A Weekend with the Toronto Blue Jays

I spent this past weekend in Toronto watching our Blue Jays in the final home series of the year. This year, I will not return in October for some playoff action. Sadly, the Toronto Blue Jays will not take part in the post-season. The past two years have been glorious and great fun to watch Canada’s Team return to the post-season after a long 22 year break.

It would likely be Jose Bautista’s last home games for the Toronto Blue Jays. The crowd cheered and chanted for Jose all weekend. I attended the Friday and Saturday games before I returned home to Edmonton. I did watch Sunday’s game and cheered along with 55,000 fans for Jose.

Originally I was sitting around first base in row 30ish. I decided to upgrade both seats and ended up situated three rows behind the Toronto Blue Jays dugout. I had a perfect vantage point for  both games and thoroughly enjoyed sitting that close. The only other time I sat closer was the last playoff game in 2016 when I was in row one near first base.

I spent both games just creeping on Bautista and Donaldson. Donaldson is my favourite Toronto Blue Jays’ player and Bautista is my second favourite.

Couple great game – the Blue Jays won the Friday game which included a grand slam from Ryan Goins and an excellent start from Estrada. That was fun! An 8-1 stomping of the idiotic New York Yankees. Saturday’s game was not quite as lucky with a 5-1 loss as Biagini had a tough start.

I did meet up with a friend who happened to be sitting right in front of me on Saturday’s game (not planned at all). We met in Russia at the Sochi Olympics through facebook groups prior to the games and ended up sitting in the same row at the Women’s hockey gold game.

I have bought my game pack for next season already. I will return to watch my Toronto Blue Jays at the end of March. This off-season will be interesting: Estrada just signed a one year deal, Bautista is likely gone, and Donaldson returns is my bet. They can’t trade their MVP. Now if things are looking dire in July, that is a conversation to be had. One can argue it is something the Toronto Blue Jays should consider now but I cannot think straight when it comes to Donaldson. I want him on this team.

What other changes happen this off-season? Hernandez has looked very good since his September call-up. He needs work in the outfield but there appears to be a player there. We need the whole team to rebound next year and for the love of baseball, STAY HEALTHY. The team missed Donaldson for a big chunk of the early season, Tulo has been MIA for some time, Sanchez basically missed the whole year with his damn nail/finger issue, Martin was lost for stretches, and on it went.

The StroShow has been dynamite for the Toronto Blue Jays, but we need other pitchers to up their game. Estrada has found his form and Happ is looking quite good of late. We’ll need them to show better consistency next year to compete with the evil Boston/New York teams that can throw hundreds of millions to their salary while the Jays’ ownership is not willing to do so.

Fans across the country continue invested in this team: this past weekend the Toronto Blue Jays games garnered the highest television ratings. We are still all in. Next year, let’s get back to the post-season.