Blue Jays, Past Present and Future

The Blue Jays of my youth were blue saviors. It was 1991 and 2, and I, at times, was blue. My bizarre sense of humor* didn’t seem to catch the way it did in my earlier years, or perhaps it was merely the offense that is growing up. Through fourth grade I had known little but ups, and it had come time to learn about the occasional downs. Such is life. It’s quite beautiful really.

*I had a thought about my sense of humor the other day: what I really revel in are things that demonstrably don’t make sense to either the person on the receiving end of the information nor the one on the sending end. I thought this while wearing my Salzer Brother’s Mechanics shirt. I have no idea who the Salzer Brothers are, nor do I have any idea how I got that shirt. It was never my brother’s and none of my friends seemed to recognize it. As far as I was concerned, one day it simply showed up in my closet. That, to me, was the Pujols of shirt acquisition.

Speaking of Pujols, back to baseball. Actually I think Albert Pujols and I are around the same age (I’m 27) so he was about 10 at the time too. The Mets were terrible. They’d gone from laughable to not funny anymore. The Mets of glory that closed out the 80s had turned into Japan’s lost decade.

Through the telescope of the box scores printed in the New York Times Sports section, I saw a distant utopia. I saw John Olerud hitting .400 for half a season. I saw Roberto Alomar being a tremendously complete player. I saw Devon White playing a beautiful center field and a fantastic leadoff guy who would occasionally whack a home run. I saw Joe Carter as the aging hero, still good enough to hit cleanup. I saw Paul Molitor as another really good player who happened to play half his games in Toronto. I saw Juan Guzman and Pat Hentgen being very difficult to beat. I saw Ed Sprague being the only non-star in the lineup but still being, at least in my eyes, pleasantly solid. A poor man’s Scott Brosius perhaps (wait, what happened to Brosius? He was Brosius and then he was gone. Maybe he knew when to get out and he did.) In the Jays I had a nominal second favorite team that I could happily obsess over while mostly ignoring my nominal first favorite team. I was rewarded with two World Series. To me, neither ever seemed in doubt. That team was too good.

Now, in 2009, I look at the Blue Jays, as a team that up until last year, were always a very good team that could theoretically finish in second, or who knows, maybe even win the division, but realistically were very likely, and inevitably did end up in third behind momma bear and poppa bear. Now another one has grown up faster than them, and the Blue Jays are a very good team that could finish in third, or if things get really weird, maybe second, but realistically are very likely to finish fourth behind momma bear, poppa bear and Miley Ray Cyrus.

Not only are they losing the race, but some of the parts may be coming loose, damaged or old. I used to feel that Scott Rolen had the presence, calm and effectiveness of a large cat. He always seemed poised, in control, and he might, at any moment, choose to end you. Now he’s one of those guys who’s still good, but if I’m an opposing team, I’m secretly glad that they have him. Especially over a long season. Maybe it’s just me.

The Jays had a good core, but with some missing parts, and they made a stab at the whole acquiring high quality veteran players route in the hopes of toppling a giant. It had a sort of karmic backlash that seems to hit my Mets so frequently. Scott Rolen remembered that he gets hurt, and it knocks him out or messes with his bat speed and power and the like. Frank Thomas remembered that he was old and not on illegal enhancers. Lyle Overbay remembered that he’s not necessarily particularly good. David Eckstein remained as scrappy as Popeye. He didn’t forget to be mediocre offensively either.

I found it a little surreal when the Blue Jays rehired Cito Gaston to be their manager last year. He was the manager of the early 90s Jays. Maybe they were hoping he could bring a little of the old magic with him. It's halfway to hogwash, but there's something to be said for the muscle memory of winning. Knowing in your body that something can happen makes it more accessible. It's not a prerequisite, and you still have to be good, and even the losers get lucky sometimes, but mindset matters.

People say that the Blue Jays are just behind the other three talent-wise, and would be favored to win just about any other division, but they are where they are, and if it doesn't work out this year they need to think about starting over and looking more toward 2011 and 2012. They would have the best tradables on the market, and they could stop being a team that "should" finish higher, but never does. The clowns and the jokers have passed them, and one way or another the Toronto Blue Jays must figure out how to unstick themselves from the middle.