There's a gun in your hand
And it's pointing at your head.
Okay, it's not that bad. But sheer frustration was the order of the day for the Blue Jays and their fans, as a feel-good victory turned into a tear-your-hair-out loss on a ninth-inning grand slam. No doubt the Jays’ on-field and front-office personnel feel worse about this than anyone else. But the vultures are circling:
Mark Zwolinski: “[O]wnership has relegated some excellent talent to mediocrity by surrounding it with low-priced, leftover players.”
Richard Griffin: “It adds up to a team that has not progressed from a year ago. … The train has fallen off the tracks.”
Steve Simmons: “The problems Tosca has are many, not the least of which is holding on to his job. One day, the Jays can't hit. One day, they can't pitch. Most days, they can't play defence. Some days they have starting pitchers. Some days they have relievers. Rarely do they have both.”
Jeff Blair: “’I'm not going to make an emotional decision right now,’" said Tosca, sounding like a man wondering how many more decisions, emotional or otherwise, he'll get to make.”
The prevailing wisdom here, from October all the way through to March, was that this was a solid team that would at least improve on 2003 and could even surprise in 2004. So far, however, The Blue Jays have disappointed a lot of people, both those who follow the team and those who do not. There’s a lot of hope and pride invested in this squad, and that investment has had a very rough first quarter. Perhaps most maddening is that there’s no easy answer: firing the manager still seems like a knee-jerk reaction; calling up struggling prospects looks like panic; benching young hitters is a solution whose best-before date expires after a day or two; buying replacement players isn’t an option. All you’re left with are head-scratching questions.
Is this a bad team? Is it a good team that's simply playing poorly in the first quarter of the season? Is it a good team whose key players seem destined to have bad years? Or is it a mediocre team playing exactly the way they ought? No matter what they are, as a fan, you have to stick with them through the good and the bad, regardless of how frustrating and downright exasperating they may be. Common sense has to triumph over frustration. As difficult as it is to take a step back, view the roster objectively and conclude that there are so many good players here that this team simply has to improve, nonetheless that’s what tops the agenda of the Toronto Blue Jays and their fans today.
And it's pointing at your head.
Okay, it's not that bad. But sheer frustration was the order of the day for the Blue Jays and their fans, as a feel-good victory turned into a tear-your-hair-out loss on a ninth-inning grand slam. No doubt the Jays’ on-field and front-office personnel feel worse about this than anyone else. But the vultures are circling:
Mark Zwolinski: “[O]wnership has relegated some excellent talent to mediocrity by surrounding it with low-priced, leftover players.”
Richard Griffin: “It adds up to a team that has not progressed from a year ago. … The train has fallen off the tracks.”
Steve Simmons: “The problems Tosca has are many, not the least of which is holding on to his job. One day, the Jays can't hit. One day, they can't pitch. Most days, they can't play defence. Some days they have starting pitchers. Some days they have relievers. Rarely do they have both.”
Jeff Blair: “’I'm not going to make an emotional decision right now,’" said Tosca, sounding like a man wondering how many more decisions, emotional or otherwise, he'll get to make.”
The prevailing wisdom here, from October all the way through to March, was that this was a solid team that would at least improve on 2003 and could even surprise in 2004. So far, however, The Blue Jays have disappointed a lot of people, both those who follow the team and those who do not. There’s a lot of hope and pride invested in this squad, and that investment has had a very rough first quarter. Perhaps most maddening is that there’s no easy answer: firing the manager still seems like a knee-jerk reaction; calling up struggling prospects looks like panic; benching young hitters is a solution whose best-before date expires after a day or two; buying replacement players isn’t an option. All you’re left with are head-scratching questions.
Is this a bad team? Is it a good team that's simply playing poorly in the first quarter of the season? Is it a good team whose key players seem destined to have bad years? Or is it a mediocre team playing exactly the way they ought? No matter what they are, as a fan, you have to stick with them through the good and the bad, regardless of how frustrating and downright exasperating they may be. Common sense has to triumph over frustration. As difficult as it is to take a step back, view the roster objectively and conclude that there are so many good players here that this team simply has to improve, nonetheless that’s what tops the agenda of the Toronto Blue Jays and their fans today.
