Guest Post: The Jose Bautista Bomb Festival

On September 17th, Jose Bautista made Toronto Blue Jays history. His 48th home run of the season cleared Fenway Park's Green Monster, and along with it went George Bell's 23-year-old team record. I was live blogging that night's Jays and Red Sox affair for The Score and, in the aftermath of Bautista's heroics, a comment by avid basketball and Toronto Raptors fan Scott Carefoot stuck with me: "How sweet was the J-Bomb? I missed it. Can't wait to watch the highlight. He might be my favourite Jay of All-Time."

It got me thinking: How many others are there? How many others have been drawn to baseball, and the Toronto Blue Jays, because of Jose Bautista's magical season? I'd found one, and I wanted to hear his story.

You know Mr. Carefoot from The Basketball Jones, and the Raptors blog that started them all, RaptorBlog. Without further adieu, here he is, a basketball head blogging about the Blue Jays, the legend that is Jose Bautista, and why he just might give a damn about this team again ...

If you know me, if you’ve read me at RaptorBlog.com since 2002 or on theScore.com since 2008, you know me as a diehard NBA fan, and that assessment is absolutely true. I won’t say that I live or die for the Raptors or NBA basketball, but it’s the sport I find most compelling and most entertaining. Even during the off-season, I pay more attention to what’s going on with NBA trades, free agents and mock drafts than I do to sports that are actually being played – including entire Major League Baseball seasons.

It wasn’t always this way. I used to be a baseball fan a long time ago but the passion faded. You might think the steroid era had something to do with that, but you would be mistaken. My focus shifted away from sports in general when I went to university in 1994 (the year after the Jays won their second World Series) and I actually started having real girlfriends and an active social life. Toronto got the Raptors in 1995 and I was intrigued, but that intrigue didn’t blossom into an obsession until after I graduated in 1999 and moved in with my girlfriend (now my wife). Vinsanity was in full effect and I was hooked – I never missed a Raptors game and I still don’t. Well, I won’t if I can get Sportsnet One in Oakville before November.

Over the past 15 years, the Jays didn’t give me many reasons to reignite the flame of fandom. There were some interesting players that came and went – Clemens, Delgado, Halladay – but none of them excited me like Vince Carter and the fact that the Jays appeared doomed to never again overcome the mighty Yankees and Red Sox made rooting for them seem pointless. I understand that makes me sound like a fair-weather fan, but I’m only being honest here. I really haven’t cared about the Jays that much for most of the second half of my life.

It was different when I was a kid. I was born in 1975 in Brantford, Ontario so it’s only natural that my first sports love was Brantford’s own Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers. I watched the 1983 Stanley Cup Finals with my dad and he told me that he had an obnoxious co-worker who rooted for the Islanders so we both had extra motivation to root for The Great One. Edmonton was swept that year but exacted sweet revenge over the Islanders the following year.

I guess you could say I was like any good Canadian boy in that hockey was my primary sports passion, but in the summer and fall months my attention turned to the Blue Jays. My first favorite Jay was none other than Damaso Garcia, and I’ll be damned if I can remember why I picked him. Ivan Lendl used to be my favorite tennis player and Amir Johnson is my current favorite Raptor, so I guess you could say I’ve had eclectic taste in sports idols over the years.

Those Jays in the early to mid-80s were chock-full of interesting characters – Ernie Whitt’s swing that dropped his knee to the dirt, Tony Fernandez’s poetry in motion at shortstop, the incomparable outfield of Bell, Moseby and Barfield, Damaso burning his uniform… yeah, I wasn’t so much of a Damaso fan after that. But those Jays were fun to root for and they were pretty damn good, too.

I was in SkyDome in 1991 on the day when the Jays broke the 4 million attendance mark – they handed out these shitty t-shirts to commemorate the event and I think mine disintegrated after a few washes – and they clinched the AL East division title. It remains the most exciting sporting event I’ve ever attended. The following year, the Jays won their first of back-to-back World Series and by that point every Canadian was a Jays fan. I had reached my apex as a baseball fan, and then I went off to school.

But I’m repeating myself. These days, my life is devoted to family, work and the NBA. The Jays were expected by most objective baseball fans (you know, the ones who don’t use multiple exclamation points when describing a particular team) to be a shitshow this year in their first post-Halladay season. I fully expected all of my sports attention to be directed towards LeBron James, Chris Bosh and the three-ring circus of this summer’s NBA free agency period. That certainly didn’t disappoint in terms of drama, although the climax left a bitter taste in my mouth, to say the least.

I’m not sure exactly when I started to pay attention to The Jose Bautista Bomb Festival this season, but I have no doubt that Mr. Vaswani – as the Jays’ best hype-man – played a role in bringing it to my attention. Who the hell was this guy? Where did he come from? What kind of steroids was he on? I didn’t know the answers to these questions and I didn’t much care. It was kind of fun to see a Blue Jay on top of the American League home run standings again. Jealous fans and certain idiot columnists protested that Bautista was surely hopped up on goofballs of some sort, but fuck ‘em. Haters gonna hate, right?

As the baseball season drew on, “Bautista-watch 2010” turned from fun to surreal. Was this guy really going to hit 40 home runs? Was he actually going to break George Bell’s team record? Holy shit – is he going to hit 50 dingers? Yep, yep, and you’re damn right.

And so here I am, by request, writing about how the Jays seem relevant to me again because of the magical season of Jose Bautista. Thanks to him, I’m now aware of the Jays’ promising young pitching staff and of the distinctive sound the ball makes coming off Travis Snider’s bat. I’m still not convinced they’ll ever be able to make the playoffs while they’re stuck in the same division as the Yankees, Red Sox and now the freakin’ Rays! But as I’m sure Navin will agree, the fact that the odds are so stacked against them will make it that much sweeter on that fateful day when I’ll sign into my Twitter account specifically to type “RT @eyebleaf PLAYOFFS!!!!!!!!!!11111”

Image courtesy of Getty Images via daylife.

Podcast, Please

Are you excited about Toronto Blue Jays baseball yet? You should be. I am. So much so that I woke up early Wednesday morning, did some homework, and talked baseball with Stephen Amell over at Searching for '93.

My good friend Stephen was looking for some reasons to justify renewing his Jays' season ticket package, and graciously invited me to join him on his second podcast (his first podcast featured Toronto's favourite sports writer, Dave Feschuk). 

Now, I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty sure I delivered. I mean, it's what I do.

Here's another link to the podcast. We're talking Blue Jays baseball, the origins of "eyebleaf" and Sports And The City, and some Toronto Maple Leafs hockey, or whatever it is the Leafs play these days. Have a listen. I'd love to know your thoughts. My segment gets going around the 35:00 mark.

And make sure you spend some time over at Searching for '93. Stephen's relatively new to the Toronto blogging scene, but he's already making his mark. He sheds a lot of light on the Toronto Raptors, whom I've managed to completely and disrespectfully ignore for the past month or so. He hates Jamario Moon, is coming around on my man Andrea Bargnani, and loves to get under the skin of RaptorBlog's Scott Carefoot. 

He's also working on lining up some huge guests for his podcasts. Obviously, he's going to have a tough go at getting a bigger guest than yours truly.

Yeah, right.

Maybe It's For The Best...

I was planning on watching the Toronto Raptors game get spanked by the Houston Rockets tonight. The game, however, is being broadcast on TSN2.

As you're probably aware of by now, well-paying Rogers Cable customers like myself don't get TSN2. Can't get TSN2. So, I won't be watching Raptors basketball tonight.

A lot of people have voiced their displeasure with this whole Raptors, Rogers and TSN2 fiasco. Twenty eight percent of Raptors games are being carried on a network that Rogers Cable refuses to pick up. That's a substantial amount. There was even a protest a few days ago at the Rogers offices by, obviously, a very dedicated group of Raptors fans.

Which brings me to my point. Maybe it's a good thing Rogers Cable isn't picking up TSN2. Maybe the honest, hard-working folks down at Rogers Cable are finally, after taking so much of our hard-earned dollars, doing us a solid. Maybe, just maybe, not watching the sinking Raptors is a good thing.

Think about it. Do you really want to watch the Raptors blow another lead? Do you want to continue to pull your hair out over the fact that this team cannot rebound the God damn basketball, at either end of the floor? Do you really want to watch Will Soloman back up Jose Calderon at the point, while Roko Ukic sits on the bench? Do you want to watch Andrea Bargnani shoot 40.6% from the field? Do you really want to see Jermaine O'Neal back on the bench in street clothes because of his 67-year-old knee?

The Toronto Raptors are what they are, and that's a shitty basketball team. Scott Carefoot of RaptorBlog.com has, not surprisingly, thrown in the towel on the season. And there's still 50 games to play.

2008 was a tough year for the Raps. There's no reason to believe that 2009 is going to be any better.

One of my resolutions this year is to try and find the positive side of every situation. In that respect, Rogers' decision to not pick up TSN2 is good for my overall health, especially my blood pressure. Oh, and my kidneys and liver. After all, the less Raptors action I watch, the less alcohol I consume. 

I won't be watching the Raptors this evening. My Friday night will likely be more enjoyable as a result.

Thanks Rogers, I guess.

*UPDATE* 

The Raptors, of course, kicked ass, pounding the Rockets 94-73. Bargnani was huge, and the team built on a 10-point halftime lead instead of squandering it. Even Will Soloman contributed off the bench for an injured Jose Calderon.

Man, I wish I could have watched the game.

Thanks for nothing, Rogers.

We Finally Got A...

It's true. It's official. We've "sold out." Advertisements are now a part of your Sports And The City experience.

Let me tell you, it wasn't about the best offer on the table. It was about the only offer on the table.

In all seriousness, I'm proud to announce that Sports And The City is the newest member of the Sports Federation, TheScore.com's new network of sports bloggers.

It's an honour. 

I mean, the first thing I did when I received the email from TheScore was run upstairs from the basement and tell my mom the good news. She was ecstatic.

You'll notice a new header at the top of the page, along with a drop down menu to the other sites in the Federation. Some of them we know very well - Ghostrunner on First, RaptorBlog, Down Goes Brown, and Drunk Jays Fans - and others you should get to know, much like I am. 

TheScore.com's venture is yet another example of the quality writing that exists out here on Al Gore's internet, and I'm excited to be a part of it. 

So, a big thank you goes out to TheScore for giving me the opportunity to spread my devout homerism. The more eyes over here, the better. And a big thank you also goes out to you, the reader, and to you, the commenter. Without you, I'd have probably packed up and left town a few months ago. You are appreciated, more than you'll ever know.

Remember, the content isn't going to change around here now that I've joined the Federation. So don't mind the ads. Just click on 'em.