The Blue Jays can draw inspiration from Trevor Immelman's up-and-down weekend at Augusta National.
Upon winning the Masters this past weekend, Trevor Immelman said, "This is the craziest roller-coaster ride I've ever had, and I hate roller coasters."
Now that seems odd to me. I thought most people loved roller coasters; the thrill of the ride with all the ups and downs, many of which are so severe they make you scream at the top of your lungs. And on occasions, it becomes impossible to hang on to your already devoured lunch which, of course, is a blast.
Back to the reigning Masters champ. He referred to his impressive victory as part of a roller-coaster ride because he had missed the cut in close to half of the tournaments he had played in this year, prior to donning the green jacket. How is that possible? Does that mean that you don't have to show greatness on a daily basis to eventually win the big one?
You might want to check with baseball's world champions of 2006, the St. Louis Cardinals. Late in the regular season they took a nose dive from the heights of a great roller-coaster peak. The thing is, just when they reached the bottom of their plummet, they also reached the end of the regular-season's ride with a one-game lead in the weakest division in baseball. Nobody at the time thought they had pre-ride-meal-of-chili-dog-with-all-the-fixin's chance of holding on through the post-season portion of their ride.
But without so much as a single Maalox, they rolled on and won it all, evading any final dive by blowing through the mighty Boston Red Sox.
The point here is that with the Blue Jays' recent ups and downs, they're no different than Immelman. They've been really good at times, such as sweeping the Red Sox at home and the Rangers in Arlington, of all places. The last time they turned that loop, without lunch-launching, was in 1985. And yes, they've been horrid, as they were against the A's.
Vernon Wells even went so far as to say that part of the reason for the success in Arlington came BECAUSE of the well-executed sweep delivered by the green and yellow broom of the A's.
Vernon said: "I don't remember being as frustrated this early in the season as I was the other night (Thursday) after the game. We're better than what we played in that series and we showed it the three games before that (sweeping Boston)."
"I think it's a sign it's early in the season, and looking at the guys after that game I saw a different look in their eyes than in previous years. In previous years, it was like 'Oh well.' This time it was more like, 'This isn't going to happen anymore.'
"So I think that sense of urgency is there. You take it for what it's worth and you learn from your mistakes, but we all understand we can't be having that happen too often."
Just remember, even Tiger Woods doesn't win 'em all. But, you have to improve while hopefully learning from your gaffes. Sounds like V.W. & Co. are trying to do just that.