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In the event that you’re not as moronic as I am and didn’t stay up till three in the morning last night to watch a baseball game that was always—always—going to shatter your delicate, porcelain heart, allow me to catch you up to speed. The Los Angeles Dodgers and my beloved Toronto Blue Jays battled for six hours and 39 minutes during Monday’s grueling 18-inning World Series Game 3 in LA—the second-longest game in World Series history, behind only the Dodgers’ other 18-inning marathon against the Red Sox in 2018. By the time LA’s Freddie Freeman smashed a walk-off homer to clinch a 6-5 victory at 2:50 a.m. ET, I’d already transitioned through several stages of stress-induced psychosis and ego death and come out the other side just praying for the game to finally end and for sleep to come claim me. (Sorry—as you might’ve already guessed, I’m a lil’ over-caffeinated and loopy today.) Anyway, Dodger Stadium was predictably teeming with celebrities all root, root, root-ing for the home team, including a typically overenthusiastic Glen Powell, an Oz-green-sporting Jeff Goldblum, and Rob Lowe, who bravely decided to pick a side for once. But there was also at least one superstar in the stands openly supporting the opposition: Justin Bieber, the pride of Stratford, Ontario, who arrived at last night’s game in a supersized powder-blue Blue Jays jersey, ultra-wide selvedge jeans with chunky rolled cuffs, and pink-and-black Adidas, which he accessorized with sci-fi rectangular shades and a scrunched-up pink beanie from the pop star’s own label, Skylrk. He was later spotted sitting behind the Jays’ dugout with his wife Hailey, who sported an oversized gray zip hoodie and a conspicuous blue pimple patch. (Relatedly, the New York-born Hailey recently dubbed herself an “adopted Canadian” during an event in Toronto for her skincare brand, Rhode.) While Justin is a noted Toronto Maple Leafs diehard—he’s close pals with the team’s captain Auston Matthews, skipped this May’s Met Gala to watch the playoffs at home, and then showed up in a bonkers fit to a pivotal Game 7 a couple of weeks later—he hasn’t shown as much love to his home city’s baseball club over the years. A series of 2014 paparazzi photos of the Biebs in a Jays jersey and skinny jeans notwithstanding, the Swag singer has largely remained MLB-agnostic over the years, just as likely to pop up in a sparkly Yankees fitted as he is a cap bearing the logo of the Angels or Braves. Beyond the sheer excitement of Toronto returning to the World Series after a 32-year absence, perhaps JB’s newfound commitment to the Blue Jays is the result of a canny trade deadline move by the franchise’s front office. In August, the Jays acquired a former Cy Young-winning pitcher named Shane Bieber (!) from the Cleveland Guardians. Inevitably, the team’s social media accounts instantly began making the easy jokes about their new recruit’s last name: “It’s not clocking to you that Shane Bieber is standing on business 😤,” one Instagram caption read; “That’s my Bieby, he’s iconic,” went another. It was only fitting, then, that Justin wore Shane Bieber’s number-57 jersey on Monday. All those quips, it seems, did pay off and capture the 31-year-old musician’s attention and support. Unfortunately, the Biebers’ mere presence at Dodger Stadium on Monday wasn’t enough to secure Toronto a W. Hopefully Justin will return tonight for Game 4, when his name-twin Shane is set to take the mound opposite LA’s transcendent two-way ace Shohei Ohtani. Maybe with their powers combined, the Jays can tie up this series at 2-2 and make me feel slightly less horrendous about sacrificing my precious rest for naught last night.
