Flip the script? Bautista wishes
Slugger never quit and if this is the end there are no regrets
They serenaded him in the top of the ninth, without a hint of gibe in it. JOSE-JOSE-JOSE-JOS-E-JOS-E. They rose to their feet in the bottom of the ninth, a standing ovation as Jose Bautista came to the plate, and he popped to third base in foul territory. Final out in Thursday’s 1-0 loss to the Royals. An 0-fer on the night, 0-fer feels like forever. His strikeout in the sixth inning set a new franchise record for Ks: 160.
And you know what? In these, apparently his dwindling days as a Blue Jay, it hardly matters.
Still a slugger, by virtue of those 287 home runs in a Toronto uniform. Still an icon, by virtue of all those defining and dramatic moments. Still a singularly compelling individual, a walking emoticon, by virtue sometimes of his unvirtuous idiosyncrasies: the dark scowl, the glaring at umpires, the feuds with opposing teams, the hatred he evoked in several quarters, and one hunka-hunka bat flip.
Such an athlete, such a paladin, often the anti-hero, might not pass this way again.
And that’s why those in attendance at the Rogers Centre pined to pay tribute the other evening, willing Bautista towards one final go-out-with-a-bang — as skipper John Gibbons put it — twinkling, for a superstar in the presumed twilight of his career in this city.
But it didn’t happen, as it too frequently didn’t happen for Bautista this season — the bat speed just a fraction slower, the walk rate down, the outside pitches chased in vain, the balls that weren’t chased down and caught in right field, the once-bazooka throwing arm showing its age, its wear and tear.
He’s a month shy of his 37th birthday, for heaven’s sake. Time and decades of baseball have seemingly caught up with Bautista, if with what seems a sudden, even cruel, reckoning.
This past week, culminating with Toronto’s last home game of 2017 on Sunday afternoon, has had more than a tinge of in memoriam to it, like a requiem. Yet Bautista has wanted no part of the long goodbye, declining interviews, keeping to the margins in the clubhouse, away from reporters, maintaining a disingenuous Who me? posture.
As far as Bautista insists, it ain’t over till it’s over. And nobody has told him it’s over.
Kind of like whistling by the graveyard, softly.
“It’s not awkward,” he said the other night, of being expected to provide a sentimental retrospective of his life as a Blue Jay when the door has yet to slam on his exit, although it’s generally assumed the mutual one-year option on his remaining contract will not be renewed. “It’s . . . complicated.”
Of course he heard the applause, of course he noticed the ovation. But especially sweet? Especially poignant? He won’t acknowledge that. “It’s always nice to get cheered upon by your home fans. Today is no different than any other day for me. I feel like they’re always behind me. It’s just a day where they were a little louder than usual. That’s it.” Is not. He relents just a smidge. “For some reason, these last few days, they’ve been a little louder. I really can’t say why. I don’t know factually why they’re doing it.” Sly grin. “I have my suspicions. But I would just be speculating and I’d rather not do that.”
Bautista has never been stiffarmed into the expected reaction. Coldcocked by a roundhouse punch in the face from Rougned Odor? Just be cool. Strike him out in a key at-bat and jaw at him afterwards, as Baltimore reliever Darren O’Day did? Take him yard on a 3-and-2 count 24 hours later, then mimic talking with the hands whilst crossing the plate. Get thrown at behind the head, Orioles rookie reliever Jason Garcia? Launch a jack two pitches later.
And, of course, the memorable pièce de résistance against a Texas squad that has a long history of reviling Bautista: A three-run moon-shot in Game 5 of the 2015 American League Division Series — patented leg kick, barrel to the ball, purse of the lips, a split second to admire the trajectory and a righteous FLIP of the bat.
Some day, Bautista will revisit all of it, wear it, perchance admire it. Just not yet. For now, he will speak only of this team, this season, as it winds down to its disappointing if long-festering denouement — a team that never, now can’t, scale the heights of .500, that has spent the entire year in last place in the AL East, fleetingly tied for that ignominy but mostly all by its lonesome. In the worst of ways, Bautista has been emblematic of the Jays in 2017 — jaw-dropping bummer, man.
“It was a long, hard, gruelling season, for all of us,” he says. “A lot of guys played through a lot of things, physically and mentally. We tried our best. We just couldn’t get consis- tent enough and didn’t get the results we wanted.
“If you go down this room, individually as well as collectively, everyone’s going to have the same feelings about the season, even though there were more than a few guys here that had a terrific season. That shouldn’t be put on the backburner.’’
Even as recently as two weeks ago, Bautista was buoyed by a stubborn optimism; that in a flailing division Toronto might still squeeze into a wild-card berth. That horrendous 1-9 start to the year was not, he insists, a death knell. “A month ago, we were still in the ball game. Even two weeks ago, we had high hopes and high possibilities. Okay, not high possibilities but possibilities. It just didn’t happen for us.
“We had a chance. It’s just we could never hit that stride.’’
He compares 2017 — keen expectation after back-to-back playoff years — with 2013, when then-general manager Alex Anthopoulos packed the roster with proven studs.
That team also finished last in the division. “We had a similar fate where we had a team that was very capable and built to compete. And just for a number of reasons that are hard to pinpoint why, not just injuries, we weren’t able to play together at the same time for the bulk of time and had similar results to this season.”
Too many key players, this year, having injury-diminished seasons. Too many injuries, period and the marquee starting rotation decimated.
“It’s hard to go through a season when you feel like you have a good team assembled and unfortunately you don’t get to play together for the bulk of it. You can’t seem to find that groove and get on the wave where you’re just riding everybody’s talent.’’
If this is the last stop for Bautista, on Sunday at the ballpark that’s been home for a decade — hail and farewell as a Blue Jay — it’s been a hell of a ride.