TORONTO — Suddenly, all the pain and the struggles and the years were gone, and George Springer was flying again.
He jumped for joy, his sore knee forgotten. His teammates leaped, the two-run deficit gone. And thousands of Canadian baseball fans — some of whom had seen this before and a full generation or so who hadn’t — were suddenly airborne along with them, the weight of more than 30 years of disappointment lifted in the split-second it took Springer to hit a sinker out to left-center. His three-run home run gave Toronto the lead in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night, and the Blue Jays went on to beat the Seattle Mariners, 4-3, to take the pennant.
