg Pirates after two years of studies in Chipola College, Florida.

It was in Pittsburgh where Bautista earned his nickname Joey Bats, which followed him along his prolific career with the Blue Jays.

José Bautista belongs to a generation of ball players that brought hope back to the Blue Jays. In his induction ceremony to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, Bautista specifically thanked Manager Cito Gaston for his impact on his career and for helping him develop as a ball player. A prolific hitter, Bautista holds the Blue Jays record for single-season home runs with 54 in 2010.

At 40 years, an age when most professional athletes are retired, Bautista became an Olympic medalist when his team, the DR, won the bronze medal in baseball in Tokyo 2020.

And how could I forget Bautista was part of the most Dominican team in MLB history.

The most Dominican MLB team is Canadian

On April 27, 2014, the Blue Jays made MLB history by featuring the most Dominican players in a starting lineup, which featured six players from the DR: José Reyes, Melky Cabrera, Moisés Sierra, Edwin Encarnación, Juan Francisco and you guessed it José Bautista. The Blue Jays would win that game 7 – 1 over the Boston Red Sox. This record was widely celebrated in the DR. Canadians should also be proud that a Canadian team featured the most Dominican players in their starting lineup.

Except for Indigenous peoples we are all immigrants or descendants of immigrants in Canada going back no more than fourteen generations. In terms of Modern History, immigration to this land only began in 1604 when the first French settlers arrived to what they named l’Acadie. Today Canada boasts having immigrants from all over the world. Many of our professional athletes are immigrants or children of immigrants. Think of our best tennis players: Bianca Andreescu, Félix Auger-Aliassime, Gabriel Diallo and Leylah Fernandez are all children of immigrants, while Victoria Mboko and Denis Shapovalov are immigrants. Furthermore, Canada has a rich tradition of star athletes born in the Caribbean such as Olympic Gold medalist Donovan Bailey. In fact, the four Canadian runners who won the 1996 Olympic medal in the 4x100m relay event were all born in the Caribbean: Robert Esmie (Jamaica), Glenroy Gilbert (Trinidad & Tobago), Bruny Surin (Haïti), and Donovan Bailey (Jamaica). A curious fact is that Surin and Bautista both were born in the same island, since the island of Quisqueya is shared by the DR and Haïti.

Identity isn’t always clear cut. The star Blue Jays player today, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.  is Canadian, since he was born in Montréal back in the day when his father played for the Expos. And he is also Dominican and Caribbean like his parents. Like many Canadians, Guerrero has diverse roots. Bautista isn’t Canadian, yet in his Hall of Fame speech he noted that it was humbling for him to represent Canada by playing for the Blue Jays. Also, recently former Blue Jays catcher and now colour commentator Buck Martinez recently said, “I feel like I’m Canadian,” after receiving an ovation upon returning from cancer treatment. Buck Martinez is a member of the Karuk Tribe from northern California.

In a country as diverse as ours what can be more Canadian than having six ballplayers born in the Caribbean, in this case six Dominicans, in the starting lineup of Canada’s baseball team?

Becoming José again

Something must have happened about 10 years ago because I noticed more people in Toronto correctly pronouncing my name for a change. Was it because Latin American immigration grew significantly back then and suddenly Torontonians had to pronounce names like Jimena and Javier correctly? Or was it because the most famous athlete in Toronto in those days was named José Bautista? At any rate I decided to no longer go by Joseph in job applications and started to increasingly use my birth name. I finally realized that it was best not to work for organizations that would not hire someone named José anyways. Also, if President Obama can go by Barack and not Barry, I should be able to go by José. So, in great part I must thank my tocayo José Bautista for inspiring me to become José again.

Bautista’s love letter to Canada

Bautista’s Hall of Fame speech was a love letter to Canada. In it he described how being a Blue Jay gave him the opportunity to see this vast land and he found out that despite our enormous diversity we have much in common with one another. So, I kept thinking about Bautista’s speech last month when I had the chance to travel to the North. It was in Yellowknife while walking back to our hotel that a local man looking at my Blue Jays cap said to me smiling, “oh boy, those Blue Jays sure are on a roll!” That same day I saw a local woman wearing a Blue Jays sweater close to our hotel. It never occurred to me that folks as far north as Yellowknife are Blue Jays fans. I then remembered that I have seen Blue Jays caps and t-shirts worn as far west as Victoria, BC and as far east as Moncton, NB. There are Blue Jays fans from coast to coast to coast. They come from all walks of life, some are Acadiens and some are Dene, for example.

The Blue Jays have given people all over this beautiful land a feeling that unites us all. We all have celebrated together their first American League East division title in 85, the World Series victories of 92 and 93, as well as José Bautista’s 2015 home run and bat flip just to mention a few memorable events. These moments now form part of our identity. From the early days in the late 70’s when we had players such as the great shortstop Alfredo Griffin also from the DR and the amazing pitcher Jim Clancy, who left us too soon, to the present team which has given us much to hope for, the Blue Jays have compiled achievements that are nothing short of legendary. Their power to bring us all together despite our differences makes them so much more than a baseball club, and their story is one of the most beautiful tales ever told in the history of Canadian sports.