Just kidding. I've been following baseball and raising children. Mostly the latter. And let me tell you, having three boys under eight years old and a non-freelance job has made writing about baseball in any meaningful way a far-off dream. Also, the part where I'm me and write the way I usually write makes meaningful baseball writing impossible.
I am not here to talk about the trade (sorry, The Trade) or The Signing. I could toss out nuggets about how the Man In White needs to polish up his HTML skills, but that's what Twitter is for.
Nope, I'm here to ask a question, because I've seen a lot of chatter this off season about how terrible 2012 was for the Jays. How it was The Worst Ever. Sure, it was pretty bad. It was painful. Embers of hope turned into burning fire of pain. Injuries, idiocy, "betrayal". But I have to ask one very important question:
Do you guys remember 2004?
The horror of 2004 can be summed up in one representative half-inning: Terry Adams throwing wild pitch after wild pitch after wild pitch, to blow a multiple run lead and then lose the game. It was marred by Carlos Delgado's never ending stretch on the DL. The pitching staff featuring the mummified remains of Pat Hentgen, noted poet, mystery novelist and space cadet Miguel Batista, and utility construction worker Frank Menechino.
And Dave Berg played a lot more baseball than you ever want to see Dave Berg play.
At the end of 2004, there was no upside. There was no "if everyone was healthy". There were no bright spots. There was only darkness and pain, with a future that promised more of the same.
2012 was pretty damn good, in comparison.
