MLB Commentary: ;Another October without Blue Jays
Warren Haas, Peak Staff
The popular sports term ‘October baseball’ hasn’t meant much to me — and I’m assuming pretty much any other Canadian baseball fan — for quite some time. And now in October 2007, it’s no different, as I once again get to watch the Toronto Blue Jays themselves be spectators of the Major League Baseball playoffs.
Being from Toronto originally, I sometimes feel more entitled to the suffering and frustration that come with being a Blue Jays fan.
But over the past few seasons of watching a seemingly improving team, I realise I’m not the only Canadian who still can’t shake the memory of watching Joe Carter hit the winning home run of Game Six in the 1993 World Series. This is because, even today, the only positive comments you ever hear made about the Blue Jays always seem to contain some reference to their back-to-back championships in ’92 and ’93.
Even in 2006 when they again failed to make the playoffs, the team received some praise for placing second in the American League (AL) East because it was the best they had done ‘since 1993.’ This result raised Jays fans’ hopes for the 2007 season — some, including myself, even believing they might make the post-season.
Unfortunately, it became painfully, agonisingly, familiarly clear early this season that the Blue Jays had but the smallest odds of being the first edition of the team ‘since 1993’ to be playing in October.
This of course, according to the Jays’ front office and broadcasters, was due to the injuries sustained by some of the better players on the team. However, considering the signings of lacklustre pitchers and Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi’s seeming insistence of proving hanging onto Josh Towers was not a bad idea, it’s hard to believe one ever thought the Blue Jays would still be playing come October 2007.
Yet going into every season there is always optimism for October, no matter what happened in the past season.
Even now, while the 2007 playoffs have barely begun, there is talk of the Jays making a run for the AL East title in 2008. Despite the fact Vernon Wells may only be worth a $128-million contract every other season, despite the fact A.J. Burnett makes $11-million per year to pitch to a .500 record, despite the fact 41-year-old Matt Stairs was arguably their most consistent player this season — despite all of this, there is still hope.
I think this penchant for believing the Jays will once again win a pennant stems from the fans’ inability to forget the best two years of baseball Canada ever got to witness. Any incarnation of the Blue Jays is going to be compared to the team that Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar represented, and any manager is still going to be compared to Cito Gaston (what Jays fan doesn’t yell ‘Bring back Cito!’ every time the team is losing?), until the team makes the playoffs — and wins.
While this type of comparison can be made between any Major League team far removed from the playoffs and their most successful incarnation, the Blue Jays are unique in their position situated north on the map from all of their MLB counterparts. Not only were they the first Canadian team to win the World Series, they are now the only Canadian team in baseball. They disappoint an entire country when they don’t make the playoffs.
I guess that’s why TSN and Sportsnet are the only sports outlets that show the Blue Jays’ spot in the AL East or Wild Card standings when the team is 11 games out. Or why the Jays’ front office is constantly trying to appease fans by pointing out the little victories contained within each Octoberless season, even if that means talking about how the team could have been good if any number of things had happened differently.
All of this is irrelevant to a fan base constantly believing their team is destined for a return to the post-season.
It doesn’t matter that in 2007 a number of young Blue Jays pitching prospects developed into extremely capable big-league players; it doesn’t matter future Hall-of-Fame DH Frank Thomas played for the team; it doesn’t matter Aaron Hill is turning into probably the best second-basemen in the American League — none of it matters.
It’s October and the Blue Jays aren’t playing baseball. That’s what matters.