The Time I Was a Meme

I’ve never made a meme, but I was once featured in one.

Let me explain.

Do you remember how MLB Network analyst Harold Reynolds alienated the Canadian baseball fanbase while calling a Toronto Blue Jays playoff game several years ago?

You probably haven’t forgotten if you’re from Canada, but this story might not have been on your radar if you’re an American. Let me quickly reset it:

Reynolds, who was providing color commentary for the Blue Jays-Rangers American League Divisional Series in 2015, made a goofy comment about Canadian baseball fans during game three of the series. On the subject of foul balls being hit into the seats, Reynolds quipped:

“There’s not a lot of people who grew up playing baseball in Canada. They aren’t used to catching balls in the stands.”

While there’s no doubt that baseball isn’t as popular as hockey in Canada, a lot of kids grow up playing the game. That group includes yours truly; I played organized ball for nearly 15 years, and coached for a few seasons after I stopped playing.

Anyway, Reynolds’ ignorance garnered a lot of attention in Canada, and countless baseball fans and players — including Canadian Larry Walker, a seven-time Gold Glove recipient and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame — offered pointed rebuttals on social media.

Some time after all of this occurred, I got a call from my brother who reported that he saw a meme that he thought featured my hand. He sent me this link …

… and, of course, he was right! It was indeed my hand and my baseball.

I had nothing to do with the creation of this meme — nor do I know who made it — but it brought a smile to my face.

The picture is from a game I attended at Rogers Centre on May 19, 2011 — the first day of an 11-day baseball road trip that took me to nine different MLB and MiLB ballparks.

On that day, I was one of the first few fans into Rogers Centre, and ran down to field level on the third base side as soon as I got into the stadium. The visiting Tampa Bay Rays were hitting at the time, and I quickly found this baseball (an Easter egg, as it’s often called) under a seat in the front row. At the top of this post, you’ll see the picture that I snapped at the time, published in my blog five days later and that was eventually used for the meme.

It’s a funny caption and a good way to make light of the whole stereotype that Canadians don’t know anything about baseball, don’t you think?