This is your last chance – the spots are filling up fast and once this thing gets rolling a little faster, you won’t be able to jump on board, so if you’re still waiting to get on the Blue Jays bandwagon, now is the time. Wednesday night, Toronto extended its winning streak to 10 and took over first place in the American League East.
Let me say that again, just because it feels good to actually put those words out there for real: it’s August 13 and the Toronto Blue Jays are in first place in the American League East.
What’s even better is that this doesn’t feel like a “here for a couple days, but the wheels are about to fall off situation;” this feels like the real deal – like this team is going to keep playing lights out baseball the rest of the way and end the longest postseason drought in the Majors.
Two weeks ago, Toronto was trailing in the Wild Card race, but now here they are, easily the hottest team in baseball, a squad that no one wants to play right now and a group that looks like they’ve figured out that no matter what shakes out when they hit the field, they have a chance to win. That’s a powerful feeling because whether it’s a lights out performance on the hill, a bunch of timely hits or an offensive barrage like they got early on Wednesday to chase Aaron Brooks and ultimately beat Oakland 10-3, these guys know they have a tons of ways to win and that fosters confidence in every facet of the game.
The Rogers Centre has been packed since “The Trades” (officially how I’m referring to the Tulowitzki and Price deals from here on out) went down and it’s only going to get crazier in Toronto as this team gets closer and closer to returning to the playoffs for the first time in 20 years. Their hot play is rallying a country that normally can’t agree to unilaterally support anything and turning everyone into the biggest Blue Jays fan in the history of all-time and while it’s kind of cool to see people from Prince Rupert to Port Aux Basque putting on their Blue Jays caps and cheering on this team, there is an annoying side to this rush of success and wave of supporters suddenly becoming the biggest baseball fans in the history of baseball fans.
Everyone likes cheering on a winner and being part of the movement – and as I wrote last week, Canada seems to be really good at getting behind frontrunners – but there is a limit to the “No – I’ve always loved the Blue Jays!” defensiveness coming from the people that have turned into the most vocal supports of this franchise in the last two or three weeks that is hard to take. There’s nothing wrong with getting excited and cheering on this squad, but if you didn’t watch more than 8-10 innings before Hawk came to town – or you don’t know who Hawk is for that matter – pump the brakes when it comes to puffing out your chest and telling everyone how you’ve been ride or die with the Blue Jays since the days of Doug Ault.
You’re fully allowed to get on board now, just cop to it – admit that you weren’t looking at this team in February wondering why Alex Anthopoulos didn’t try to add more bullpen depth and you didn’t care all that much when they were a couple games below .500 at the start of June. It’s hard to accept your “I’ve always been a fan” pleas when the first time you talked about this team is when they started this current win of success.
And rocking a Blue Jays hat doesn’t mean anything either; I’ve been rocking a 7 and 3/8s Pittsburgh 5150 for the last three years, but I’m not claiming the Buccos, even though they’ve been better during those three years than any time since Andy Van Slyke sat dejected in centerfield in Atlanta. This team is playing out of their minds right now and it makes perfect sense that people are fighting for spots on the bandwagon; I would be too if I wasn’t loyal to that squad in Cleveland that helped Toronto moved passed the Yankees over the last couple evenings.
Just own your truth: if you’re just getting invested in this team now, stop acting like you’ve been behind them from the first game of the season because if they weren’t winning, you probably wouldn’t care about them.
