Celebrities and sports have always gone together like George Springer’s bat and a three-run homer. And as the Toronto Blue Jays gear up to face off against the Los Angeles Dodgers — the city that’s essentially the celebrity major leagues — in the World Series, plenty of famous fans are getting into it
For Canadian-born Michael Bublé, the matchup is stirring up some tension: Dodgers star and former Jay Shohei Ohtani walks up to the plate to the tune of his hit song, “Feelin’ Good.”
“My beloved Blue Jays are going to go up against my hero. I’m conflicted,” Bublé said on the Stephen A. Smith Show podcast this week. He confirmed that “number one, my heart is Canadian” although he did add that there is “something deeply sensual” about watching Ohtani play.
Meanwhile, self-identified “superfan” Mary Hart was interviewed by Los Angeles TV station KTLA, sitting in front of a framed, signed Dodgers shirt the team gave her when she retired from hosting Entertainment Tonight. She spoke about her delight on the day Ohtani signed to L.A. two years ago — an opportunity the Jays narrowly missed out on, and the experience of watching him play last week. “It was a collective ‘Are you kidding me?’ The stadium was aghast for joy,” she said.
Forget winning an Emmy or a Juno: For the famous faces in the bleachers, the real sign you’ve made it is throwing the first pitch for your home team. That lucky Toronto squad includes Kim Cattrall, Avril Lavigne and Sarah Silverman for the Blue Jays, while out west Kim Kardashian, Chrissy Teigen and Jeff Bridges have stepped up to the plate.
The bandwagon (and the competition to get into those VIP boxes) is sure to grow as the two teams battle it out in the World Series. So in the spirit of friendly competition, we drew up a starting lineup from each celebrity fan club, Jays to Dodgers, head-to-head.
Batter up!
The beefing fans: Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar
Toronto’s biggest cheerleader, Drake, is a long-term Blue Jays fan who celebrated the moment the team clinched their World Series spot at a watch party that exploded in ear-splitting cheers. “BIG SHOW ITS UP 6’ERRRRRRRS,” he captioned an F-bomb heavy video on Instagram Stories.
The dramatic potential of this fandom is heightened by the fact that his nemesis, Kendrick Lamar, is a noted L.A. Dodgers fan. Lamar has thrown the first pitch at a Dodgers game twice, most recently in 2022 when he threw a strike.
The two rappers have been involved in a highly publicized feud in recent years, trading diss tracks that culminated in Lamar’s Grammy-winning “Not Like Us.” That resulted in Drake suing their shared record label for defamation; the lawsuit was dismissed earlier this month.
The internet has pounced on this home team faceoff. “The grand finale to the Kendrick-Lamar Drake feud will take place at the World Series,” joked one X commenter, while another said the World Series is “literally the Drake/Kendrick feud in baseball form.”
The family fans: Eugene and Dan Levy vs. Billie Eilish and Finneas
The elder Levy — who was also courtside for the Raptors’ championship win in 2019 — was spotted at the Blue Jays’ nail-biting final game of the American League Championship. His son Dan wasn’t at that game but has proven his fan bona fides by authorizing the league to use a cardboard cut-out of him to fill out the crowd during the pandemic era’s reduced audience capacity.
Also keeping it in the family are Billie Eilish and her collaborator and brother Finneas, who are avid Dodgers fans. The sibs were spotted fully decked out and happily taking selfies at game one of last year’s World Series. In 2022, the Jumbotron caught Eilish bopping to her own song, “Bad Guy,” in the stands, and she wore a Dodgers hat to this year’s Grammy awards.
The hardcore fans: Geddy Lee vs. Bryan Cranston
There’s being a fan, and then there’s “Breaking Bad” actor Bryan Cranston, who recently narrated a documentary about the L.A. Dodgers. He’s so invested in his team that their back-to-back losses decades ago remains painful. “Those two World Series in the ‘70s broke my heart,” he said in an interview last year.
But Rush legend Geddy Lee takes the superfandom trophy. He has been at almost every single Jays game this season, but his fandom extends off the field, too. His collection of over 400 signed baseballs now resides at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Missouri, and he recently published a book, “72 Stories: From the Baseball Collection of Geddy Lee,” on the sport he loves and his vast collection of memorabilia.
The pop star fans: The Weeknd vs. John Legend
When a young The Weeknd posed for a photo wearing a Blue Jays T-shirt, there’s no way he could have known that one day, it would end up being featured on the team’s official social media. As he noted himself, he’d one day play concerts at the same stadium where he watched games, back when it was called The SkyDome. “I just want to take in this moment right now,” he said. “This has been a dream for a very long time, I used to come watch Blue Jays games here, it’s crazy.”
Fast forward to present day, and he’s narrated a hype track for the team on social media. “These Blue Jays, armed with a new edge and a never-say-die attitude find themselves on the brink of a legacy all their own,” he says over a montage of the city. “Our city, buzzing. Our nation, consumed. Canada’s team just one step closer to fulfilling the ultimate goal.”
Over in L.A., balladeer and The Voice host John Legend is raising his own three children with Chrissy Teigen to be Dodgers superfans. Last year, the whole family was spotted at The World Series when L.A. faced off with The Yankees. “Wow. One of the craziest live sports moments I’ve seen,” he said on Instagram of the walk off grand glam at the bottom of the tenth inning in game one. This September, Legend shared on Instagram that he and his son were in the stands for their “first game of the season.” No doubt they’ll be back this weekend.
The photogenic fans: Shay Mitchell vs. Rob Lowe
If you type “Blue Jays fan fashion” into Pinterest, you’ll almost certainly be served a 2015 picture of Pretty Little Liars star turned entrepreneur Shay Mitchell wearing a Roots x Blue Jays jacket. “You can take the girl out of Canada but you can’t take Canada out of her roots,” wrote the L.A.-based actress at the time.
Just as photogenic is Brat Pack heartthrob Rob Lowe, who is often snapped in the stands and posted a picture of himself on the field after a Dodgers win in October.
In 2017, he made good on a tweet promising that he would “literally” (a reference to his “Parks and Recreation” character Chris Trager) wave a flag for the Dodgers to welcome them home to the stadium after they lost the World Series to Houston. He earned the ire of his childhood hometown, Cincinnati, for cheering on the Dodgers when they played the Reds in this year’s playoffs.
