The Toronto Blue Jays have a few household names. You don't get to the World Series without them.
But for the neutral fan watching, the Blue Jays are nothing like the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are populated all over the roster with notable players.
Notoriety doesn't win baseball games, though.
Baseball players win baseball games.
That's how Blue Jays manager John Schneider described his team in a midgame interview with the Fox broadcast, saying he's got "a bunch of baseball players."
These are guys that haven't had everything given to them along the path to this stage. They've had to knock down doors that didn't want to open for them. They've had to persevere in a baseball world that didn't always believe in them.
And together, it's those guys, those with doubters, who led the Blue Jays to a 1-0 series lead in the World Series with a resounding Game 1 win.
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There's Ernie Clement, who made up for an early baserunning error by giving the Blue Jays a 3-2 lead on an RBI single. He was let go by Cleveland and Oakland, dismissed as not good enough, before proving with Toronto that he is indeed good enough.
There's Addison Barger, he of the heroic pinch-hit grand slam. He weighed 155 pounds early in his professional career, in 2019. Now he's well over 200 and they call him "Bam Bam," and he sure bammed that baseball for the biggest swing of his life.
There's Alejandro Kirk, who singled twice before hitting a two-run home run of his own. He's a 5-foot-8, 245-pound catcher from Tijuana, Mexico. There are no other major leaguers who fit that description, but he's made it work anyway.
Even Trey Yesavage, the starting pitcher who escaped multiple jams that could've been worse, wasn't supposed to be here, not yet. He was a first-round pick, but he also began the season at Single-A Dunedin. What were the odds of him starting Game 1 of the World Series?
And the guy who pitched the eighth, starter-turned-temporary-reliever Chris Bassitt, is from a small town in northern Ohio, Genoa, then pitched in the MAC at Akron. Guys don't make it to the majors from those places, and yet there Bassitt was, getting three key outs before another journeyman, Eric Lauer, got the final three outs to finish it.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Didn't need to do anything. Bo Bichette didn't need to do anything.
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On this night, the depth of the unsung Blue Jays proved just how special it is.
There's a long World Series still to go. The Dodgers' superhero-level players may well don their capes and rally back.
But not in Game 1.
In Game 1, the Blue Jays were the heroes, some of them unlikely, but in that unlikeliness, all the more magical.
Baseball provides an opportunity for the unexpected authors of greatness more than any other sport. That's exactly who these Blue Jays aspire to be.
And for at least a night, the men in Toronto uniforms showed that, even if you don't know their names, this is their stage, too.
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