April 10 was going to be a special day for Diane Keir.

The Collingwood resident turns 70, and she and two other friends had already bought tickets to the Blue Jays game against Kansas City Royals.

So it was a huge disappointment for her when all baseball games, and other major sports events, got postponed due to the continued spread of COVID-19 pandemic. But her disappointment was eased this weekend when she received a call from a pleasantly surprising source: Jamie Campbell, Sportsnet host of Blue Jays Central show.

“I could hardly believe it,” said Keir, a retired registered nurse and longtime Blue Jays fan who says she has watched “pretty much every game” since she retired from her work in the oncology department at Scarborough General Hospital.

Keir lives alone since her husband died last year. She spends much of her time inside as she uses a walker and is limited in travels on her own. She sees Campbell “all the time on TV” but never expected she’d be speaking to him directly.

The two spoke about the strange times of self-isolation, about how COVID-19 is changing people’s lives, and, of course, about baseball. Keir especially loved how Campbell was optimistic about the Blue Jays’ future.

“He told me there are better days ahead for our team. That made me feel good,” she said, adding people like Campbell become idols for those watching at home.

“Sometimes they don’t know, just doing their day-to-day job, what difference they make in people’s lives. Speaking to him brought me back from despair and I’m pretty upbeat right now.”

Campbell, who started at Sportsnet in 1998 and has been on the Blue Jays beat for the past 15 years, has found a particular way to spread kindness during this unusual time. Last week, he asked thousands of his Twitter followers to send him contact details for their parents or grandparents who may be feeling particularly isolated and lonely due to social distancing, and could use a chat about baseball to lift their spirits.

As of Monday, he said he had received over 2,000 requests and had spoken to around 150 people all over the country, from St. John’s to Vancouver Island and everywhere in between. He tries to be methodical and fair about it, using a first-come, first-served basis.

“It’s a little daunting to be honest. But I feel responsible, like it’s my duty to respond to every single one of the requests,” he said.

The decision to use his time, aside from work, to reach out to people came to him easily. Many times, people come to him and say their parents or grandparents are big fans, and whenever he spares a minute to take a picture or FaceTime them on the spot, it “never fails to make their day,” he said.

“Now that we’re all imprisoned by this virus, I thought reaching out to our fans and just try to make their days a little bit less lonely seemed like the absolute right thing to do.”

The 52-year-old father of two bought himself a brand-new phone with a new number, and started making the calls.

He said the conversations have been “enriching” for both him and the people he speaks with. More than a few times they also turn emotional.

There was, for example, an elderly man in Vancouver who grew up in U.S. but moved to Canada in the 1970s because he opposed the Vietnam war. Eleven years ago, he was diagnosed with a terminal cancer and was told he only had six months to live.

“He’s still alive, obviously,” said Campbell, noting most of the really meaningful conversations have come from non-baseball topics.

There was also a woman in northern Ontario who talked about the difficulties of watching her own daughter bring groceries to her doorsteps and having to just wave and leave without giving her a physical hug.

“It was heartbreaking to hear her talk about it,” he said.

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Campbell said he’ll continue to go through the requests as much as he can. He only blocks off the 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. timeframe to avoid calling people when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is giving daily updates.

Also a few days ago, Campbell received much-needed reinforcement. Blue Jays announcer Buck Martinez reached out to take some of the requests and make the calls to fans himself.

Keir said Campbell’s call was a reminder people can still be kind and help others during this difficult time. She has limited her time to watch the news because most of it is “depressing” with the increasing numbers of people affected. She also hates to see pictures of some people still going to the beaches in groups “like they are invincible.”

“If you don’t care about yourself, you could be killing other people who are most at risk, and I am one of those people,” she said. “Please follow the rules.”