A tip of the hat to the Toronto Blue Jays, who on Monday night clinched the top wild card spot in the American League, assuring the return of playoff baseball to Canada starting on Friday after an absence of six years.
In an era of often depressing news at home and abroad, the Jays have given Canadians a good news story and a welcome distraction from troubling times beset by inflation, Russia’s war on Ukraine, supply chain shortages caused by the pandemic and political divisions in our own country.
Sports can’t fix the world’s problems, but they can provide a welcome respite from them and the Jays are doing their part, playing their best baseball of the season in September and October.
A year to the day after they fell one heartbreaking win short of making the playoffs and a playoff run that ended almost as quickly as it began in the COVID-shortened 2020 season with two consecutive losses to the Rays in Tampa Bay, the Jays changed the script for themselves and their fans this year.
This time, they locked up the top spot in the wild card race with a cold, blustery, rain-shortened 5 to 1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards on Monday night, while the Detroit Tigers, hours later, upset the Seattle Mariners 4-3.
That means all three games the Jays will play against Seattle or Tampa Bay in a best two out of three series that starts the playoffs, will be in Toronto at the Rogers Centre on Friday, Saturday and, if necessary, Sunday.
This will be the first playoff baseball in Canada since 2016 and 2015 following the Jays’ glory years of 1992 and 1993 when they went all the way to become World Series champions.
Making the playoffs is hard enough — the Jays have done it eight times in their 45-year history — and this team is rightly proud of its accomplishment.
But a long playoff run this year would be celebrated across the country, just as the Toronto Raptors magical run to the NBA championship in 2019 turned them into Canada’s team.
What we know for certain is that a sold-out Rogers Centre will be rocking come Friday night. Go Jays!
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