Drew Doughty didn’t know this, but there is a website dedicated exclusively to photographs of him wearing Toronto Blue Jays hats.
It’s called Drew Doughty in Blue Jays Hats, and it’s a casual little scroll. But it doesn’t even scratch the surface of the Los Angeles Kings defenceman’s collection.
Do not confuse the Norris Trophy finalist as a bandwagon-hopper. Growing up just a few hours outside of Canada’s last standing MLB city, in London, Ont., Doughty has been a Jays devotee for years — even if he was just a toddler for touch ’em all, Joe.
Doughty has already looked at the Kings’ 2015-16 schedule but was bummed to discover that his team won’t visit Toronto until Dec. 19 — weeks after the Jays’ World Series parade.
During the NHL players’ media tour we grabbed Doughty to talk about his favourite team, the one represented on “hundreds” of his New Era caps.
Here is what the 25-year-old had to say about the Jays…
“It sucks. I won’t be able to go the playoffs.” — Drew Doughty
“How many Jays hats exactly? That’s impossible to know. Because those 59Fifty hats, if you wear them a lot and travel with them, they kinda break and squish and go to shit, so I have over 100 at least. I replace the crappy ones that have lost their form and get the same exact one. Pop the new one in my closet and throw out the other one. [Editor’s note: Or give them to Anze Kopitar.]
“I’ve only been to two games live this year, which is kinda crappy, but the Pan Am Games were here and I kinda wanted to avoid Toronto as much as I could. I knew the traffic would be ridiculous. So only two games, which is upsetting because of how well they’ve been doing. They won both times I went.
“It sucks. I won’t be able to go the playoffs. They’re done in November and we come to Toronto in December. I got the pay-whatever-$15 for the MLB app and you can follow pitch by pitch, so I’ll be following it. And I have the MLB package in L.A. so I’ll watch the games on TV.
“I’ve always liked [Jose] Bautista just because he was kinda the big dog back in the day, but this [Josh] Donaldson guy is kinda growing on everyone in the country. He’s a workhorse, tries hard and looks like he just loves the game and has fun. So I’ve started liking him. And obviously [Edwin] Encarnacion—he’s awesome. I think he’s a very, very good player. Underrated, too.
“I was an ’89 birth year, so I was alive for the [1992 and ’93] championships but I don’t remember. My dad bought the Blue Jays World Series videos on VHS, and I still have those tapes to this day. I haven’t watched it since I was 10 but I still have it. So I know what happened.
“To be honest, when I was younger I wasn’t that into baseball. I watched Jays games when they were on TV just because I love sports. That’s all I watch. I don’t watch movies.
“As I got older, there’s no other Toronto team I would support. I always liked the Kings when I was I kid; I was never a Leafs fan. So I figured I needed one team close to home to root for, and that was the Jays. I just watched more and more as I got older, and I love it now.”
