By Stephen Johns

Apparently the road connecting the Centres Rogers and Air Canada isn’t merely physical, but symbolic as well. In the last two weeks, the Toronto Blue Jays, who’ve barely been a factor in this year’s playoff race, have been rather impressive. How impressive? Toronto’s recent ten-game winning streak was the second-longest in team history. The Leafs, bless ‘em, have pulled a similar stunt in each of the last three years—but whereas the Leafs’ late-season surges seemed counterproductive (draft picks!), the Blue Jays’ run might actually lead them somewhere. Eventually, anyway.
The winning streak was certainly fun while it lasted. Steve Phillips of ESPN warned against getting too worked up over a late-season surge like Toronto’s—but then pointed out that the Jays weren’t exactly beating up on bad teams. On the contrary, their ten-game winning streak encompassed two division leaders, a second-place team, and the always-dangerous New York Yankees. What’s more, the Blue Jays weren’t just winning: they were crushing teams. Their hitting, dormant for so much of the year, came alive; their pitching, which has been outstanding since Day One, was its usual excellent self. Things were going so well the team was actually rallying to win games, something they’ve been remarkably poor at doing this year. The stirring 7-4 win against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, which culminated in a Gregg Zaun walk-off grand slam, would never have happened earlier this season. (Either J.P. Ricciardi isn’t completely clueless or Cito Gaston is a god; we leave it to you to decide.)
This year’s playoffs are still a pipe dream: Toronto would more-or-less need to win out in order to stand a chance, and even then nothing would be guaranteed. (And having said that: tonight, they play the first of four against the Wild Card leading Boston Red Sox. If—big if—they manage a sweep, they’ll actually be in the thick of things heading into the final two weeks. We refuse to let ourselves get too excited just yet…but that’s subject to change pending results.) However, we stumbled across an article which has us looking forward to next season already. We’re Blue Jays baseball fans; living for next year has been second nature since 1993. We’re just not sure if “next year” ever started while the previous season was still in progress—and while the team was twelve games over .500 (and ahead of the Yankees, who are all but mathematically eliminated from postseason contention). Barring a miracle, 2008 will be considered another failure for Toronto; local scribes will, once again, make predictable jokes about Ricciardi’s “seven-year plan” and call for a major overhaul. But if a ten-game winning streak can’t get us excited about one of our favourite teams and promise better things down the road…well, what’s the point in cheering for them in the first place?
Photo by Justin Erdman from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.