Blue October: The Rise and Legacy of the 2015 Toronto Blue Jays

May 31, 2015. That was my breaking point.

I had just watched the Jays lose to (what I thought at the time) were the lowly Minnesota Twins, 6-5, in another one-run-loss-bullpen-collapse that typified the first part of the 2015 season. After a Josh Donaldson home run to give the Jays a one-run lead in the 7th, Jose Reyes made a costly throwing error that allowed the Twins to score 2 runs and win the game. The team's record was now 23-29. The Jays had already lost 3-2 the day before to the Twins and now had to go play (what I thought at the time) the powerhouse Washington Nationals on the road.

In my mind, it was the beginning of the end to another baseball season. There would be no meaningful September baseball for me. Again. Like every other year.

That Sunday afternoon, May 31, something slipped in my brain. It's as close to "snapping" as a sports fan can get. I disgustedly flicked off the TV, fired up my computer, and spent hours writing a massive Facebook post that systematically, ruthlessly, and statistically tore apart each iteration of the Toronto Blue Jays from 1998-2015. I poured my unfiltered rage into demonstrating - without question and without counter - why the Blue Jays have been and were forever damned to the unbreakable bonds of mediocrity.

As a superfan from 1998 onward, having watched parts or all of nearly every game during this odyssey (while at the same time never gravitating to serious fandom for another sports team), I couldn't take it anymore. The 6-5 loss dredged up feelings of isolation and self-pity relating to my dedicated slogging through the all of the lean years where playoff baseball was a pipe dream.

Take 2005, when Roy Halladay - who was on his way to another Cy Young after winning it in 2003 - had his leg shattered in mid-season (July 8th to be exact) on a line drive by Kevin Mench. The team never recovered. They finished at 80-82, settling into their familiar comfort zone of absolute mediocrity.

Sitting in my chair writing about the Jays on May 31, I felt that few people really understood the depths of the tragedy that were the last 20 years. I felt like most people had long since abandoned the team, like the last citizen sadly walking away from the abandoned remains of a rural Newfoundland coastal community.

So, feeling frustrated and despondent, I summarized all of the key players who came and went for the Jays without a sniff of the playoffs during these lean years: from bright spots like Shannon Stewart, Shawn Green, Carlos Delgado, Chris Carpenter and Roy Halladay, to false hope disappointments like Vernon Wells, Alex Rios, Kelvim Escobar, Eric Hinske, Travis Snider and Ricky Romero.

This writing exercise was both cathartic and depressing. It's like punching a wall: it feels great when you're swinging, but terrible once you realize your knuckles are broken and there's a hole in the wall now. Neither action brings meaningful resolution.

Right before I hit send on my Facebook post, though, a small part of me said "just wait until the end of the season, then you can do this." Maybe it was because I didn't want to look like a raving madman on social media. Or maybe it was because as a multi-sport athlete, I've had to tell myself many times that you always have to battle until the end because you never truly know what can happen.

So I was going to let these guys play it out to the end of 2015, and then I was going to lay into the team with the fiery force of a thousand suns and download all of my pent-up misery at cheering for a useless and incapable sporting franchise who couldn't deliver an ounce of satisfaction to its fans.

Then something happened. A small current in a calm river. A pebble shifting before a landslide. On June 2, Max Scherzer, pitching for the Nationals, was busy tearing up the Blue Jays. The Nationals took a 3-1 lead into the 6th inning. But then Kevin Pillar - at times glorious, at times maddening Kevin Pillar - hammered his second home run of the game off Scherzer to give the Jays a 4-3 lead. It was a key Moment in a season of Moments, and a harbinger of things to come.

This post isn't going to talk about all the Moments. I'm not capable of writing them all out - there were so many. If you've read this far, you probably know all of them anyway. But even though I can't relive all the Moments, what I can and will do is pay tribute in the best way I know how to this 2015 Blue Jays team - a team that activated fandom in many, and inspired renewed hope in others like me.

The 2015 Postseason

I feel compelled to start the healing process by bandaging the freshest wound. Game 6 of the ALCS was a heartbreaker, no doubt. At times, it was easy to seriously question whether the stars remained aligned against this team that was fighting so hard to take that next painful step toward the World Series. A fan interfered with a home run, strike calls were made that were six inches off the plate, and the Jays went 0-13 with runners in scoring position, including leaving a man at third with no outs in the 9^th. Even though the Jays had been playing in the “get it done league” for quite a while, in Game 6 they were stuck in the “try league.”

However, if you really think about it, Game 6 was the consequential result of too many small mistakes amounting to too large of a deficit to overcome. Game 4 aside, the Jays certainly had their chances in every ALCS game to put their nose out in front and stay there. It was clear the hitters pressed too hard at times, possibly living through the emotions of a first playoff ride or trying to macho-up and be the hero. It was also clear that the Royals hitters came with an aggressive game plan against the Jays starters early in games and continuously capitalized on that well-prepared strategy. So give them some credit, even if a few of them, like Yordano Ventura, are sniveling crybabies.

And who will ever forget the ALDS? Game 5 against the Rangers was the fan-making equivalent of the 2012 Brut cologne commercial where the guy puts on a dab of the stuff and his girlfriend walks back into the room suddenly 8 months pregnant and exclaims, “what did you DO?!” Jose Bautista’s 100% epic and 100% justified bat flip – which validated his entire career as a Blue Jay and officially knocked down the Berlin Wall of unending mediocrity – was a Moment.

But the ALDS was more than the sum of its Moments. The ALDS catalyzed the long-dormant emotions, strange and wondrous, of a fan base who had sat lobotomized for 22 years. It’s baseball’s version of waking up out of a coma. During the lean years, people would complain about seasons being too long and too much time between pitches. During the 2015 playoffs, people couldn’t wait for the next game and the tension between pitches could be unbearable at times.

Unifying Effect of the 2015 Blue Jays

Without a doubt, the Jays contributed to Canadian patriotism in 2015 in a way that arguably has not been experienced since the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. For example, all three candidates for Prime Minister attended games late in the season (which, hilariously, the Jays all lost, prompting a joint commitment by the leaders to avoid coming to any further games and may have been the only thing they all ever agreed on).

From August to October, social media was on fire for the Jays. In fact, you could barely surf the web without a new fan tribute video popping up in your newsfeed. I personally couldn’t get enough. Sometimes I would replay them over and over; not because they were necessarily that amazing, but because I didn’t want the feeling of adopted and collective relevance to end. I guess the best way to put it is that sharing the joy with others – whether long-time fans, causal fans, or bandwagoners – multiplied my enjoyment and satisfaction of the Jays exponentially.

It was amazing to see all the ways people shared this experience. Yes, the most obvious place was at the ballpark. When I went to the Twins series at the beginning of August, the fans were excited and optimistic about the trades the Jays had made for Price and Tulo. In the course of a week, the average attendance on a weekday had jumped from 24,000 to about 35,000 at that point.

When I came back in late September with Dad for the essentially division-clinching against the Yankees (yes, both Navarro’s tying home run in Game 2 and Martin’s go-ahead home run in Game 3 of that series were both unforgettable Moments) the Rogers Centre had undergone another metamorphosis: from an optimistic, hopeful, early August crowd to a full-blown, frenzied, celebratory crowd of 50,000 hearts quickly beating as one. And I’m pretty sure all home games in September and October were the same way.

That being said, perhaps the most telling unifying effect was the series of interactions outside the ballpark. Before August, the Blue Jays were a complete afterthought in Canada, even in Toronto. But the something happened again. People cared. And they talked. In airports, coffee shops, restaurants. At work. In schools. Everywhere I went with my (fading) Jays hat, people would ask me about the team or cheer me on with enthusiasm. I didn’t have to be the one to initiate talk about the Jays, which had never been the case during the lean years.

As a result, there’s no question in my mind that the surging collective spirit of the nation measurably increased the enjoyment that I experienced (and I'm sure that other Jays fans experienced) throughout this season as well. So thank you to everyone who participated in this ride.

Edwin’s Moment

Besides the Moments I have already talked about above, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to pick out Edwin's Moment of the year.

For me, the best regular season Moment was Edwin’s three homer and 9 RBI day on August 30. To see the field showered with hats for some reason struck an emotional chord with me. I think it sent an authentic signal to the Jays players that Canadians were truly behind them - fully committed - by bridging the gap from a Canadian hockey tradition to the baseball diamond. I also think Edwin – once he understood what it meant – was deeply touched by the fan reaction. You don’t see those touchpoints of genuine connection between players and fans often, so they should be appreciated as much as possible. And I don’t think meaningful experiences like that will happen very often.

Honestly, as soon as that game was over, I was so inspired and convinced of the likelihood of playoffs – Jays playoffs, what?! – I immediately got on the computer and bought tickets for the Yankees series in late September. Then I called around to see who would go with me, and I was able to share it with Dad (and friends) for his birthday. It was very special.

The Unsung Heroes of 2015

We all know what Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Russ Martin, and David Price did for this team. However, it would be a shame to overlook some of the stories behind the players who really brought the alloys of this team together and forged them into a playoff team.

Kevin Pillar went through a rite of passage this year. His gravity-defying catch over the left field wall in April was right up there with the best plays I have ever seen. He went on to make a countless number of spectacular catches during the regular season and the playoffs. What people will forget is that he came into the season as the fourth outfielder; an unknown quantity and an afterthought. It was only due to Dalton Pompey’s struggles that he even had a chance to blossom. And not only will he likely win the Gold Glove, but he improved over his atrocious results at the plate in 2014. Along the way, he also showed himself to be a loquacious and insightful spokesperson to the media.

Roberto Osuna is 20 years old. 20. Years. Old. The youngest player in the entire Major Leagues this year. He made the team out of Spring Training as the final bullpen piece; he was supposed to help fellow 20-year old Miguel Castro manage the pressures of the closing job. Well, after Castro promptly demonstrated a penchant for completely melting down late in games notwithstanding a 100mph fastball, Osuna quietly but capably filled the gap. Going from 6^th inning low leverage situations to intense 9^th inning pressure cookers, Osuna calmly managed situations with the poise of a seasoned veteran. Never complaining, never making excuses, Osuna showed nothing but true professional character, icy veins, and humble respect for others. Whether he starts or closes for the Jays, he will be a special piece for years to come.

As amazing as Osuna was this year, the incredible comeback of Marcus Stroman is the most inspiring player story of 2015. After tearing his ACL of his landing leg, he was supposed to be done for the year. He promised he wasn’t, and delivered on that promise. Simply incredible. His subsequent domination was equally incredible. His immediate positive effect on his teammates was apparent. But the coming back bit is only a part of what makes Stroman special: at 5”8, he was never expected to be able to pitch effectively in the Major Leagues. I can identify with that. That’s why his hashtag #HDMH, standing for Height Doesn’t Measure Heart, resonates with me. The makeup of an athlete should never be measured in inches. Thank you for that reminder, Stro.

Ryan Goins also had a transformative 2015. Goins was on the bench for the first part of the year behind Devon Travis, and may well be again next year. Before making adjustments to his batting stance, he was next to useless at the plate. But while riding the pine, he rebuilt his swing and his approach. When Travis went down for good with a collarbone injury, Goins seized the opportunity. His walk rate and pitches-per-at-bat both soared, as did his hard contact ratios. He showed that a willingness to make changes may not pay off short-term but may help you succeed long-term. Combined with his consistently deft glovework, which literally saved Game 5 of the ALDS along with other games along the way, Goins was another unlikely positive story for the 2015 Jays. Plus, he scripted a fantastic story of redemption after missing the pop-up in Game 2 of the ALCS and responding with a monster Game 3. That’s character.

Next there was Aaron Sanchez. Sanchez began the year as a starter for the Jays, where he looked to continue a successful conversion into that role after dominantly closing games for the Blue Jays in 2014. After struggling mightily in his first few starts of the year, Sanchez started getting into a groove by locating his sinker much better in his next few starts. Then, on June 14, Sanchez was suddenly placed on the disabled list due to a lat strain. When he returned, he was initially disappointed to find out that he would be returning to the bullpen. But he wouldn’t stay disappointed for long, as he settled into the 8^th inning behind Osuna and rode out the rest of the season mowing down right-handed hitters with a near-unhittable sinker. He continued this dominance into the playoffs and gained invaluable experience for next year, when he will likely return to the starting rotation.

Brett Cecil also provided a comeback story of his own this year. After Miguel Castro melted down by mid-April, Cecil was pegged to fill the gap. He failed miserably. He was unable to locate his fastball early in counts, looking nervous while trying to do so. He couldn’t throw his curveball for strikes either. His walk rate was atrocious and he was getting hit hard. After getting banished to low-leverage situations for May, Cecil turned a corner in June and would go on to set the franchise record for consecutive scoreless innings. He became nearly unhittable, and provided one of the most exciting Moments of the season when he came in with the bases loaded against the Yankees in the 8^th inning of the first game of the season-defining September series and struck out the side – capped off by a nasty curveball to Alex Rodriguez. Although he tore his calf in the ALDS, Cecil’s contributions and tenacious bounce back to form shouldn’t be forgotten.

And finally, the unheralded Marco Estrada – the most important unsung hero of them all this year. Anthopoulos traded Adam Lind for Marco Estrada in November 2014, shortly after last season ended. At the time, Lind had one year left on his contract. At the end of 2014, he had been vocally displeased, along with others like Bautista and Casey Janssen, about the way the front office had stood pat at the Trade Deadline. Regardless, Lind was a power bat coming off a solid year. Meanwhile, we had no idea what we were getting back in Estrada. He did not make the starting rotation out of spring training. He was destined to be the forgotten long man in the bullpen.

But then he got his chance to start, and did he ever run with it. What we ended up getting in Estrada was the golden thread of the Jays success this year. Yes, he was that important. If you look at any point of the season – seriously, any point – you can identify where Estrada made a positive impact on the team with his steady, gutsy performances. Twice this year he almost threw the first Blue Jays no hitter since Dave Stieb in 1990. Many more times he stopped a losing streak, kept a winning streak going, or delivered a quality start when the team needed it. And throughout, he maintained a consistent attitude that all he wanted to do was be a team player and help the Jays win in whatever way he could. Then, he single-handedly staved off playoff elimination twice, first in Game 3 of the ALDS and then in Game 5 of the ALCS when he delivered the franchise’s best postseason pitching performance of all time.

Moving Forward

It will be hard to top the unbelievable gift we received as fans during 2015. The front office has its work cut out to blueprint an effective starting rotation. The Jays are losing David Price, Mark Buerhle, and Marco Estrada to free agency. Dickey, who will be 41 next year, has a club option for one more year. Even if Sanchez and Osuna both move into the starting rotation, gaps remain. Nobody knows what will happen to the shambling husk of Drew Hutchison, whose psyche no doubt suffered death by a thousand cuts this season. There are no certainties there. So, the Jays need to find reinforcements for the rotation via trade or free agency.

The Jays will also be looking for bounce back years from Michael Saunders (injury) and Dalton Pompey (overall struggles), which could very well lead to an overcrowded outfield. I would not be surprised if outfielders were traded for pitching in the offseason, dealing from an area of strength.

Then there is the uncomfortable reality of dealing with the future of the franchise cornerstones. Although Donaldson and Tulo both have multiple years of control remaining (Donaldson much more cheaply, as he is still arbitration-eligible), both Bautista and Encarnacion will be entering their last contract year before free agency. The team will have to consider some tough questions about where to allocate the dollars, as keeping both is highly unlikely. Joey Bats is 34; EE is 32. Do you choose relative youth over what Bats has done this postseason? Their track records will be hard to decide between. But this remains a good problem to have, and regardless, we’re set up well for 2016.

Finally, I want to personally thank everyone who helped me cheer for the Blue Jays in 2015: my family, friends, co-workers, colleagues, clients, and complete strangers. It’s been awesome to feel supported and validated, and not feel ashamed to call myself a Jays fan or post “BUSH PARTY!” all over the place on social media. It’s been undoubtedly stressful yet immensely rewarding to invest myself emotionally into a sporting revival across the country that may never truly re-occur, as I hope against hope that we never have to suffer such a long drought again.

And, you know, I’m definitely glad I didn’t post anything on May 31. It was well worth the wait.

I have no excuse.

I need to start writing in this blog again! That is all.

Declining PC Sales - A factor of the economy, shifting demand, or both?

Fading sales

PC shipments: 257 million units expected in 2009, down 11.9 percent

Previous biggest drop: 3.2 percent in 2001, after dot-com crash

Semiconductor sales: Dropped in January to $15.3 billion, down 28.6 percent year over year and 11.9 percent from December

Mobile phone sales: Dropped in fourth quarter, but rose overall in 2008

Source: Gartner and Semiconductor Industry Association

These stats give you an idea why Intel is currently in the process of massive layoffs, and major players in the industry including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Dell all saw steep declines in stock prices. This downturn will affect emerging markets, where technology companies live on the edge to survive. Without the growth in emerging markets we may be looking at slowed R&D for these companies, meaning slower technical advancements, meaning less fun for consumers and less growth for businesses alike. BAD!

Although, once again, this industry is probably just acting as a microcosm of the entire economy right now, so it's tough to say if the downturn is a sign of permanent market shift away from the PC model, or is just going through the trough of a regular cyclical model. Another theory to explain it off is that people are holding on to their current hardware longer because electronics are being considered "luxury" items and are probably taking a backseat to slightly more important things like food and shelter (damn you, stomach! I don't need you anyway).

Check out the full picture at this San Francisco Chronicle article.

Word of the Day!

in⋅cre⋅du⋅li⋅ty [in-kri-doo-li-tee, -dyoo-]
–noun
The quality or state of being incredulous; inability or unwillingness to believe.
Origin:
1400–50; late ME incredulite < L incrēdulitās. See incredulous, -ity

Synonyms:
disbelief, skepticism, doubt.

Antonyms:
faith.

Beard, Beard, Beard.

While talking about growing my "proposal beard" for the current stretch we are in at work, my buddy showed me this video which goes a little further to dissect the power of the beard:



Since I definitely want to rehearse my battle with the universe (you'd be foolish not to), I'll keep my beard until the bitter end of this proposal submission!

University Degrees - Do they still hold the same value?

This topic stems from an article written on Cbc.ca by Heather Mallick discussing the validity of a university degree. She's basically arguing that because everyone nowadays is walking around with a degree and employers are seeing it as a "first-step" it is just a tax-saving money sink for the institutions and governments involved, with relatively little benefit to the student. Essentially, she believes universities should go back to only providing education to the top tier students who show considerable aptitude, instead of accepting students with lower standards and dragging them along for at least for years while the student doesn't even know what he/she wants to do.

I'll start by saying that without trying to be elitist, I do agree with some of the basic points put forward by Mallick. First of all, we all know there is a significant percentage of people in university who just shouldn't be - usually with the help of parental coercion. Stuff like, "you have to do it", "you won't get a job otherwise" or "I saved for years to get you in" are common things to hear. So, trimming out the people who don't want to in the first place would be a good step. That bumps up the value of a degree a little bit.

Secondly, I think many universities DO currently accept people with lower than acceptable marks. I seriously think that if you aren't trying in high school, chances are you're not going to magically turn it around in university. It's a waste of time for all parties involved, and if you do scrape through, congrats, you've just devalued your degree for everyone else. You've probably found the "academic system" itself to be boring, and there are many other things that could make you just as much money that you would be much more interested in: specialized trades, armed forces, peripheral professional services, colleges, sports, music, film, writing, etc, etc, etc.

But, one thing I will argue with is the value of the experience. Over a 4 year period in university, you learn a lot about yourself in a lot of different ways. No matter what, you're probably going to grow in a bunch of different ways, and in ways you'd never expect. This is one of the greatest values of a degree - it has personal meaning and it's a salute to yourself that you've achieved growth. So basically, even if its extrinsic value is declining because everyone is getting one and it's seen as a necessity in most of today's job market, it still has intrinsic value and provides confidence for people moving forward in life.

So in the end, although a lot of deserving people are having to go further academically to differentiate themselves from the pack, making university degrees generally achievable is probably a boost to the morale of people as a whole. And I'm all for that.

My false hope is already waning....

Wells out with hamstring strain - Center fielder expected to miss one month after reaggravating injury.

The Blue Jays have experienced life without Vernon Wells before, and the club is preparing for precisely that once again this spring. Toronto's center fielder suffered a strained left hamstring during a workout on Monday, and he is expected to be sidelined at least one month.

Read on at bluejays.com

Are you a fan of movie butter?

I heard a ridiculous stat a few months ago from a friend that a tablespoon of movie butter had about 50 grams of fat. I was like, "50 GRAMS?!?! That's the near-equivalent of two Big Macs!"

In fact, mathmatically speaking, it's
x= Big Mac
y= 1 Tbsp. Movie Butter

y=2x-1

For those who question the constant, don't. It's there because I want it to be. Makes it look professional.

Anyway, there's more to the story than you think. Apparently even the popcorn itself is tainted! I'm not sure I even wanted to know that. And it's not only theatre popcorn, but microwave popcorn as well. Here's an excerpt:

The popcorn you find at the movie theater and in microwave boxes is likely to have been raised with the aid of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides, and fumigants. For a less-than-soothing bedtime read on this delightful subject, download the Popcorn Agri Chemical Handbook. This chemo-phobe's horror story includes a section on "tolerances" -- that is, details on just how much pesticide the EPA will accept in your movie-time snack. If you don't have time to curl up with this PDF, let me cut to the chase: The list of acceptable chemical residues is long and includes malathion, a nasty organophosphate.

To make things worse:

You know the fake but yummy buttery smell that wafts out of microwave popcorn bags? Until very recently, it was due to a flavoring agent, diacetyl, which causes the serious, potentially deadly, and ignobly-nicknamed disease popcorn lung, that has sickened factory workers who inhaled the stuff. After popcorn lung sickened a consumer -- a Colorado man who ate a whole lot of microwave popcorn -- many big popcorn makers pulled it from their products. Despite pressure from lung doctors, public interest groups, citizens, unions, politicians, and so forth, the FDA still classifies diacetyl, as "Generally Recognized as Safe" (GRAS). California, meanwhile, is trying to ban it.

Read the full article here.

Meanwhile, I'm going to go brainstorm for another decent movie snack. Anyone have any ideas?

A quick synopsis of Friday the 13th

*Spoilers*

I found this funny as I was reading the user reviews for the new Jason remake (Friday the 13th). I guess what do you really expect? This review was done by Tom Foolery on IMDB.

In fact this movie raised nothing but questions. Who killed Mrs. Voorhees? What ever happened to her? Why did Jason miraculously come back from the dead? Why was his body still intact after all those years in the lake? Why does Jason wear a mask? How did he keep the rats from eating his mother's head? Why did the local cops not bother investigating anything? How did Jason learn to hook up electricity to his camp? Why didn't the power company notice nobody's paying the electric bill for an abandoned summer camp? Why would Jason keep some girl chained up in his basement? Why do all the locals of Crystal Lake appear to have come from Texas? Why did they bother doing makeup for Jason when they show his face for maybe two frames of the whole movie? Why does Jason pop out of the lake at the end with his mask on? What were they thinking? Why did I see this miserable attempt to remake a great movie? Why am I wasting more time on a bad review? Why are you still reading?

All in all, a terrible movie.

"I am better than your kids"

Introducing "The Shitmobile"

*Warning* This contains some serious kid bashing, but I owe you a dollar if you don't laugh while reading it, enjoy the captions:

Kids Art 1

Don't forget to click to Part 2:

Kids Art 2