"Crushing one another with colossal expectations."
Good God it doesn't take long for the rabble to rouse.
Not a month into the Major League Baseball season and the sky is falling for fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. It has been 20 long seasons since Canada's team has sniffed the postseason. 1992 and 1993 are years of legend. The Jays marched through the American League and won its only two championships. Since then, the team has been a disappointment. Every ounce of hope snuffed out to shrugs like it was supposed to be that way; like the Jays never belonged in the conversation to begin with; like it was a fluke.
For every Roy Halladay there was a Josh Towers. For every Carlos Delgado there was a Vernon Wells. There was never a complete roster. Attendance dropped and a fourth or third place finish became the norm, the expected finish.
When the Jays acquired Jose Bautista in 2008, it didn't turn any heads. He was a depth addition to spell the regulars when they got injured or needed a day off. He was a role player. He remained as such for most of 2009 before having a huge September mashing 10 of his 13 home runs on the campaign. He proceeded to lead the majors in dingers into 2011. How soon we forget.
With his glimpse of hope being injected into the Jays, people started getting interested again. He gave Toronto fans something to cheer for. An underdog story. Being the underdog, though, missing the playoffs was still a foregone conclusion but steps were being made. Good drafting and some savvy trades beefed up the farm system with guys like Brett Lawrie, Travis d'Arnaud, and Kyle Drabek. Some have panned out, others not so much and others have since been moved.
How soon a tune can change.
Injuries plagued Bautista and the Jays in 2012 but another under the radar acquisition, Edwin Encarnacion, thrived in his new leadership role. Then the team did something it hadn't done since those fabled days in the early 90s. General manager Alex Anthopolous made some huge moves to make the team relevant in the hunt for a postseason berth. They dealt youth like d'Arnaud, Jake Marisnick, Justin Nicolino and Noah Syndergaard for big league talent Josh Johnson, Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, and R.A. Dickey. Hope was restored.
Then the 2013 season began and as we hit the end of April, the Jays sit with an underwhelming 8-12 record. The world is over! Burn the whole organization to the ground. Bring me the head of Alex Anthopolous!
It's a long season, but apparently patience has given way to desperation and rage. For the first time in years, the Blue Jays were pegged to be front runners for the AL East and a rough start to the season has apparently destroyed everything. Fans are looking for scapegoats, excuses, anything to sick their teeth into and tear to shreds. It brings out the worst in people.
Some comments are relatively innocuous. A friend of mine, a hardcore Blue Jays fan, posted "different year, different players, same ole pathetic bluejays" to his Facebook. Others, like on TSN comment boards, have been more vitriolic and downright maddening. After a loss to the Yankees on Saturday, fans were calling out Bautista for his back spasms saying he is a bust and should man up and play through his injuries. They've called him a disgrace, a fraud. This is horrible. If you are suggesting someone to risk further injury to sate your desire as a fan, you are giving the whole notion of sports fandom a bad name. He does not owe you his health. If he takes the time he needs to recover and can offer a more balanced approach on the field, he will be more likely to produce the desired results. But no, play through it because the ignorant fan demands your blood, sweat and tears. Sweat, perhaps but let's not ask for him to destroy himself for our bloodlust.
"Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing," Vince Lombardi said.
The city, the country, wants a champion. This is fine, but learn to temper your expectations. Baseball seasons are long and nothing is lost after one month. The St. Louis Cardinals overcame a huge deficit in 2011 to sneak into the playoffs on the final day of the season. That team won the World Series. It shocked everyone, Cardinals fans included.
Fans want immediate results. Well, that doesn't always happen. There is a chance that this isn't the beginning of a dynasty as many soothsayers predicted. It may, however, evolve into a successful season the longer we press into it.
When the 2013 NHL season began, albeit after the delay of the strike, no one believed the Montreal Canadiens would be a playoff contender. The team's hot start and continued success brought its following out of its slumber as people started to believe. Fans on a message board I frequent were saying things like "I don't even care how this season ends, it's been a success."
That's what expectations can do. The Habs have stumbled down the stretch and any fan who has followed this team through the year can attest to the fact that it's been a remarkable ride. While an early bounce in the postseason will certainly be disappointed, it won't necessarily be a crippling blow.
With every loss the Blue Jays take, the fans are running to the hills to profess how much of a disgrace the team is. Get off your high horses and cheer your damn team through the bad times like you would during the good. That's what you sign up for as a fan, whether you like it or not. Have a chat with a Cubs fan about disappointment. That will put your pain into perspective.
Would you chastise your child's sport's team for its losses? Maybe you would, but then maybe you should take a hard look in the mirror. No, the players on the Jays are not personally known to the fans but the beauty and the beast of it all lies in the emotional connection we form with these players.
Will the Jays win the World Series? It's far too early to tell. It is clear that the team is not going to be the indestructible behemoth as it was advertised. There is time for everything to balance out. Reyes' injury hurts and only exacerbates the holes in the lineup that were glossed over in favour of focusing on hype.
Wait it out and enjoy the game of baseball, even if things don't always turn out in your team's favour.
2 comments:
Sometimes, it is not the loss itself but how you lose that is the problem. A lot of prognosticators were high on the Jays and pointed to upgrades in the starting rotation as a reason they might actually take the AL East. There's no shame in losing 2-1 in the 9th to the O's, but 7-0, 11-1, and 13-0 shellackings are harder to stomach. Only Houston and Miami sport worse run differentials and neither of those teams was picked to finish that high.
The deeper the early season hole, the harder it will be to come back, especially if the Sox, O's, and Rays are all rolling. Watching Dickey give up another 4 runs early in tonight's game points to possible greater problems as he adjusts to a new league. Would I fire anyone? No. Would I be worried? Yes.
It's one thing to be worried. It's another to be unreasonably furious and tasteless with how you respond. It's fine to be disappointed but don't call people out for taking time to recover from an injury. Tonight was one bad inning and a bad third strike to end a rally.
That run differential is mostly because of three awful games. The rest have been a little different. The bats aren't working yet, and maybe they won't. We all want our teams to win the big one especially after so many years of mediocrity. But offer proper criticism instead of relying on BS machoism. A strong month of May and these early struggles will be forgotten. Though, if May is of the same ilk then the early panic may be proven to have more merit.
There is a pretty big difference between legitimate concerns and unfairly calling out someone's perceived toughness.
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