Valentine’s Day this year came with the best gift for which a beleaguered sports fan could hope: spring training. Beginning Feb. 14, pitchers and catchers could report to training sites scattered throughout Florida’s Grapefruit League and Arizona’s Cactus League. And looking ahead further down the calendar, opening day peeks over the horizon, now only seven weeks away.
As a Toronto Blue Jays fan, each season for the last 15 years has been bittersweet.
And you ask, ‘Canada has a baseball team?’ Yes. ‘And you’re...’ Yes, a fan. And how does such a thing happen?
Well, back when the Blue Jays were actually good, about which unfortunately I cared little at the time, Post Raisin Bran cereal gave out small plastic baseball helmets in the bottom of the bag, and, you can probably guess, a Toronto helmet came out of the first box. And I have been a fan ever since, through summers thick with wins and summers thin with mediocrity.
Let me situate you: The Jays begin their 32nd season as a Major League team April 6. Since the team hired Bobby Cox (yes, that Bobby Cox) as manager in 1982, the Jays have finished third or better 18 times, and last only once: 1982. After winning their first American League East Division title in 1985, the Jays won two more division titles before taking two straight World Series titles — 1992 and 1993. Setting the strike-shortened 1994 season aside, the Jays’ average finish since 1995 is 3.5.
With the rise of the Tampa Bay Rays, the Blue Jay’s 2008 record — which would have won the National League West (86-76) — was good enough only for fourth place in the American League East.
And, yet, hope springs eternal: the Jays bring back most of one of Major League Baseball’s best pitching staffs and the core of a solid lineup. There are, however, a number of concerns.
The Hot Corner: How can an organization expect to compete against The Madonna (Alex Rodriguez), Boy Wonder (Evan Longoria) and Father Time (Mike Lowell) with Lazarus in the flesh: Scott Rolen? There is no taking away the guy’s seven Gold Gloves (all in the National League), and his hard-nosed attitude seems to fit in with Blue Jays’ style. He could prove a useful six- or seven-hole hitter when Travis Snider makes the jump, provided Rolen’s arm does not fly off at the shoulder while he makes one of those devilish sliding grabs down the line.
Shortstop: After The Captain (Derek Jeter), the best 6-spot in the AL East is ... not Jays’ starter Marco Scutaro. Defense may win championships, but in this ‘new’ era of baseball, shortstop has become one of the game’s offensively productive positions. Attention, General Manager J.P. Riccardi: Orlando Hudson still does not have a home. He may not bring any youth to an already old infield — need I mention the Kevin Millar and Lyle Overbay platoon at first — but he did win his first Gold Glove in Toronto, and playing indoors can be tough on infielders.
Free Agents: Every baseball fan salivates a little when those epic syllables leap off a sportscaster’s lips: Manny. Ramirez would highlight any potential free agent spring training team — which sounds kind of absurd in itself — but it looks like he will end up on the West Coast again. Manny aside, the crown jewel of the Jays free agent take this off-season seems to be Millar, and paying to see Kevin Millar is like seeing the bearded lady at the circus. It’s just not pretty.
No. 2 starter: The Blue Jays only lost A.J. Burnett, to the Yankees of all teams, from arguably the third-best pitching staff in the MLB during the regular season. The Blue Jays finished in the top two in earned run average (first), complete games (first), shut-outs (tied-second), and batting average against (second). Those stats mostly reflect the performance of staff ace Roy Halladay, but Burnett provided a stiff second option. Youth will be the name of the game behind Doc, but it will be tough to counter the improvements Boston (John Smoltz), Tampa Bay (David Price) and New York (CC Sabathia, Burnett) made.
In a way, my memories of getting my favorite players’ autographs at spring training reflect similarly divergent expectations of the teams in the AL East. In Dunedin, Fla., where the Jays train, I had no problem getting retired stars Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar and John Olerud to sign a baseball or a hat. Comparatively, at the Red Sox spring training camp in Ft. Myers, standing outside a fence after a game, I spotted Nomar Garciaparra briefly. All I remember next is an enormous, sweating stomach pressing my head against a chain link fence, and a quick shove — ‘Move it, kid.’ And then I understood why I’m a Blue Jays fan.
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