What Remains

Hey, a sweep's a sweep, right?

In the flickering, dying light of a season that has gone all kinds of wrong in all kinds of ways, it still puts a smile on my face when the Blue Jays can head into a division rival's stadium and take three out of three games over a weekend.  Yes, I know it's a sweep of the smouldering crater that remains of the 2012 Boston Red Sox we're talking about. But anything the Jays can do to contribute to the ridiculous soap opera that organization has become should be something we welcome unconditionally.  So give me my moment, would you?

There are some good things happening again, at least.  Brett Lawrie is back in the leadoff spot, and J.P. Arencibia is back behind the plate.  Adeiny Hechavarria and Anthony Gose look like they may have a little more to offer than they showed when they first arrived in the big leagues.  Edwin Encarnacion continues to shine.

Rather than spend the rest of September obsessing over how the team is going to fill second base and left field next year, or which starting pitchers might be available on the trade market, I'm going to try to enjoy what little baseball we have left -- Blue Jays games or otherwise.  I"m going to ENJOY watching Gose and Hechavarria trying to prove they deserve spots on the 2013 team.  I'm going to ENJOY watching Encarnacion try to finish as the home run leader.  I'm going to ENJOY watching Brandon Morrow mow down opposing lineups, and Steve Delabar striking out hapless batters with nasty splitters, and Rajai Davis wreaking havoc on the basepaths.

No, this isn't what we wanted.  Nothing can replace the excitement of a pennant or wild card race, and I don't have to remind fans how long it's been since the Jays have been a part of either of one of those.  I'm not saying it's good enough.  There's work to do on this team to get it healthy and to add the necessary pieces for it to be the playoff contender we want.  It's going to be a fun, long, interesting, infuriating, disappointing and/or redeeming off-season, depending on your perspective.

But I got leaves falling off the tree out front of my house, here, people.  Let's not forget just how close we are to not having ANY BASEBALL TO WATCH AT ALL.  They started freakin' FOOTBALL today (in case you were living under a rock or aren't on Twitter).  If it weren't for a labour dispute, the first twenty minutes of your sportscast would be dedicated to showing a couple AHL hooligans duke it out in an intra-squad Maple Leafs scrimmage.  I know that we've all clamoured for "meaningful games in September" for as long as we can remember, but try to bear in mind that meaningless games are still games, goddammit.