Well, I’ve avoided writing about the Blue Jays all season long. Truth is, I never believed they could do this. I tried to put my skepticism aside and just enjoy it. But, any time trouble arrived, I’d think, ‘That’s it. They stink. Can’t keep it up.’ I didn’t think they could hold off the Yankees down the stretch. I was pretty nervous heading into the Division Series too. Don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to be wrong!
Our family has had Blue Jays season tickets pretty much since the moment they went on sale prior to the first season in 1977. We were all there, in the snow, on Opening Day. I was at every opener until 2018, when Barbara was diagnosed with cancer. I’d even skipped school again in 1980 to attend the makeup game after the official opener was rained out. My mother (Joyce) and brother Jonathan still have their home opener streaks in tact.
With the Jays wearing their white-paneled hats for luck, I had to
dig out my original fitted cap from the summer of 1977!
My mother is the reason our family became Blue Jays crazy. (Many of you will have seen her TV appearances over the years, including one on the CBC last week. There might be another on CTV this evening!) My father was a sports fan, but my mother was a baseball fan! She always says it was the only game she really understood as a girl. She used to attend the minor-league Toronto Maple Leafs baseball games in the 1950s and root for the Brooklyn Dodgers against the New York Yankees watching the World Series on television.
Of course, I watched plenty of games this year — and attended a few — but I wish I’d more fully embraced the team. I should have! They play the type of baseball I really enjoy … putting the ball in play and making things happen, as opposed to slugging and strikeouts. And they really do seem to like each other. But after the playoff flame-outs of recent years, and the terrible season last year, I didn’t think they’d done nearly enough to turn things around. (I certainly wasn’t alone with that thought!) The Jays got off to a good start, but then sort of fell apart and it was easy to believe it would be another frustrating season.
I was hopeful Bo Bichette would bounce back, and even though Vladimir Guerrero has mostly been good-but-not-great (and I have trouble wrapping my head around anyone making $500 million!), I figured they really did have to re-sign him. Still, I wasn’t very optimistic. My friend Leslie was an early believer. I warned her not to get too excited, but it turns out she was right!
Like I said, I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to be wrong.
Doesn’t get much better than beating the Yankees!
And now, it’s on to the American League Championship Series.
Whether it’s Detroit or Seattle, it should be exciting!!
WOO HOO!!!! I am so glad you were wrong too Eric with respect!!! It’s so good to see the Blue Jays pulled it all together!!! They’ve been underdogs for so long; too long!!!
I love when you share about your Mother & sports. I used to play baseball & was a lousy hitter but a great runner. I would run for the kids who couldn’t….
Thanx fore a fun uplifting post!
Sherri-Ellen aka BellaSita Mum & **purrs** BellaDharma
Another great story with so many special memories. Thanks for sharing Eric and Go Jays!!!
Sunday’s game was the first I’ve watched in years because I couldn’t handle the stress of
watching them lose. But I was a a friend’s house and they were into it, so I got to witness a truly brilliant team effort by the Jays. They’re back!
Man, Games 3 and 4 were stressful!!!
Game 2 was mostly just fun!
ANOTHER GOOD ONE, ERIC.
Great little piece Eric. Lots of Jays memories over the years and last night ranks up there winning in the Bronx. Epic post-game celebration too. Seem like a great bunch of guys.
Lovely article, Eric! I am so excited for the Jays, and I think a lot of that feeling is because they are such good TEAMmates, appear to genuinely care for each other, and are clearly having a great time just playing the game. You don’t always see that type of camaraderie with teams, especially the Yankees, although in fairness to them, they didn’t really have a lot to smile about the last few days. Too bad – so sad! . Anyway, I am very happy for Canada, and am hoping that Detroit is our next opponent, because I know the stands will be full of supporters from both sides, in both cities. Tell Joyce I said Hi, and that I am so pleased for her. She must be so excited!! .
I was a bit nervous when Hoffman was on the mound and Jays only had 5 runs. However….
No errors in play like last game.
On to next round. Yankees will fire people.
Here we are cheering for a team with no Canadians on the field or in suits. Many totally ignorant about this country. I am 88 watching kids who are younger than my grandkids are. Playing a game, no doing work. And getting more in one year than I earned in a decade! And the weather has turned cold so more Boys of Summer. Yet it is exciting. If the Jays win the NYC World Newspaper trophy we all will rejoice and have a parade. And our team will not waltz down to the gilded White House to present tRump with a jersey with his name on it!
Well, Vladdy is a Canadian by birth.
As a life long Yankees fan, it was particularly challenging last night to see Yankee legend Don Mattingly celebrating in Yankee Stadium while wearing that filthy rag of a so called jersey! BOO!!! Just terrible! Having said that, the Jays won fair and square and earned the right to move on, so I’ll acknowledge that…
On a side note, can someone channel their inner H.G. Wells and whip up a time machine??? Would be great to go back and watch a Yankees @ Brooklyn Dodgers World Series game in Ebbets Field with your Mom, any year except 1955 of course, when “Dem Bums” somehow managed to beat the Yankees in an epic 7 game World Series.
Like pulling teeth, eh?
I grew up at Ebbets Field with the BROOKLYN Dodgers and Dexter Park, magnificent home on the Brooklyn-Queens border, of the best semi-pro team in America — the Bushwicks. I was blessed to savor “The Boys of Summer,” a genuine unpretentious — unlike the despised Yankees — baseball club. The Bushwicks played the best of the Negro National League so I watched Satchel Paige pitch both ends of — and win — a double-header and Josh Gibson hit one of the longest home runs. I covered the Brooks 1955 Series win and the 1956 Series loss. When they took the Dodgers and Bushwicks away from me; they took away my loves. Baseball now — a crap game. Period!
Love that original white panel cap! Go, Jays, Go!
Eric:
Well done; spoken straight from the heart!
In Life a Seagull…..In Death and Forever more a Blue Jay