During his time in Toronto, Kevin Pillar became a fan favourite amongst the Blue Jays faithful for his spectacular defensive play in the outfield.
Now, Pillar is coming to the defence of Toronto after some former athletes have taken shots about their time living in the 6ix.
During an appearance on The JD Bunkis Podcast last month, Pillar was asked about the comments made by ex-Raptors forward Thaddeus Young – which were later echoed by Rudy Gay – in which the veteran trashed his time living in Toronto, saying it was “tough” for him and his family.
While Pillar acknowledged that travel can be an inconvenience at times, the support he felt from fans in the city and all of Canada outweighed the negatives.
“I’ve never really understood when people complain about that,” Pillar said, according to Daily Hive. “I never saw (those issues) as enough to not want me or my family to be able to play there.
“There’s an additional challenge for your families to travel and have to clear customs. I could see how some people could see how that’s an issue.”
But, getting to feel like a genuine star and celebrity topped all of that for the man Jays fans dubbed ‘Superman.’
“There’s not a lot of places where you’re generally a big deal, like movie star status in a city … I felt like as an athlete in Toronto, you’re at the top of the totem pole in terms of popularity and the ability to just have access to anything that you want to have access to,” Pillar said.
“I thought that was well worth the price of occasionally having a little more difficulty travelling.”
After being drafted by the Blue Jays in 2011, Pillar made his major-league debut for the team in 2013 and played in Toronto until 2019, when he was traded to the Giants.
From there, he became quite the journeyman, playing for a season or less with each of the Red Sox, Rockies, Mets, Dodgers, Braves, White Sox, Angels and now the Texas Rangers — where he’s still flashing the leather.
During his seven seasons in Toronto, Pillar hit .260 with 55 home runs, 231 RBIs and 69 stolen bases.
Pillar’s comments come after former Raptors Young and Gay each spoke out about their bad experiences north of the border.
Speaking on the Out the Mud Podcast last month, Young, now retired, touched on a number of topics, but the viral clip surrounds his feelings on living in Toronto.
Young spent parts of three seasons with the Raptors, though the first, following his acquisition from San Antonio, featured all home games in Tampa Bay, where the team temporarily relocated due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Young was playing and living in Toronto for the full season that followed and part of the next until he was dealt away. It proved to be a challenge, he said.
“I ain’t gonna lie, being in Toronto was kinda tough,” Young said on the podcast. “It’s cool to visit, be there for like four or five days, but to live there, it was tough. It was tough on my family.”
Shades of Raptors legend Antonio Davis lamenting that his kids had to learn the metric system or Chris Bosh saying Toronto players couldn’t get “good cable.”
“It’s almost like you’re at a disadvantage,” Young continued. “We had to go through the airport every single time. You gotta go through the airport, it’s the Customs part of it. It’s like, you mean to tell me I just paid for the package and now I’ve got to pay more money to get my package from you? Like, c’mon, man. Customs? Then getting stuck at the border. I got stuck at the border for like three or four hours.”
Rudy Gay, whose time with the Raptors could be described as tumultuous at best, spoke out about his life in the Great White North, trashing – of all things – Torontonians’ accents.
“Toronto, it’s tough, man,” Gay said on a recent episode of the Knuckleheads Podcast.
“That weak-ass accent they got,” Gay said when asked about his problem with Raptors fans. “They hate me, I don’t know why they hate me. You ever got traded from somewhere and the fans boo you? They traded me, I ain’t ask for no trade.”
This is not the first time that Gay has spoken poorly about his time in Toronto. The swingman was acquired by the Raptors from the Memphis Grizzlies in early 2013 and was shipped out to the Sacramento Kings less than a year later.
During his two partial seasons with the Raptors, Gay averaged 19.5 points per game, but shot at a career-low percentage while averaging more attempts than anywhere else in his 17-year NBA career.
“You think I wanted to go to Toronto? … If I wanted to get traded, why the f*** would I go to Toronto?” Gay said on an episode of the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast in May 2024.