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Keith Hampshire is accustomed to being approached by strangers looking to talk to him about his music career. These encounters tend to follow a similar arc. The strangers will tell Hampshire how much they loved “that song” he used to sing, and then ask him what the name of it was again.

Hampshire, ever polite, and flattered to be recognized, will mention that he had a few successes and that perhaps the stranger is referring to his version of “The First Cut is the Deepest” — No. 1 on the Canadian charts in 1973 — or “Bigtime Operator,” which hit No. 5, or maybe “Daytime Night-time,” which did the same.

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If the stranger still appears puzzled, Hampshire will throw out one final tune: “I’ll say to them, ‘Are you thinking of “OK, Blue Jays?” And the person will nod their heads and say, ‘Yes, that’s it! I love that song!’”

Every Toronto Blue Jays fan loves that song. Players come and go. Managers get fired. Baseball eras end and begin anew. But “OK, Blue Jays” played at home games during the seventh-inning stretch for as long as any Toronto supporter can remember, remains. It is an artifact, linking the team’s past to its present, while tying the 70-year-old Hampshire to the franchise forevermore, whether he wants to be — and he does — or not.