Just shy of 10:30 pm ET on Monday night, group chats across the country were ablaze in anticipation of George Springer stepping to the plate.
Surely, there was a mixture of blind confidence and impending doom. In one of mine, one individual tried to find peace in the tense storm.
“Get your minds right,” he preached. You could forgive him for being a source of calm throughout the day. Staring death in the face helps put even playoff baseball in perspective.
“Bautista hit that home run in the 7th inning right?”
I generally try to stay off my phone in big moments. My TV stream is usually on a 45 second delay and I don’t want spoilers. But I broke my rule to fire a text to my closest baseball companion, pleading for one more act of heroism.
A home run a decade (or three) in the making. The Blue Jays will play a World Series game for the first time in my memory. My brain has been scattershot all day. Here a few things swirling in my noggin as I revel in the Game 7 win and prepare for the Fall Classic.
- Is baseball the most satisfying sport to have your team reach the pinnacle in? Even if you *only* watched Jays in 30 for every game of the season, that’s 81 hours of your year. If you’re a die-hard like me, it’s a day-in, day-out roller coaster of emotions that stress the boundaries of your nervous system in the biggest moments.
- Playoff baseball is different from, say, playoff hockey because it’s slower and less violent. But while hockey can offer lulls of activity, literally every pitch, every action of a baseball game has the potential to swing the outcome of your entire season. It’s exhausting. I love it so much.
- While he didn’t deliver the decisive hit in Game 7, Vladdy’s “Born For This” speech just gives you the confidence that he is THE GUY to lead your team. Not the same vibe as other superstars in this city.
- There’s a bit of poetry in the Jays beating Seattle to get here. The dramatic 2022 loss at their hands, the first real playoff appearance of this window, has loomed over the last 10 days. One more demon slayed.
- You might be asking why I exclude 2020? Well, it was a shortened season in which the Jays got into the playoffs as the 8th seed in the American League, so it has the asterisk of all asterisks. However, the two starting pitchers who beat them as members of the Tampa Bay Rays? Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. Both of whom now pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
- Shohei Ohtani, Roki Sasaki, and old friend Teoscar Hernandez all chose LA over Toronto. It would be pretty nice if the Jays could get the last laugh.
- More poetry: just like the Raptors in 2019, the Jays overcame a 0-2 semifinal deficit to advance to the championship round and take on the defending champions, a super-team from California who will be heavily favoured. We know how that turned out for the home side.
- If you’re looking for optimism as a Jays fan, how about this from MLB super statistician Sarah Langs:
- One thing that will give them a fighting chance is the return of Bo Bichette. If you’re a Jays fan, you have to feel happy that he’ll get his shot to play in the biggest games of this generation after all his time served with the organization. Even if he’s limited to DH duties, it’s just that he gets a chance to play.
- John Schneider got hammered on talk radio and in group chats for his bullpen usage in Game 5. But he nailed it in Game 6 and was smart in Game 7, having the stones to use two starting pitchers in the biggest moments of the season. Maybe even bigger stones was Chris Bassitt dropping a 73-mph curveball in a full count to Eugenio Suarez.
- On the other side, Mariners manager Dan Wilson will spend all winter wondering whether he should have brought in closer Andres Munoz to face Springer–the same kind of nightmares that have haunted Schneider in previous postseasons.
- Also great for Jeff Hoffman who, despite logging 30 saves this season, spent much of the summer having people question whether he could be trusted in big moments in October. His 45 pitches and 9 huge outs over the last two games of the series have slammed the door shut on that conversation.
- Did this World Series matchup happen all because of one middle reliever? One of the biggest moments of the season was Mason Fluharty bailing out Hoffman on a Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium by retiring Ohtani and Mookie Betts to preserve a key win. Without that victory, are the Jays in the World Series? It’s conceivable a loss that afternoon prevents them from winning the division, and the butterfly effects on the playoff bracket are incalcuble.
- Baseball is often referred to as America’s Pastime. Wouldn’t it be something if this year, with everything going on, a Canadian team came in and snatched away the title? I can’t think of anything sweeter. This year it truly is the *World* Series. (Or at least the North American Series? Not quite as catchy.)
- Are the Blue Jays America’s team? A lot of fans hate the Dodgers right now (they spend too much money! They won last year!). The Blue Jays are a VERY likeable team. You’ve got role players like Ernie Clement and Nathan Lukes, you’ve got a young phenom in Trey Yesavage, and a grizzled vet looking for one last shot at glory in Max Scherzer. There are many reasons to cheer for this team. It’s possible everyone outside of Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle are pulling for Canada’s Team.
- You could excuse Toronto sports fans for being pessimistic or anxious upon seeing Vladimir Guerrero Jr enter the stadium wearing an Auston Matthews jersey. Game 7s haven’t exactly gone well for him around here. Clearly, Vladdy transcends whatever stench emanates from down Bremner. Before the 7th inning, it was feeling a lot like one of those nights.
- I’ve told myself throughout the playoff run that I need to save my money for potential champions merchandise. But my restraint is being tested already. Look at this beauty. The patch really makes it feel real.
- The Jays haven’t made the playoffs a lot in their 49 seasons, but they might do dramatics better than anyone.
- Whatever happens the rest of the way, it feels like George Springer booked his spot on the Level of Excellence this October.
- Given the wacky nature of this season, somehow we get Myles Straw recording a big stolen base off Sasaki, right? Those two are forever linked, so it would be only fitting that they be simultaneously involved in a big play in this series.
- I’ll leave you with this: it’s been 32 years since Toronto won the pennant. These opportunities don’t come around very often. Let’s have some fun. THE TORONTO BLUE JAYS ARE IN THE WORLD SERIES!
Jays Balk 