Ernie Clement is loving being a member of the Toronto Blue Jays - and not just because he has ascended to a fan favourite and All-Star since joining the team three years ago.
The 30-year-old infielder joined ESPN’s Sources Tell Jeff Passan podcast while at the All-Star game festivities in Philadelphia earlier this week to discuss his love of Canada, his role on the team and his Buffalo Bills fandom.
“Canada has the numbers,” Clement said to Passan when asked what led to him being named the American League’s first All-Star after receiving the most votes in the first phase of voting. “... And one team, so they don’t really have a choice, they have to vote for the guys on the one team.” Clement said laughing.
“Which is great, which is why I love them, they have my back. I’m pretty much Canadian when you grow up in Rochester, New York.”
Clement was taken in the fourth round of the MLB Draft in 2017 by Cleveland, and toiled in the minors for five years before making his MLB debut with the Guardians in 2021.
Clement struggled with the Guardians for 103 games over two seasons before he was waived in Sept. 2022, when he landed with the Oakland Athletics before he was waived a second time in Spring Training in 2023.
That was when Clement landed with the Blue Jays, and burst onto the scene as an everyday contributor in 2024. Clement was brilliant in the Blue Jays’ playoff run that ended in Game 7 of the World Series in 2025, setting an MLB postseason record with 30 hits - with eight going for extra bases - en route to hitting .411/.416/.562.
Clement told Passan that it was almost destiny for him to play baseball in Canada, given his affinity for the country and the fact that he grew up in Rochester, just two hours from the Canadian border.
“I felt right at home [with the Blue Jays],” Clement said. “I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I felt welcomed and kind of like an honorary Canadian because I love hockey.”
Clement said he loves the speed and physicality of hockey, but unlike his baseball game - which is predicated on defensive utility, baserunning and contributing in little ways, he only ever wanted to score when playing hockey.
“I was a winger,” said Clement. “[The best part of my game was] offence. I didn’t do too much of the defensive side, I didn’t backcheck much, I wasn’t really a team player, I just wanted to score.”
As a native of Western New York, Clement does not try to hide his love for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League. When he debuted with the Blue Jays, his walk-up song when coming up to bat was the Bills’ fight song, Al Polanski’s “Shout.”
“We have such a great, exciting team to watch,” Clement said. “[Bills quarterback] Josh Allen’s awesome, just the whole team is great. The tailgating is phenomenal, we have a lot of fun out there, so being a Bills fan is 99 per cent awesome and the one per cent when we lose stinks.”
Bills fans have an established reputation for jumping through tables when tailgating outside the stadium before a home game in Orchard Park - a ritual that Clement used to partake in when he was a minor-league player.
“You have to be at least a couple [beers] deep to go through a table,” Clement said of what it takes to jump through a table. “That was back in my heyday, before I matured and decided it was probably not a good idea to jump from 15 or 20 feet above the table and try not to break any bones.
“Did it hurt? No, not at all (laughing). You gotta know how to land, when you execute your landing on your butt and not on your back you’re fine.”
Clement still makes the trek to tailgate when he’s home during the off-season, going in his friend’s RV - painted in Bills colours just for the event - but has had to dial back the antics since he has become a mainstay in the Blue Jays lineup.
“I was a minor leaguer [back then] ... I hadn’t quite learned how to make the proper decision. Nowadays I don’t go through the table, I stick to my [morning] beers.”
Clement and the Blue Jays return to action on Friday against the Chicago White Sox in Toronto, sitting 2.5 games out of a playoff spot at 45-51.
