in a nutshell is proud to have Kacie Hollins, host of Sportsnet’s Digital Dose and Digital Content Editor, take the reporting reigns today and give us her two cents on one of the biggest sporting events in the Big Smoke, and the country: the Toronto Blue Jays home opener. Although it didn’t play out exactly how we hoped last week, the sports guru took the time to reassure us about our beloved boys and what’s in store for them. Thanks, Kacie!
For sports fans in North America, spring hasn’t officially arrived until the first pitch of the MLB season is thrown.
Opening Day signals the end of spring training, the start of a new season and the transition from winter – think hockey, curling, figure skating… anything involving ice – to warm summer months when sports can be enjoyed outdoors.
All of that anticipation can easily feel anticlimactic if the team doesn’t perform and, unfortunately, Jays fans were treated to less-than-stellar results during Opening Week.
Expectations were at an all time high heading into spring training – Vegas gave Toronto the best odds of winning the World Series at 8:1 – after a total roster revamp during the off-season.
I was only a toddler when the Jays won the World Series in 1992 and 1993, but many coworkers and friends that lived here during that time have told me that the atmosphere in the city feels the exact same. Toronto hasn’t been this excited about its baseball team in decades.
The Jays traded for big name pitchers like Josh Johnson, Mark Buerhle and knuckleballer R.A. Dickey and added power at the plate and on defence with Jose Reyes and Melky Cabrera.
With all of those fancy imports – in addition to the names everyone knows and loves like catcher J.P. Arencibia, American league homerun leader Jose Bautista and Canadian boy Brett Lawrie – fans were expecting big things the first week. The team didn’t deliver.
In Tuesday’s home opener, Dickey (who won the award for best pitcher in the National League last year) was lukewarm and Arencibia (who was charged with catching his unpredictable knuckleball pitches) struggled mightily. He made several errors, allowing Cleveland to score a few runs early and put the Jays in a hole they would never recover from.
On Friday, the Blue Jays’ old manager John Farrell, returned with the Boston Red Sox. The team and fans alike were itching to stick it to the man that many believe abandoned the team. Unfortunately for the Jays, the Red Sox would be the ones with the last laugh.
Toronto’s series with Boston ended with a 13-0 embarrassment, and all in all, the Jays only managed two wins in the first week. Not the electrifying start everyone was hoping for.
Fortunately, most of us have managed to stifle our cynicism long enough to give the team a chance to find their groove. In a city so desperate for a winner – the Jays haven’t made the playoffs since I was four years old – sometimes we have a tendency to place enormous expectations on teams and proceed to rip them apart when they don’t meet them.
Even though you could argue that the Jays are one of the best teams (on paper) in the league, it’s important to remember the season is early. Like, zygote early. There’s still plenty of time left for them to get above .500, dominate the other leading teams in the AL and, yes, even win the World Series.
So go ahead and buy a cute jersey and hat and continue to cheers the boys in blue with your tall cans. If the enormous pressure of playing in the city eases a bit, the Jays could very well earn the ticker tape parade we all started planning last summer.
Thanks, Kacie!
Recent Comments