There is a television ad airing right now that talks about the Toronto Blue Jays post season roster being 36 million strong, alluding of course to the idea all of Canada is behind the team.
I personally love the approach. The Jays should be a Canadian baseball fan’s first love, being the only team in Canada, and at present even having two Canadians. The duo of Russell Martin and Michael Saunders setting a record as the first teammate Canucks to each have 20 home runs.
So we should be jumping on the bandwagon, even if not generally a staunch baseball fan.
Certainly the team has been exasperating for fans this season.
After last year, when the Jays flirted with a World Series berth anything less than an ALCS spot this season would have been a failure in the minds of most given that the team is largely the same as it was in 2015.
But this year’s edition of the Jays has at times clanked along like a jalopy with a dirty carburetor and a flat tire.
In June, I was among those thinking that they needed to blow out the veterans and plan for a rebuild around good young arms on the mound. To this man the vets seemed to be going through the motions and little more.
Then the team went on a run, and they looked poised to win the always tough American League East.
But a brutal September took that expectation away. The Jays faltered to the point a wild card spot was in doubt until two end of the season wins secured Toronto home field in the one game playoff with Baltimore.
Those two key wins seemed to right the ship in TO though.
The Jays won the wild card with a dramatic walk-off home run by Edwin Encarnacion. It will be one of the remembered moments in the collective memory of the Jays’ fans.
Then the roller coaster ride which has been the Toronto Blue Jays this season hit a definite high point Sunday as they swept Texas out of the playoffs to advance to the American League Championship.
Against Texas the Jay bats were on fire, although in game three it required a wild pitch for the Jays to tie the game, and then a brutal throwing error by Rougned Odor, infamous for punching Jose Bautista in an altercation earlier this year, to score Josh Donaldson for the sweep.
Through the last two regular season games, and four playoff match-ups, everything has been working on the Jays. The bats are hitting home runs, which has been their long term approach to winning, the starting pitching giving them innings and generally the lead, and the bullpen while often maligned this season, is holding the line.
If the pieces hold a serious run at an ALCS title in the upcoming final should not be too much to expect, and would keep fans on the high side of the roller coaster ride.
The Jays starting pitching; JA Happ, Aaron Sanchez, Marco Estrada and Marcus Stroman, measure up well with any team, and while the bullpen has bent and broken a few too many times over the season, but so far have held steady.
Roberto Osuna, as the closer has done yeoman service in the last six games, tossing more innings than any last inning guy should be expected to, but he did it.
Since the season has been up and down, the team could falter and no one would be shocked, but there is a sense this team is poised for a World Series visit, and all of Canada should be happy with that.
And that brings me to the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
For the first time this season I am being impressed by what the franchise is doing under Chris Jones.
The team has won three in a row, and that placates fans a bit, but the wins are not impressing me nearly as much as the moves off the field.
The team signed Willie Jefferson, a 6-foot-6, 245-pound defensive end, who played for Jones in 2014 and 2015 with the Edmonton Eskimos. Jefferson signed with the NFL’s Washington Redskins in January and played three pre-season games with them before being released. He is already showing he will add some speed to the D-line rush, and in the pass-oriented CFL that is crucial.
Then Henoc Muamba came into the fold.
Muamba was the No. 1 pick in the 2011 CFL draft, by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He spent three seasons with Winnipeg and, in 2013, was named an East Division and CFL all-star.
The 6-foot-0, 230-pounder spent the 2014 season in the NFL after signing as a free agent with the Indianapolis Colts.
A couple of moves later and he is a ‘Rider.
Jones is known as a master of defence, and adding Jefferson and Muamba certainly give him some talented pieces to build with.
On offence receiver Jeff Fuller, 47 catches, 619 receiving yards, three touchdowns in 2015 with Calgary, is also now a Roughrider, after a try-out with Seattle down south.
Fuller gives Saskatchewan a very interesting receiving corps moving forward.
Naaman Roosevelt, currently on the six-game injured list, is a star, Caleb Holley has shown he is quite capable, and now Fuller will give Darian Durant a talented trip to throw to in 2017.
And now the Riders have traded international offensive tackle Xavier Fulton and national defensive end Justin Capicciotti to the Hamilton Tigers.
In return, the Riders received national defensive lineman Linden Gaydosh and international receiver Tommy Streeter and fourth- and seventh-round selections in the 2017 CFL draft.
Streeter hasn’t played a CFL game, but bounced around the NFL, so may be useful.
Gaydosh is another piece to what should eventually be a very sturdy defence, as is the reputation Jones has.
I had hoped for an 8-10 team this year, but fans are always overly optimistic. That said in 2017, I’d expect 11or12 wins from the Riders, or I will be disappointed far more than I am this season.
