The Sights and Sounds of Summer are Here: Baseball is back

(Photo via @BlueJays)
Now it's time for some baseball. The greatest sport of them all.

The bleachers have emptied; confetti cleared off the Superdome floor. The lights have been turned off (for real this time) on the football season for another year. This means one thing: baseball is coming back, and earlier than anticipated.

Sure, snow may still be on the ground here in the city, and we're still below zero, but it's not stopping us from getting excited about seeing the summer sport make a return. But down in Florida and Arizona, teams are gearing up for an early start to Spring Training because of the World Baseball Classic next month and while all teams don't actually start playing Spring Training games until late February, in a week's time, it will be the first time this year the players meet their teammates.

For baseball fans, like myself, it has been a long and eventful winter. Three months of free agent signings, trades and retirements. We stuffed our brains full of reading stats, articles and player highlights. And now, it's about to pay off. Being a Jays fan myself, it's finally time to ask those questions that were raised when Toronto started making big moves last November. Will Bautista stay away from injuries? Will R.A. Dickey continue to exceed expectations? How will the Jays do this year, now that they're guaranteed a run for the post-season?

Sure the American League East has always been a tough competition for the Blue Jays, but the Red Sox were showing signs of struggle last September. Young teams like the Orioles and Rays were leading the chase. And the Yankees, well, they're the Yankees. And without some of the team's top players, it was tough for Blue Jays fans to watch the remainder of the season. But nothing prepared them for what was about to happen in the off-season.

Alex Aanthopoulos, the Blue Jays GM, made a statement in early November to the league and to the entire nation of baseball when he traded away to get Miami's best. Shortly after, he locked up 2012 Home Run Derby champion Melky Cabrera. Allegations aside - the player can hit. Not too long after, the Jays made another impact by trading and signing 38-year-old Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey. In a baseball analyst's mind, the Blue Jays did what they needed to do, but will it mean something big for Canada's only MLB team?

These questions and more can only be answered once the regular season begins in April.

After the final touches were made, early reports suggested the Blue Jays were going to see their first post season in over a decade. With the lights shining brightly on them for the season, only time will tell if the Blue Jays can out match some of their American League contenders.

If you're like me, you're already eating Cracker Jacks and fantasizing about warm nights, cold drinks and great memories. Baseball is ready to kick it up a notch and so am I!

-Drew

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Oh, to own the Olympic podium again ...

Image
Congratulations, Canada’s Olympic team! You just followed up your country’s greatest sporting moment, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, by finishing tied with Uganda, Uzbekistan and Grenada in the gold-medal count at the 2012 London Games !  The greatest reality show in history closed yesterday  with all the drama one could imagine. (I really hope they book it for another season). Canada at this Olympics did itself proud in winning medals with humility and losing medals with grace. But here's the thing. Canada would never amount to much knowing we don't have the same advantage as we do in the Winter Olympics. The summer Olympics has a lot more competition and makes it a little harder to qualify knowing we're not on snow or ice. The fact that we won more bronze is a bit heart breaking, but we can certainly do better than one gold. If Canada stays committed to the cause of building a better elite-sport infrastructure in the four years until the Rio Olympics , the likes...
Read more

Blue Jays: The Worst Start in Franchise History

Image
Photo: MARK BLINCH/THE GLOBE AND MAIL HAVE U TRIED UNPLUGGING THE TEAM AND PLUGGING THEM BACK IN @bluejays — Emily (@emilydawnlove) April 15, 2017 36-11. That was the Texas Rangers’ record in one-run games last year. Now look at the Blue Jays. With the exception of one or two games, they have had the winning or tying run at the plate in the 9th inning during every loss this season. They’ve made the best reliever in baseball sweat more than any team did during all of last season. Yet they’re 1-9 to start the year. No one could have predicted this. A team who is coming off of back to back ALCS appearances, who had sky high expectations have now lost 7 games in a row to start the season, and the only team in the MLB without two wins. The Jays start to the season is the worst in franchise history and although it is still very early, the Jays will need to stir together some wins soon, or it may be a long season. The start to the season is a huge shock, they started off by g...
Read more

Give Me The Cutter, Good Doctor

Image
(Image via MLB) You never forget the players that made you fall in love with the game. It's a sad day for baseball, and for the Toronto Blue Jays, and his fans. More importantly though, he was a husband and father. As much as we will miss him, it pales in comparison to the loss his family has suffered. He pitched for the Jays during so many losing seasons but remained a role model to so many of us. Roy Halladay had a 203-105 career record. He went at least seven innings in 40 of those losses and had fifteen career complete game losses. A true professional. He left Toronto after giving us everything he had. He has left this life with so much more to give. I know the Jays were waiting for him to appear on the Hall of Fame ballot to see if he got elected (and therefore retire his number), but I have to assume they'll put him on the Level of Excellence and retire his jersey number this season. Halladay was the lone bright spot for me when I first started watchi...
Read more