I Was on Top of the World, Livin' High

Last night the Blue Jays clinched the American League East for the first time since 1993. Considering I was 4 years old when they did that, and eventually won the World Series, I have only vague memories of this period of my life. I was born into a Blue Jays family that have been season ticket holders since 1984, so being fan wasn't even a choice, it was just something that I grew up with and has always been a part of me. I eagerly awaited going to Saturday day games with my mom and sister so that we could all sing the "Woo-Hoo!" refrain of Shawn Green's walk-up music, "Song 2" by Blur. I would look through binoculars at Pat Hentgen to get a better look from our 500 level seats. When my sister started diving competitively, my dad and I went to almost all of our family's night games. I saw Chris Woodward hit three home runs in a game. I remember watching Carlos hit 4 on TV and thinking his batflip on the final one was just the coolest. I always liked going to baseball games and playing baseball, but baseball, and specifically the Toronto Blue Jays, becoming one of my favourite things in the world, something I devoted a significant portion of my time to and something that I had a very large amount of emotion invested in crept up on me.

This was because it wasn't an interest that I shared with the kids at school. They only cared about the Leafs. Baseball players were all fat. They were all on steroids. A kid in my class getting Leaf tickets was treated was treated like VE Day, whereas if I came in and said "I went to the Blue Jays game last night." nobody would care in the slightest. It really didn't bother me all that much, it's just the way it was. Because I didn't have anyone to talk about baseball with at school, it internalized all of my feelings about baseball and the Jays, I just learned that nobody seemed to care about it and for that reason, didn't really talk about it.

And this is because the Jays were bad for a long time. Not "no World Series in 106 years" Chicago Cubs bad. Close to "no finishes above 3rd place for 30 years" Cleveland Indians bad. But just bad enough that they wouldn't even sniff the playoffs for the next 22 years. It was frustrating. They were good enough to show promise and make you wonder if maybe, just maybe, this would be the year if this would work out or that would work out. But it never did, not even in the slightest. There was rebuild upon rebuild and they never worked out.

But all of a sudden 22 years of frustrated watching consistently sub-par teams doesn't seem like it matters at all, because the Blue Jays just won the American League East. No Wild Card games for the Jays. Whenever there is a narrative of failure (my specialty), the hero always has to conquer that which has kept him down in order to be victorious. Mario must slay Bowser before getting to Peach. Luke must beat Vader. Harry must kill Voldemort.

The Toronto Blue Jays had to slay the New York Yankees. The Yankees, the winningest team in history, has long been the schoolyard bully to the Blue Jays' meek nerd due to the fact that they both played in the AL East. 19 games every against each other every year and every year the Yankees took them to task. If the Blue Jays wanted to get into the playoffs to have a chance at the World Series, they would have to get through the Yankees first. And they did. They won 13 games and the Yankees won 6.

And now the Blue Jays are on their way to the playoffs.

Whenever an incredible run, like the one that the Blue Jays have been on since the end of July, happens, it requires pretty much everything to go right. When the Jays failed in the past, one or more things went wrong. Often it was good hitting, but bad starting pitching. One year the Jays had 5 great looking young starters, but an awful bullpen and no hitting. This year everything has gone right. They have an amazing offense, a very good starting rotation, and a very good bullpen. But I don't just mean that the greater parts of the team need to perform well, I mean that even on a smaller level, everybody has to do what they are supposed to.

This always creates a lot of interesting stories about unlikely candidates. A great example would be Dave Roberts, who had an up-and-down career as a low-power base stealer for about 10 years, but will live FOREVER in Boston as the guy who stole 2nd base off of Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the 9th while facing elimination. He was a pinch runner and that was all he did in that game and he wasn't on the World Series roster for Boston. But none of that matters in the slightest. What matters is the World Series victory that Boston fans commonly trace back to this steal.

There have been tonnes of feel-good stories on the Blue Jays this year. I already talked about Kevin Pillar. Another example would be Chris Colabello, who toiled in independent baseball seemingly forever before making his MLB debut as a 29 year-old (that's late) two years ago. He put together two short and garbage seasons before the Jays grabbed him for nothing this year. He came up to the Jays while the roster was suffering due to injuries and played the worst fucking left field I've ever seen. But he did hit. He didn't walk and he struck out a lot, but somehow he kept defying the BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) gods and seemingly went 2-4 with a double or home run every night and had an 18-game hitting streak. I kept expecting him to crash and his batting average to plummet, but it just never did! He kept fucking hitting! Chris fucking Colabello became an anchor in the goddamn lineup somehow! He looked like his body was disproportional at the plate and his swing made no sense and he kept not really walking that much, but he just kept hitting.

I don't expect Colabello to reproduce his 2015 season ever again. I would not be surprised in the slightest if he just bounces around the major leagues for the rest of his career, not really ever nailing down a roster spot. But I will always remember him fondly and always praise his name to the highest for how he lead the Blue Jays to a goddamn AL East title this season.

Yo:





Sidenotte: Reyes celebrating in that video :')/:'(

Even smaller things just keep going the Blue Jays way. When stud/all-star/is he even human? shortstop Troy Tulowitzki got hurt, the team traded for light-hitting infielder Darwin Barney to shore up the roster for the end of the season. Barney is a defense-first player, but has proven to be more than adequate in the role requested of him. He's made a ton of great plays in the field, as was expected, but I think what I'm going to remember most is this play from last night. For reference, when the Blue Jays clinched the division, it was in the first game of a double-header, so though they wanted t celebrate, they had to wait through an entire other game. Ultimately that home hum meant nothing, as the Jays lost 8-1, but after a Darwin Barney home run that followed a 15-2 win to clinch, I found myself thinking "What else could go right this season?"

I suppose that the beauty of playoff baseball, especially when you've waited this long and are so unfamiliar with it, is just that: You don't know.