In the last 32 seasons, the Blue Jays have lost 90 games exactly once.
That, of course, was the never-to-be-forgotten Season From Hell. The 2004 campaign started out with high expectations. The team was coming off an 86 win campaign. The cunning young GM had added some fairly legitimate major league starting pitchers (Miguel Batista, Ted Lilly and the returning prodigal, Pat Hentgen) as well as some help for the bullpen (Kerry Ligtenberg, Terry Adams, Justin Speier.) Oh, there was real optimism in the land.
As is well remembered, everything went sideways. Immediately. The Jays opened the year by getting swept, at home, by a team that had lost 119 games the year before. The season ended with Carlos Delgado, in his final game as a Blue Jay, standing in the on-deck circle. Broadcaster and former pitcher John Cerutti, just 44 years old, died of heart failure the same day, Along the way, Tom Cheek had been knocked out of the broadcast booth by the cancer that would take his life the following the year, and before 2004 was over organizational fixture Bobby Mattick and Opening Day hero Doug Ault were lost as well.
So never challenge worse.
The 2004 team, which went 67-94, is one of the just five Jays squads to lose 90 or more games, and the other four came from the expansion years 1977-1980. Unless the current squad manages to go at least 17-19 over the remaining six weeks, they'll join that sorry crew.
Not that this year's bunch actually reminds me of any of those squads. There was another Jays team just as bad as this year's group. They escaped losing 90 games solely because they were playing a shortened schedule. And it's that team that has my attention.
In 1995, when the teams came back from the strike, the Blue Jays thought they were still contenders. The strike had ended with the Jays sitting at 55-60 - but they they thought they were still pretty good, and they went out and got David Cone in the off-season. They thought they were going to contend in 1995.
They didn't. First of all, they didn't have anyone in place to take over behind the plate for Pat Borders - and catcher, you know, is kind of an important position. Randy Knorr and the ancient Lance Parrish were tried and found wanting; Gaston eventually turned to a kid from AA (Sandy Martinez) who couldn't hit at all but could at least provide reasonable defense. Joe Carter, who had been outstanding in 1994, went right off the cliff. One of two rookies counted on to play a key role, Shawn Green, was hitting .237 at the All-Star Break. The other rookie, Alex Gonzalez, wasn't doing a whole lot better. On the mound, Pat Hentgen and Juan Guzman, two bulwarks of the rotation the previous two seasons, were both lousy. By the end of July, the Jays were 10 games under .500, and Gord Ash pulled the plug. Not only did he trade David Cone - he traded him to a division rival.
What happened after that is one of the more shameful episodes in team history, and by far the biggest blot on Cito Gaston's otherwise distinguished service in the uniform. Because the players gave up. They were, to a man, shocked by the Cone trade. There is no doubt that they felt betrayed, that they had expected the front office to try to add some help. But still... they just gave up. Three key players: Roberto Alomar, Devon White, and Al Leiter were to become free agents at the end of the season, and the team didn't seem to know whether it wanted to bring them back, whether it wanted to reload, or whether it wanted to tear it all down and start rebuilding. Meanwhile, on the field, the team just gave up. They went 11-18 in August, and an appalling 7-21 in September.
So this is what I want to see - will this season, which also started with a fair bit of optimism in many quarters, but which went totally off the rails soon after the All-Star Break, turn out likewise.
I don't expect it to - I think the 1995 situation was unique in team history. I think it was the product of a bunch of veteran players, who experienced as much success as you can in the game, who felt acutely disappointed by how things had unfolded. While I say that they gave up, I don't say that they stopped trying. Not exactly. They were still professionals. But it was certainly not possible to convince that group that these games mattered in any way.That group had expected to play meaningful games in September and October. Anything less than that just wasn't the same. And certainly Cito Gaston (who may have shared his players' attitude) was not the man to convince them otherwise.
Whereas this year's group - all of them - have something to play for and something to prove. So I think they'll salvage a little dignity, pull themselves together, and win another 17 games. They might as well. For one thing, tanking to get a better draft pick? Please. That's one of those historically stupid ideas needs to be stamped out whenever it rears its ridiculous head. (And every time it comes back after you've stamped on it.)
That, of course, was the never-to-be-forgotten Season From Hell. The 2004 campaign started out with high expectations. The team was coming off an 86 win campaign. The cunning young GM had added some fairly legitimate major league starting pitchers (Miguel Batista, Ted Lilly and the returning prodigal, Pat Hentgen) as well as some help for the bullpen (Kerry Ligtenberg, Terry Adams, Justin Speier.) Oh, there was real optimism in the land.
As is well remembered, everything went sideways. Immediately. The Jays opened the year by getting swept, at home, by a team that had lost 119 games the year before. The season ended with Carlos Delgado, in his final game as a Blue Jay, standing in the on-deck circle. Broadcaster and former pitcher John Cerutti, just 44 years old, died of heart failure the same day, Along the way, Tom Cheek had been knocked out of the broadcast booth by the cancer that would take his life the following the year, and before 2004 was over organizational fixture Bobby Mattick and Opening Day hero Doug Ault were lost as well.
So never challenge worse.
The 2004 team, which went 67-94, is one of the just five Jays squads to lose 90 or more games, and the other four came from the expansion years 1977-1980. Unless the current squad manages to go at least 17-19 over the remaining six weeks, they'll join that sorry crew.
Not that this year's bunch actually reminds me of any of those squads. There was another Jays team just as bad as this year's group. They escaped losing 90 games solely because they were playing a shortened schedule. And it's that team that has my attention.
In 1995, when the teams came back from the strike, the Blue Jays thought they were still contenders. The strike had ended with the Jays sitting at 55-60 - but they they thought they were still pretty good, and they went out and got David Cone in the off-season. They thought they were going to contend in 1995.
They didn't. First of all, they didn't have anyone in place to take over behind the plate for Pat Borders - and catcher, you know, is kind of an important position. Randy Knorr and the ancient Lance Parrish were tried and found wanting; Gaston eventually turned to a kid from AA (Sandy Martinez) who couldn't hit at all but could at least provide reasonable defense. Joe Carter, who had been outstanding in 1994, went right off the cliff. One of two rookies counted on to play a key role, Shawn Green, was hitting .237 at the All-Star Break. The other rookie, Alex Gonzalez, wasn't doing a whole lot better. On the mound, Pat Hentgen and Juan Guzman, two bulwarks of the rotation the previous two seasons, were both lousy. By the end of July, the Jays were 10 games under .500, and Gord Ash pulled the plug. Not only did he trade David Cone - he traded him to a division rival.
What happened after that is one of the more shameful episodes in team history, and by far the biggest blot on Cito Gaston's otherwise distinguished service in the uniform. Because the players gave up. They were, to a man, shocked by the Cone trade. There is no doubt that they felt betrayed, that they had expected the front office to try to add some help. But still... they just gave up. Three key players: Roberto Alomar, Devon White, and Al Leiter were to become free agents at the end of the season, and the team didn't seem to know whether it wanted to bring them back, whether it wanted to reload, or whether it wanted to tear it all down and start rebuilding. Meanwhile, on the field, the team just gave up. They went 11-18 in August, and an appalling 7-21 in September.
So this is what I want to see - will this season, which also started with a fair bit of optimism in many quarters, but which went totally off the rails soon after the All-Star Break, turn out likewise.
I don't expect it to - I think the 1995 situation was unique in team history. I think it was the product of a bunch of veteran players, who experienced as much success as you can in the game, who felt acutely disappointed by how things had unfolded. While I say that they gave up, I don't say that they stopped trying. Not exactly. They were still professionals. But it was certainly not possible to convince that group that these games mattered in any way.That group had expected to play meaningful games in September and October. Anything less than that just wasn't the same. And certainly Cito Gaston (who may have shared his players' attitude) was not the man to convince them otherwise.
Whereas this year's group - all of them - have something to play for and something to prove. So I think they'll salvage a little dignity, pull themselves together, and win another 17 games. They might as well. For one thing, tanking to get a better draft pick? Please. That's one of those historically stupid ideas needs to be stamped out whenever it rears its ridiculous head. (And every time it comes back after you've stamped on it.)
