It was somewhat of an
anti-climactic ending considering the excitement that has been generated over
the past few months, but when Toronto Blue Jays’ catcher Russell Martin
squeezed the foul tip off the bat of Baltimore’s Ryan Flaherty in his glove, the
wait was finally over.
Toronto’s 15-2 win over the Orioles
in the first game of a double-header on Wednesday, clinched the American League
East Championship for the Jays, their first in a long 22 seasons. Back in 1993,
for a franchise that had won five AL East crowns in nine years, and four of
those in the last five of those nine years, it would have seemed unfathomable
that the team would have to wait more than two decades before drinking from the
post-season cup again.
And no one could have predicted
at the end of July (on the 28th of that month, they were 50-51,
eight games behind the Yankees) that on the final day of September, the Jays
would be dancing onto the field in celebration of a division championship.
But I’m sure you’ve read
everything that can be written about the division title, the rout of the
Orioles and the length of time the Blue Jays and their fans have had to suffer
one disappointment after the other. I’m not about to add to that.
What I would like to do is to
give some thought as to where the 2015 division championship ranks in
comparison to the other five, as a Blue Jays’ fan. I’m sure everyone will have
their opinion, and some might not even be old enough to remember all or even
one of the previous five titles. But here are my thoughts.
Now, I’m talking AL East
championships here, not World Series titles. I believe the 1992 and 1993 division
crowns, and to some extent the 1991 title, were not met with as great a sense
of accomplishment as they should have been and therefore are ranked in the
bottom half of the six. But that’s because so much more was expected of those
teams in the early 90s. The regular season was just a prelude to more drama and
more expectations in the post season. World Series Championships were expected
and, given the fact that AL East banners were coming with such frequency, most
media and fans adopted a ho-hum approach when the Jays won their division.
I would rank the 1991 division
crown ahead of the other two in the nineties, simply because the game in which
they clinched, they came from behind and scored two runs in the bottom of the
ninth inning. When Joe Carter singled up the middle against the California
Angels’ Bryan Harvey to drive in Roberto Alomar with the winning run, it marked
the only time the Jays had won the division on a walk off hit. The clincher in
1992 ended on an infield pop up to first baseman John Olerud and the 1993 game,
played on a wet and cold night in Milwaukee before a few thousand fans, ended
on a double play.
The 1985 division championship
can’t be ranked anything but number one. It was the first in the team history,
after only nine seasons in the league. Expansion teams back in the 1970s didn’t
have as easy a road to building their teams as did the Florida Marlins and
Arizona Diamondbacks did in the nineties. The Jays were basically just a group
of cast-offs with only a fistful of players who were true major leaguers. The
1985 team was built from the ground up, and still has the team record for wins
in a season (99).
So that leaves the 1989 team,
that bears a little bit of resemblance to this year’s squad. I say little bit
because the 1989 team was ten games out of first place in the beginning of
July. They went on a run as well, but not nearly to scale that the 2015 team
did, and the 89 Jays also had the luxury of playing in a weak division and only
needed 89 wins to win the title. If it weren’t for slump by the first place
Baltimore Orioles at the end of July and in the month of August (19-24 while
the Jays were 26-14 over that time) Toronto likely would not have won that
season.
Therefore I would put the 2015 division
championship second on the team’s list. While the comeback reminds me of 1989,
this year’s team is much more talented. The starting pitching is better, the
bullpen a little lagging but sufficient and the offense is the best in the team’s
history. Only time will tell if they have as much success as the 1992 and 1993
teams.
But for now, let’s just enjoy
the moment. It took a while to get here. Well worth the wait, though.
