Blue Jays' Louis Varland going viral for his reaction to a Dodgers fans' request

The Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers played in one of the best World Series in it's 100+ year history in 2025. While the Blue Jays came out on the losing end in a very tightly played Game 7 at home, they gave their fans a thrill they hadn't experienced in nearly three decades and it created a bond for a generation of fans and their players.

But one fan tried to take advantage of that bond earlier this week by catching Blue Jays' reliever Louis Varland off guard. That's because the fan, who requested an autograph, wasn't a Blue Jays fan at all - it was a Dodgers fan in disguise and it ticked off the electric Toronto reliever.

The video shows Varland, after a game in Toronto, outside of Rogers Centre talking to some fans. He is holding a giant novelty glove and signs said glove, before moving on to sign another fans piece of memorabilia. The pleasant interaction then takes a turn as Varland realizes he's been duped.

"What?" says Varland. "You had me sign that while you're wearing that shirt?" The video never shows the person Varland is talking to, or their shirt but the original post suggests that the person was wearing a LA Dodgers World Series shirt.

"I'm going to scribble it out. I'm serious. Really? That's tough. I should have looked. That's on me," says Varland. The 28-year-old was a big part of the Blue Jays bullpen throughout the playoffs, including during the World Series loss to the Dodgers. Understandably, Varland wouldn't be a huge fan of that team at the moment, and while he was likely just having fun with the fan, there's also a lesson to be learned here.

Varland interaction proves players are humans with feelings too

It's one thing to track a player down after a game, it's another to flaunt the shirt that exposes that players' failure in their face after they have signed something for you. Kevin Pillar put it best recently on the Blue Bird Banter podcast when he said, "these guys aren't robots." Now, Pillar was making that point in comparison to what they do on the field, but off the field as well, these players are real human beings with real emotions.

For a ball player, the ultimate goal is to win a World Series, and to come as agonizingly close as the Blue Jays did to winning it all will leave some emotional scars. As a fan, you want to see the players on your team hungry and unsatisfied with what took place.

You want them to want to try and finish the job, and part of that means staying angry and staying fired up at the team that stood in their way. So while Varland's reaction may have been a bit of teasing with the fan, there's also a real human element here of animosity toward anything Dodgers related.

While there's nothing wrong with catching up with a player outside of the stadium, as long as they are receptive to it and you're not disturbing them, there's should also be some etiquette to not tick them off. But as Varland said though, "that's on me," and you can guarantee he'll be more leery about signing autographs in his off time from now on.

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