But as Team Canada’s first game against the USA begins this afternoon, I am surprised to see, or rather hear, one thing: Canadians cheering loudly at a baseball game. The crowd is reacting to every little thing the Canadians are doing, cheering and clapping and generally seen to be having a good time. You might be wondering why I find this to be a strange thing.

• These are the same people who ran out into the streets after Team Canada won the gold medal in men’s hockey at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.
• The same people who will drive up and down the streets of their cities, honking their horns after their team wins a round in the NHL playoffs.

Perhaps you noticed a theme there – those two moments center around hockey. We Canadians may be passionate about our country, but we’re especially passionate about our hockey. This is why I am surprised to hear so much cheering at this Canada – USA baseball game during the World Baseball Classic.

At the most basic level, we Canadians always care about how our compatriot athletes do on the world stage. We want to hear about how a Canadian won a tournament, how another one placed 4th in a race, and so on. In this increasingly competitive world, we want to hear more about Canadians winning, but historically we’ve just wanted to see Canadians do well against the rest of the world.

Canadians also like watching sports live, whether it’s a hockey game, a basketball game, or an MMA fight, Canadians enjoy watching sports live, in-person. Only in-person can you feel the energy in the crowd or hear the crunch of peanut shells under your feet. Sometimes the attraction of the sport is not the sport itself, but rather the sense of community, the sense of belonging you feel when you’re with 200 or 20,000 others in a sports arena.

This feeling is plainly evident at this opening game for Team Canada at the World Baseball Classic, and it’s heightened by the fact that it’s a game against the Americans. You see, as much as Canadians want to do well in sports on the world stage, as much as we want to hear “O Canada” played at the Olympics, we always, and I mean always, want to beat the Americans along the way. Perhaps it’s because we live so close to the Americans, inundated by their culture, their television, and their movies – we’ve developed a bit of a “little brother” complex. I’ve often joked with relatives who live in another country that Canadians don’t always have to win, but we have to at least place ahead of the Americans.

So go ahead Canada, cheer as loud as you can as Joey Votto hits a homerun, and as Mike Johnson strikes out Chipper Jones – I won’t tell anyone you’re watching a baseball game.