Finally, it's here. No more hot-stove league, no more winter-baseball updates, no more spring-training reports. The 2004 season is underway, and all the games count. The Blue Jays are, by consensus opinion, a better team than the one that ended 2003 -- maybe a whole lot better. The playoffs are a goal, but still a distant one. The team's primary competition for that goal are the Yankees and Red Sox, as well as wild-card contenders like Anaheim and Oakland.
But in many ways, the Blue Jays' real challenge this year is to re-establish a dominant presence in both the Toronto and the wider Canadian sports market. The timing is perfect. The Expo organization is a long, difficult story nearing its sad completion. The Raptors are in free-fall, having fired their GM and embarked on a massive organizational shakedown. The Vancouver Grizzlies are in Tennessee. The Leafs' season could conceivably end in the first round, depending on your assessment of the Senators' goaltending, and with an NHL labour shutdown all but certain in the fall, hockey may disappear from the national radar altogether until 2005. There will be no better time for this organization to make its mark on the sporting landscape than right now.
Today's opener resembles a college football homecoming game: schedule the league patsy for a festive thumping in front of the home crowd. But as Han Solo might warn us, don't get cocky: the Tigers can't be as bad in '04 as they were in '03, and several new faces (I-Rod, Rondell, Vina) give this squad a baseline respectability. The Tigers are seeking redemption; you think they're not pumped to face the Cy Young winner? And although there's no one I'd rather see on the mound today than Doc Halladay, remember his last Opening Day assignment, against the Yankees, and remember his overall April performance. There are no gimmes in baseball.
So grab a seat in front of the TV or radio (if you're at work like me, you may have to settle for Internet coverage), crack open a frosty can of your favourite beverage, and welcome summer back into the world. Jason Johnson vs. Roy Halladay. Tigers vs. Blue Jays. It's Opening Day.
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