This week the boys in blue — the blue birds, or most commonly known as The Toronto Bluejays — will take the field for the first time since October. When they last exited the field, it was in a confused emotional flux. The Kansas City Royals had just beaten them on a comeback win in the American League Championship Series, a time that should have been heartbreaking, but it really wasn’t. That loss hurt — it hurt a lot — but there was also hope. It’s hard to explain, but let me try.
The Bluejays' time in Toronto has been plagued by loooooong periods of mediocrity and failure, mixed in with short bursts of extreme success. The last time the Bluejays were relevant was 1993 when Joe Carter hit a walk-off home run to win it all. Now to go along with that, every other team in Toronto has sucked for the most part — the Leafs, Raptors and the TFC have all been very poor. We as Toronto sports fans are an extremely jaded group of people. So it’s not hard to blame the city when all of a sudden, the Jays were good, (and not just good, but very good), people talked about how it won’t last or how they will find a way to screw it up. People talked a lot of smack, but they were also starting to show up — the city had new life breathed into it. It was electric. It was so electric that the team sold out its last 40 home games; it sold out a 55,000-seat stadium every night.
This goes back to the early '90s when they were doing this every game all year. The team would win, and people loved it. But don’t confuse this for bandwagon fans — this was a case of turning off so as to not get hurt. The city of Toronto hadn’t seen a playoff team since 2007 save for the recent string of disappointing first-round exits by the Raptors. Toronto was waiting for a winner and, more importantly, something to believe in. That came in a big way with these birds. The city exploded with pride. You couldn’t go 10 steps without seeing #ComeTogether or #WeTheNorth.
It was only propped up by the Bat Flip heard round the world. When I saw that, I swear I cried grown-man tears. For a city with the biggest little brother complex to all of the United States, it was an amazing moment.
That is where the hope comes from. The fact that our time has arrived and it’s our turn to #StealTheCrown from those pesky Royals. So next week, when the Bluejays take the field for the first time since October, it won’t be “There’s always next year”; it will be “This is our year.” And the city of Toronto, or as we like to call it, “The 6” is ready to dive head first against the world with them.
