Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Working Full Time



One of the things I'm loving about this '09 Jays team (and there's a lot to love) is the fact that they play all the time. Last year it felt like 8 guys would wait around for another guy to start something. This year? This year everybody's been startin' something, old dogs and young lions alike. First pitch to last of the ninth (or extras, as is the case tonight), they play. Even the bench has been there; that catch Millar just made in the tenth? Huge.

One of the talking smirks on TSN's morning highlight loop said something like "People are breaking their arms hopping on the Jays bandwagon." What the what? How are arms even involved there? What's a bandwagon look like? Does it have high sides that you need to use your arms to vault over? I always kind of thought it was more like a haywagon, i.e. just a flatbed sort of deal. In that case, you'd really just need to do one of those things where you make a little hop and then turn your ass in midair, thereby landing in a seated position, no arms necessary. Maybe I'm wrong about that.

At any rate, my point is: that's stupid. People are right to be pleasantly surprised (so far) by this team's record. Surprised and pleased. Ain't a damn thing wrong with that. People enjoy watching good baseball, and right about now the Jays are playing real good baseball. When you watch games like these, you talk about it.

I'm not saying that when the Jays hit one of their inevitable rough patches that folks won't go right back to ignoring them, and I reserve the right to be annoyed by the prevailing air of fickleness. 'Sides, the NHL playoffs start tomorrow, so even if Lind and Snider continue to rake at bonkers rates, the JV rotation strikes our every batter they face from now 'til Victoria Day, and "Canada's team" racks up a crazy AL East lead that they never relinquish, the whole package will be buried behind hockey highlights or at the back of the classified section, right next to Family Circus. We northern baseball fans are strangers in a strange land. Deal with it, and enjoy watching this team right now, whether or not the softbellies at the watercooler are paying attention.


Elsewhere!

  • Sad to hear of Harry Kalas' death. I remember him most vividly as the voice of NFL Films, which I used to watch on Sunday mornings before the day's games began. His was the perfect voice to lend an appropriate sense of gravity, drama and import to sport. In recent years I was always happy to have the chance to tune into a Phils game on MLB Audio, just to hear him do what he did best. Kalas died in the booth, doing what he loved. We should all be so lucky.
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1 comment:

Drew said...

The Jays at the top of the sportscast reminds me of my favorite Constantine's cover:

It's just a temporary thing

April 14, 2009 at 10:29 PM

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