Journalism Alumni and Instructors cover Blue Jays

This was a season to remember, and we will for a long time, thanks to the reporting and documentation by alumni and lecturers.

For many, they’ve been covering baseball since they started in the industry— but this season gave a lot of journalists their first chance to cover a World Series.

We chatted with them to learn more about their reporting process during the World Series and what their major highlights were.

David Singh (external link)  started his career at Sportsnet as a feature writer, but for the past three seasons, he’s been one of their beat reporters for the Blue Jays.

He shared that he had been to all the home games and several on the road this year. During the regular season, you’d find him writing stories with his co-workers and following the team around and going to spring training (external link) .

Through his specific role covering the team, he could do a feature, a sidebar, or whatever needed to be covered on a day-to-day basis.

The switch from a regular coverage season to seeing the team go along the path to the World Series started when they swept the New York Yankees in four games.

Singh said that was a big deal. In his opinion, it was the Blue Jays, “announcing to the world, ‘Hey, we’re here,’” he said. “The momentum [had] just been building and building.”

Instead of reporting from the newsroom, Singh was in the stadium during the games.

When describing what the atmosphere was like, he said that as a journalist, you have to try and keep it as normal as possible. Singh referenced that it’s the same for the players: “the key to succeeding in the playoffs is to treat it like a normal game.”

However, in one word, he said the experience of covering the games in person was “thrilling.”

“The stadium crowd is more electric during the playoffs. The days are a little bit longer during the playoffs from a work perspective, and there’s a lot more media in town.”

Singh was proud of all his coverage when looking back at what he put out.

A story on Trey Yasavage stood out, who Singh described as a rookie who took the city, the team and Major League Baseball (MLB) by storm. Singh covered his historic outing in game five (external link) .

He worked hard on the piece, not finishing till close to 3 a.m. EST. “It took a long time to come together, but I was very proud of it.”

“I know that a lot of Blue Jays fans and a lot of our readership [were] reading that,” he said. “I was grateful to be able to contribute a story in that moment about such a compelling game and player.”

Singh felt he hit a stride in his career, and personally, this year.

He feels comfortable with his writing and the knowledge of the game. He hopes to continue this momentum next season with even more confidence.

After switching from being a feature writer from 2018 to 2022 to becoming a beat reporter, it was a learning curve for Singh to feel comfortable. 

“(In) 2024, I made significant strides, and then this year, I took it to another level in terms of my own work,” he shared.

He knows there’s always room to grow, but he’s excited for the opportunity to build on his experiences this season

Melissa Bennardo knew she wanted to work in broadcasting after completing her journalism internship with CBC.

The internship grew into becoming a chase producer booking guests for evening shows, and now, she is a coverage producer.

She got involved this baseball season when CBC decided to do a live show outside the Rogers Centre during a game against the Dodgers.

Her job was to book guests to come in person to chat or for a remote interview. Bennardo said, “everyone was really excited across Canada.”

Besides a few technical difficulties, it ran smoothly in Bennardo’s words. This was one of her first live shows outside the newsroom in a while.

“Everyone that I worked with on that day…was excited to be part of this.”

She hopes to do another live show if the Blue Jays make it to the World Series next year, now that she has gotten the hang of things.

One thing she wants to do next year is find even more voices to include in the show.

“We had a fan in L.A. at a watch party speaking with us. We had another fan in Tokyo, who’s a huge Blue Jays fan,” she added.

A piece of advice she had for budding journalists who might work live shows is to be as prepared as possible, do your research and have fun.

“For stories like this (World Series), when you're talking to people, the guests are so excited, but they also might be nervous,” she explained. “If you’re having fun, they’re gonna have fun.”

Bennardo also reflected that if she didn’t say yes to this opportunity and take a risk, she would have missed out on a great experience.

“Don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone.”

Whether it was teaching in the classroom or guest commenting, Shireen Ahmed found the conversation organically making its way to the Blue Jays these past few months.

She could tell who stayed up late watching the games in her class, because she is a lecturer for sports journalism and media, Ahmed said, “the World Series was a constant part of conversations.”

Ahmed shared that one of the moments she enjoyed from the World Series was being on CBC Commotion (external link)  with host Elamin Abdulmahmud and Blue Jays fan Sadaf Ahsan as they talked about the, “cultural implication of sports fandom in Toronto and particularly of the Blue Jays,” she described.

It was a riveting topic for Ahmed, who thought it “gets overlooked sometimes because people tend to flaunt their expertise, but not always look at the importance of how fandom might coexist with other themes in society.”

During their conversation (external link) , Ahsan shared how her parents immigrated to Canada and watched baseball to build a community. Conversations like that mean a lot to Ahmed.

“I thought they were rich with introspection and cultural commentary,” which Ahmed said is what she loves about sports.

Similar to the topic of the CBC Commotion episode, Ahmed was also moved by photo director Jalani Morgan’s project Black Jays (external link) . “He’s documenting Black fan bases and how the Black community interacts with Black Jays.”

In an opinion piece for CBC (external link) , Ahmed wrote about the Blue Jays after losing the World Series, but with her angle as someone who loves sports but wasn’t a traditional Blue Jays fan.

“It was marinated in gratitude,” she said. “I refer to it as ‘the most beautiful bandwagon.’”

The column wasn’t written immediately after the final game.

Ahmed gave herself time to process and also immerse herself in how everyone else was dealing with the loss online, sharing their sadness and love.

“That helped me pen my thoughts. I actually wrote it the day after they lost,” she explained.

“I filed it Sunday night, but very late, my editor got to it [Monday morning].”

She said it was a wonderful time to be an instructor as you “see through the lens of your students and what they’re experiencing.”

Her advice for students is to get out there and write, even if it isn’t a World Series game.

“Build your networks up. Build them up in sports. Contact the comms department, see if you can get in, even preseason, see if you can get in,” she added. “Pay attention to the story lines that some people might not be covering. There's beautiful stuff there.”

While in her fourth year in Journalism, Lexy Benedict interned with CTV Toronto and CP24. Her career took her to CTV Barrie for an on-air gig, then the Weather Network, Global Durham and she is currently working as a television news reporter for Global News Toronto.

Her day-to-day is never the same, switching hours depending on the shift and working what’s assigned.

Benedict had worked a couple of Blue Jays stories over the summer when there was a lot of fan excitement.

“We didn’t actually know it was going to get to this point. I’m sure a lot of fans didn’t either,” she expressed.

Fast forward to the night of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) game seven, when she did a live hit (external link)  outside the Rogers Centre and learned about the result as she was going on air.

She used lots of quick thinking as a sea of blue exited the building.

“Fans were super excited, they were partying outside Rogers Centre, being live and with the fans in that moment was insane,” she said. “I feel like that night really captured the excitement in the city.”

It was a memorable moment for Benedict. This season pushed her in ways she didn’t know were possible.

“I can pre-write all the scripts I want, but they just go out the window because you have no idea what's going to happen,” she explained.

When she’s facing all the excitement, she tries to stay as calm as possible and takes in the energy from the fans as she describes what she sees, hears and feels.

“Even if you feel like you're drawing a blank, it's like, you're in the moment, ‘how are you feeling being here?’...Letting the fans and the crowd speak for themselves.”

In J-school, Benedict was always scared of covering sports, despite loving to watch the games.

“What's cool about covering it from a news perspective is that you're just there to talk about the moment and how fans are feeling…you're living history, you're documenting it (external link) .”

Gregor Chisholm covered his first season at the end of his final year of university through an internship with MLB.

He was an MLB reporter for the Blue Jays from 2010 to 2019 and transitioned into his current role as a columnist (external link)  for the Toronto Star.

His writing switched from purely news, notes and telling the facts to adding in his own thoughts as a columnist.

Like many fans who didn’t believe the Blue Jays would make it to the World Series, Chisholm admitted that he got it more wrong than any year he’s been covering the team.

“Going into this season last year, the Jays were a last-place team. They did make quite a few moves in the off-season, so I thought they would be better than they were last year, but I definitely didn't think they were going to be this good.”

He explained that there was always a three-to-four-game losing streak where you’d think they had lost it, but they would turn it around and win three or four. This pattern was consistent throughout the season.

“So much so that by the time the playoffs came around, I didn’t expect them to do as much as they did, but I thought they were going to beat the Yankees,” he shared. “I thought they were going to put up a good series against Seattle, but I did think they were going to lose against Seattle.”

This was the farthest a team Chisholm had covered had made it.

“They continuously proved me and many other people wrong to make it all the way to the World Series.”

After looking back on how close the team (external link)  was to winning the championship, a “cleat away,” as he described it, he is curious if they will be able to run it back with the same team (external link) .

“I think there was something special with this group, and I don't normally say that. Actually, I got sucked up into it this year.”

He has always been the type to view baseball as individual matchups that are masked as a team sport.

“I always thought back to 2015 and ‘16, because those teams didn't actually get along with each other. There were fights in the clubhouse. Not everybody was friends,” he shared. “This group definitely was, and they showed that they can win in a different way.”

Mercedes Gaztambide brought her on-camera and social media skills with her when she left her role as a host for CBC Street Cents after three years to become a reporter for CBC News Toronto over the summer.

She now covers local stories from crime, human interest, to sports, like the Blue Jays.

Her Blue Jays stories ranged from cease and desist letters to companies (external link)  from the team, fan coverage (external link)  and more angles showcasing how the World Series improved the city’s economy (external link) .

“It does align with what I saw myself doing, which is covering the city that I live in and the people who I care most about,” she expressed. “Getting those important stories out there, whether they're good stories or slightly more sad stories.”

During the ALCS, Gaztambide was assigned to go to a watch party and see how people were feeling at the time when the Jays were down by two games.

The party had some diehard fans sitting in the rain, hoping for a win, but it was sparse. So, she went out to Front Street, where people would be exiting the game.

She went with her cameraman and a security guard, and while they waited, Gaztambide heard something.

“I literally watched them win and then heard the sounds of the crowd erupting from inside the Rogers Centre, people spilling out onto the street,” she added. “Moments before my live hit, I'm standing right there and people are just swarming.”

This was her first time doing a live hit this intense. She decided to keep it focused on the fans and let them share the story.

“Let me prompt people with questions; they can take all the entertainment. I saw people who looked with excitement in their eyes, and I gave them a, ‘come here, let’s chat about it.’”

It became one of her favourite nights, as hectic as it was.

“This is part of why I love news reporting is that you get people in the exact moment that they're feeling something.”