Our favorite professional sports franchise, the Toronto Blue Jays, have made a horrid mess of the 2007 season already, with many more games left to play. Last night, they defeated the visitors from Tampa Bay, finally snapping a 9 game losing skid. Nevertheless, with injuries to Doc, BJ, Zauny and others, they are truly toast, and will be lucky to avoid last place. The sad thing is, the Blue Jays had such great expectations this year, and there was a level of giddy excitement and hope swirling around the confines of the Rogers Center that was unseen for several years previously.
But we should embrace the heady thrill of total incompetence. You see, for years now, the Jays have played at the level of boring mediocrity, flirting with the playoffs for a while, then losing enough games to fall out of the race by late summer, then winning some meaningless games in September to give hope for the next year. But the teams of recent times never seem to get people talking. They plow through the long schedule like a slow-moving ox, without any style or panache, ever the also-ran.
Although losing lacks flair, losing really badly is a whole other story. Extreme ineptitude is sexy, and makes people sit up and take notice. For instance, the 2003 Detroit Tigers went 43-119. That was one of the worst seasons in big league history. We remember this, even more so than who actually won the World Series that year (the Florida Marline, f.y.i.) There is a sublime beauty to excessive lack of skill, be it in the workplace or on the sporting fields of dreams.
For the first time in a long time, the City of Toronto is abuzz about its baseball team. Alas, it would be better if this was a result of victories, but there ain't no such thing as bad publicity. All around town, you hear people bemoan the sorry state of the local baseballers. And when the announcement came yesterday that the pillar of the team, Roy Halladay, had come down with acute appendicitis and would be out of the lineup for at least 6 weeks, the theme for 2007 was at last cast once and for all. This is a team of lovable losers who just can't get a break. A professional, adult version of the Bad News Bears. The second coming of the Mets of the early 1960s, who were said to be "icons of athletic incompetence". People still talk about those teams, but who remembers the 1962 White Sox, say, or the 2002 Blue Jays? You see, extreme poor play trumps just average performance in the hearts and minds of fandom, every time. So to the Bloo Jays of '07-- let's play ball!
Sadly I missed the Jays trip to the North Coast - what with the Tribe being a good team this year, it could have been fun.
Posted by: northCoaster | May 24, 2007 at 12:51 PM