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| - I've been following this team since they played their very first game against the Chicago White Sox on a day that saw snow in 1977. Yes I'm that old. They were Canada's 2nd team at the time playing in an absolutely horrible stadium (Exhibition) and going to those games were not so fun but the team was fun.
Exhibition stadium sucked whether it was a recessed right field bleacher section to cold aluminum bench seating to being too cold but it had some great memories of teams of old that won and had great players in their history and especially in the mid 80's. 3 of those players are going to be honored with a triple bobblehead this coming Sunday (Jesse Barfield, Lloyd Moseby and George Bell).
Along with different eras, different ownerships (Labatt's hence the Blue name) different teams and different players the team has brought Toronto into the spotlight by winning back to back championships in 1992 and 93. Those were the days those 2 championship teams saw an ownership and a willingness to spend to create 2 different yet dynamic groups that won the division pennants, won the ALCS and WS in stylish fashion.
"We stopped the chop". Who else remembers seeing Jane Fonda and her boo Ted Turner not happy with the result of first WS win in 1992? Who else remembers David Winfield overplaying himself and seeing him off the team for 93 and welcoming Paul Molitor... or the late David Cone aquisition? Who else can remember the team being lights out in the form of Timlin, Ward and Henke? Those were the glory days of when certain players gave us trouble we'll just get them to join our team (David Stewart, Ricky Henderson). How about Wild Thing in his fall off the mound wind up and follow through being basically owned by Joe Carter as we got to see him "touch'em all" going around the bases in the last walk off home run of a World Series winner?
Toronto broke attendance records in the years with the newly built half billion dollar Skydome and the team was a sensation for years... and then winning suddenly became not so much a priority and when I say winning I mean spending. The JP Ricciardi years saw some spending on players but not a make up capable of out winning two of the now biggest spenders in baseball in the same division being the Yankees and Red Sox.
The Jays went through years of mediocrity and noncompetitiveness. Sure a budget Cinderella can come by once in a while and do something special like the 2003 Florida Marlins against the Goliaths from the Bronx but those are few and far between.
The Jays for years have been held back by one thing or another whether it was not putting up a competitive team thus not attracting players good enough to help us win or simply not getting it done based on a multitude of contributing factors, the Jays became the epitome of mediocrity putting up 500ish seasons and not making it to the post seasons for decades. Players of greatness would come and go but not enough of a cohesive group to put something special together until just recently in this, the 2015 season.
Frustration had been built up to this point and the end of July in 2015 would see a complete turn around. Spirits are high since the most recent non waiver trade deadline moves that saw the current GM aka "AA" perform acrobatics and essentially mortgage the future of this team to take advantage of a weakened position in the AL East now.
From one game below 500 to a team that has seen a record tying win streak, this 2015 team has done things to this point that haven't been done in years and decades whether it's having multiple game win streaks of 11, shutting out the Yankees back to back or simply getting some of the best players in the game today on this team the city and the fan base hasn't been this excited in that much time.
That being said they get 4* for now because I have seen better and it was in 1992 and 93. Here's hoping I can update this review and give them the 5* I want them to have.
Let's go Blue Jays.
Notables:
-Blue Jays level of excellence commemorates some of the greats of Blue Jays history and not just players (Tony Fernandez, Carlos Delgado, Joe Carter, George Bell, David Stieb, Roberto Alomar, Cito Gaston, Tom Cheek, Pat Gillick, Paul Beeston)
-Baseball hall of fame: Patt Gillick (builder/pioneer), Roberto Alomar (player)
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