No-brainer: Blue Jays were Canada’s team of the year
Atrade deadline to remember. A second-half surge to the playoffs. A bat flip for the ages.
The Toronto Blue Jays put baseball back on the map in the playoff-starved city this year and the rest of the country took notice. Canada’s lone Major League Baseball team, which won the East Division title and came within two wins of the World Series, was voted the landslide winner of The Canadian Press team of the year award.
“There’s so many adjectives that come to mind, but great, exciting, proud,” former general manager Alex Anthopoulos said of the 2015 team. “I think it just meant a lot for Canada and the city obviously, but more Canada than anything else.”
The Blue Jays picked up 40 votes (71 per cent) in an online survey of broadcasters and editors from media outlets across the country. The Canadian world junior hockey team that won gold last January was a distant second with six votes (11 per cent).
“It seems funny, on some levels, to elect a team that didn’t even get to its league final,” said Jonathan McDonald, sports editor of the Province in Vancouver.
“But for the first time in a long, long time, the Blue Jays had a good chunk of Canada captivated by baseball again. And I mean captivated. People were talking about the Jays seven days a week for about three months. That’s an accomplishment in itself.”
The Blue Jays had a powerful offence but were tripped up by several key injuries at the start of the season. Team defence suffered and Toronto split its first 100 games.
That’s when Anthopoulos pulled off the first in a series of stunning trades. He acquired star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki in a deal with Colorado and soon topped that by landing ace lefthander David Price, giving the Blue Jays the front-line starter they needed.
The Blue Jays were suddenly real contenders in the American League. Over the second half of the season, they played like it.
With an offence that boasted league MVP Josh Donaldson and sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, Toronto soon powered its way to the top of the division standings. Price came as advertised, going 9-1 with the Blue Jays and providing a stabilizing force to the rotation.
Manager John Gibbons was pulling the strings and had the team playing with confidence. The sellout crowds at Rogers Centre couldn’t get enough.
“This was a group that cared about each other, that played for one another,” Anthopoulos said. “They all bought in. I think the fans — they connected with the fans — because they saw that day in and day out.”
An East Division title would follow and then came a five-game series win over the Texas Rangers. The Blue Jays stumbled over the first two games at home but rebounded to win the next two on the road.
It set up a deciding Game 5 that featured a Bautista homer — complete with that epic bat flip — in a four-run seventh inning that helped the Blue Jays to a 6-3 victory and sent the home crowd into a frenzy.
Next up were the Kansas City Royals, who won the first two games of the best-of-seven ALCS at home and eventually took a 3-2 series lead back to Kauffman Stadium. Bautista hit two homers in Game 6 but it wasn’t enough as the Blue Jays dropped a 4-3 decision.
“We had a great club and I don’t feel arrogant saying that. I mean, I feel it’s a fact,” Anthopoulos said.
“But it was a sense of pride in the front office, organizationally, all of us collectively helped put a World Series-calibre team on the field, which is what it’s about.”
Anthopoulos turned down a contract offer to return and former president Paul Beeston retired.