What they have produced, over the length of their careers, has had an incredibly positive, buoying, and consoling effect on my life. Their work on the field has saved me during the times I needed saving, has helped me better understand my world and the pain I’ve endured, and has simply made me happy when […]
Author: Rachael McDaniel
The Wonderful, Useless Miracle of Mike Bolsinger’s Four-Strikeout Inning
In the very late hours of July 18th, or perhaps the very early hours of July 19th, something weird happened at Fenway Park. Strikeout No. 1: Mitch Moreland (Swinging) It was strange that Mike Bolsinger took the mound for the Jays in the bottom of the 13th, because it was strange that a bottom of […]
Staying in the Fight: On Depression and Baseball
Jason Grilli is not a Blue Jay anymore. With how poor Grilli’s performance this season was, the writing had been on the wall for months – punctuated first by the Yankees’ four-homer inning earlier this month and then given a final, sad exclamation point by the calamitous bottom of the 9th in Kansas City last […]
Justin Smoak is Finally Having Fun Playing Baseball
In BP Toronto’s preseason Bold Predictions, I picked Justin Smoak to be the biggest bust of 2017. Other than Josh Donaldson being the most valuable position player, it was the pick I was the most confident in. I knew only two things about Smoak. First, that he was a failed top prospect, and second, that […]
A Short History of Blue Jays Turning Points That Weren’t
Kendrys Morales was the turning point. On April 15th, the Jays had lost seven in a row. They had firmly cemented themselves as the worst starting team in franchise history at 1-9 and had dropped the first four games of their opening homestand. Marco Estrada pitched seven scoreless innings, but the game was extra tight […]
Why are Blue Jays Fans Masochists?
Here is a fact: The 2017 Toronto Blue Jays have been very, very bad. Here is another fact: I am a fan of the Toronto Blue Jays – including their very, very bad 2017 iteration. Why? I’ve been thinking a lot lately, watching the Jays dig themselves deeper and deeper into the grave of early-season […]
2016: A Jose Bautista Baseball Odyssey
Baseball lends itself so naturally to storytelling, and its narratives are often so compelling and affecting, because it is a sport centered around the journeys of heroes. From the passing and return of each season down to the play structure of the game itself, baseball is a circular journey, a tale of there and back again […]