Apple Pie, Maple Syrup, and Sushi

With a dash of tariffs...

Oct 29, 2025

Baseball has long been said to be as American as hot dogs and apple pie.

The World Series between Los Angeles and Toronto is much larger than that. It is also as Canadian as butter tarts and maple syrup, and as Japanese as chopsticks and sushi.

I admit I have never been an avid baseball fan, but I have been drawn into the current World Series by two disparate storylines.

The Dodgers’ star pitcher/homerun slugger, Shohei Ohtani, is an immigrant from Japan. At age 31, he is also already among the greatest players in history, closing in on the legendary Babe Ruth.

Baseball: Shohei Ohtani ties home run record, reaches 1,000 career hits — LA Dodgers superstar, Shohei Ohtani smashing a home run

With America lurching into authoritarianism, rampant white nationalism, and rabid hatred of immigrants and minorities, Ohtani is a muscular counterpoint —a powerhouse slugger and unparalleled pitcher, an individual as renowned for his jovial equanimity and impeccable manners off the field as for his incomparable prowess on the field.

Ohtani is a reminder that raw talent is not reserved for any presumed master race. He stands as a powerful rebuke to those lost in the illusion of their own superiority, the insanity of the stereotype, the visceral abhorrence of the “other,” the condemnation of the immigrant, the bonfire of racist vanity.

The second storyline that intrigues me is Canada’s response to Donald Trump’s arrogant assaults on our neighbor to the north. The absurd threats of annexation to America. The punitive tariffs for the refusal to bend to his will.

Trump Decries Anti-Tariff Ad From Ontario, Canada, That Faithfully Quotes Reagan Speech - The ... — Ronald Reagan address denouncing tariffs, 1987

During the first two games of the World Series, the Canadian government ran an ad featuring a 1987 radio address by Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs and their negative impact on American workers.

This bold and clever reproach enraged Trump to the point of apoplectic tantrum, who screamed that it was a “fraudulent” and “hostile act” while retaliating with further tariffs and the cancellation of all trade negotiations.

World Series 2025 photos: Blue Jays take on Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 3

More than 30 million viewers in 200 countries and territories around the world will tune in to watch Game Five of the World Series tonight.

The Dodgers and Blue Jays are composed of players from diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, and perspectives, as are the cheering fans who will throng the stadium, and the family and friends who will gather to watch, to hope, to root and cheer in a reflection of democracy itself.

Donald Trump will likely spend the evening brooding, consumed by his seething animosity towards Canada and unbridled hatred of California, a liberal state with a Governor who has mocked him in a deliberate lampooning of Trump’s perpetual petty assaults upon his adversaries.