BALTIMORE – They stormed down the tunnel connecting the visitors dugout at Camden Yards to the clubhouse, changed into grey t-shirts that read “The East is Ours” and caps emblazoned with Postseason 2015, gathered around the laundry carts stocked with bottles on ice and partied like rock stars.
Streams of champagne and beer flew through the clubhouse in every direction, the tinted ski goggles many players wore unable to keep the bubbly from stinging their eyes, the GoPro cameras hanging from their headbands documenting the mayhem.
Life as American League East champions again is good for the Toronto Blue Jays.
“This is something else,” said R.A. Dickey, shortly before David Price sprayed him with a full bottle of champagne. “I don’t know how other people celebrate, but to celebrate like a family like this is something special.”
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The call for a team picture, one of several, came suddenly, and somehow the group managed to quickly assemble in a corner of the clubhouse. After the obligatory exchanges of flying alcohol, a chant started, and the force with which they yelled reverberated: “We are heat! We are heat!”
The Blue Jays have without a doubt been heat since returning from a six-game West Coast swing at 50-50 on July 26. Late the next day, general manager Alex Anthopoulos made the deal for Troy Tulowitzki that also included LaTroy Hawkins, trades for David Price, Ben Revere and Mark Lowe soon followed, and a 43-16 run that carried them all the way to their first AL East crown since 1993 was underway.
Things couldn’t have come together any better.
“That’s not always the case,” said Tulowitzki. “People are scared to make moves at times because you don’t know if it’s going to jell. In our case, it’s one of those few circumstances where everything worked out and it made our team that much better.”
Said Price: “We played good baseball. I’ve done my part, and so has everybody else on this team. It’s no one person, it’s no one trade, it’s everybody with one goal in their eyesight. … They had a fun group of guys when we came and the guys we added just kind of added to it. It was easy to have fun that first week in that clubhouse, on that field, in the dugout. Winning makes everywhere special but it’s definitely a different kind of special here.”
But it wasn’t the trades alone. There was a strong base in place that needed the roster holes undermining the club shored up. That’s exactly what happened.
“Obviously that was the turning point on paper,” said Dickey. “But I felt like we were just waiting, like all of us were just waiting, the pitching staff was just waiting, and when they kind of put the chips all in, it did something to us, and we took off.”
And some things also broke their way, like Marcus Stroman recovering from the torn ACL in his left knee in time to give the team a final push.
“Stro was a shot in the arm, obviously,” said Tulowitzki. “They were talking about maybe he’d be able to come back, but to come back and be the guy that he is, wow, that’s huge. Obviously the acquisition of David, he’s that ace that every team needs and Marco (Estrada) has really pitched great. Our bullpen has been really good and that’s why we’re celebrating right now.”
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Russell Martin was 10 the last time the Blue Jays made the post-season, and like most Canadian kids in love with baseball at the time, he was mesmerized. Then the playoff drought hit, the kid grew up to be an all-star catcher who made seven trips to the post-season in nine big-league seasons with the Dodgers, Yankees and Pirates before returning home as a free agent.
His eighth appearance in the playoffs will be with the Blue Jays.
“It feels good,” he said of helping to bring the Blue Jays back to the playoffs, cigar in hand. “I feel like I can really share with the fans how it feels. I remember ‘92, ‘93 and if we can just bring that back, that’d be awesome. That would be a dream come true for me.”
For fans, too, who have embraced the club’s resurgence in the Rogers Centre stands, on TV, at ballparks on the road. The Blue Jays are a game up on the Kansas City Royals for best record in the American League, and home-field advantage for the whole playoffs.
“Home-field for us with the environment we have at that stadium, and I’ve talked to other GMs, everybody across the league is talking about what an unbelievable environment it is, to have a dome, playing conditions, all that, I think it’s a big advantage for us,” said Anthopoulos. “We’d love to get it, we’re certainly going to fight for it, but you do balance it out with having to give guys rest.”
For many years, the description of the Blue Jays as Canada’s team was eyewash. Not anymore, and the players legitimately feel it.
“When you have a whole country behind you, it’s incredible,” said Dickey. “I don’t care if you’re American or you’re a Japanese guy, it doesn’t matter. When you have the support of that many people who are living and dying with you every day, there’s a special bond that’s created. It doesn’t matter what nationality you are. Those kind of moments are incredibly special.”
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Jose Bautista, chomping on a cigar, is in mid-sentence when Josh Donaldson puts an arm around him, pulls him tight and shouts, “Congratulations on getting to 40, today, welcome!”
Forty is in reference to Bautista’s 40th home run of the season in the afternoon’s 15-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles that clinched the AL East. He’s one back of Donaldson for the team lead.
Donaldson turns away for a moment before coming back, and adding, “This guy is the man, right here.”
Bautista smiles. “No, you’re the man.”
“This is the man,” yells Donaldson.
The key to this edition of the Blue Jays, of course, is that there is no longer one singular man. Donaldson should be the AL MVP, but he’s in a lineup unlike any Bautista, acquired in August 2008, has previously enjoyed.
“It took a long time to come to fruition, I felt like we had a chance to get at least this spot and make it into the playoffs with some of the teams we had in place before,” said Bautista. “It just didn’t happen because of different things every year, injuries, underperformances, whatever, but who cares, we’re here now, we’re enjoying it and we have a chance to the best team in the world and we’re going for it. This is the first step, but we’ve got to enjoy it, too.”
These Blue Jays have enjoyed each other, as well, and that’s played a role to some degree in their success. So too has their relentlessness, a trait that carried them through difficult stretches that could have submarined the season.
Remember that on June 2, the Blue Jays were seven games under .500.
“We get along well together, everyone is pulling for each other, the whole team, trying to win, and it’s different than any team that I’ve been a part of in the past, especially this year because we got a lot of people that got injected into the team midway through,” said Bautista. “Somehow, we get along, and it’s great and we all enjoy each other’s company, we have a lot of fun.”
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Marco Estrada is one of several Blue Jays who’s been to the playoffs before. The right-hander helped the Milwaukee Brewers win the NL Central in 2011, but like many of his teammates, feels these Blue Jays are unrivalled.
“This team, there’s better team chemistry here, and there’re better players,” he said. “Overall, this is the best team I’ve ever been on and I’m just trying to enjoy this moment.”
Said Martin: “This is the best I’ve felt going into the post-season. We’re dangerous offensively, we’re dangerous on the mound, we play awesome defence. If somebody’s going to beat us, they’re going to have to play tremendously well. And even then I don’t know if it can happen. The confidence feels pretty good right now.”
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A galvanizing moment for the Blue Jays came right after the July 31 trade deadline, when they hosted the Royals in a four-game series and won three of the four, capped by an emotional 5-2 win in the series finale. Edinson Volquez is thought to have intentionally thrown at Donaldson in that one, Tulowitzki also got hit, and Aaron Sanchez later hit Alcides Escobar, with the benches emptying.
“We felt like we were just as good as them, if not better,” said Tulowitzki. “Whoever we’re faced against, I think if we play our game I like our chances.”
Said Mark Buehrle: “The biggest part was once Alex made those trades to get the guys over here at deadline. That was a big series and they always say bench-clearing brawls bring the best out of teams.”
The thing is, such uniting achievements kept coming.
“We’ve had a lot of galvanizing moments, you can’t just point to one,” said Dickey. “That’s what a great season’s all about – not just one galvanizing moment but a plethora of galvanizing moments that lead to an experience like this.”
Initially stunned by his trade to the Blue Jays, Tulowitzki surveyed the standings, considered the opportunity, aimed for the best and got there.
“It’s been an exciting run,” he said. “I remember the day I came over, we were a game under .500 and I knew we had a chance, but at the same time we’d have to play good baseball. Sure enough, we ran off a streak and then to get hurt, was unfortunate for myself, but watching these guys play, though, I’ll tell you what, it’s a good team and hopefully we can continue this run.”
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In a quiet corner of the clubhouse, Devon Travis stood with some teammates, surveying the scene. Last week he had surgery on his left shoulder to clean up the joint and drain a cyst. It ended his promising rookie season, but Monday night the Blue Jays told him to hop on a plane to Baltimore so he could be part of the celebrations.
They did the same with many others, each of whom has played a part in things.
“This is incredible,” said Travis. “Honestly, it’s something I’ve dreamt of forever, I don’t even really know where I’m at right now, this is like I’m still dreaming. I’ll be here for the whole playoff run, I guess you can call me the biggest cheerleader in here. …
“It’s a little bit tough because I want to be a part of this on the field, but this is incredible, this is my team, and I’ve always been a team guy, it’s about winning, and that’s what we did, we’re AL East champions and I don’t think you can write the script any better.”
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As the celebration in the clubhouse began to wane, a call for group photo on the field came and a mass exodus back outside followed. They gathered around the pitcher’s mound for the pic – to the chagrin of an Orioles groundskeeper who pointlessly ordered everyone off the grass – and the players chanted “Bush Party, Bush Party,” as photographers snapped their shots.
The Blue Jays were in Boston in 2013 when the Red Sox clinched the East that season and watched the Orioles do it in Baltimore last year. This was their turn, their time.
“That’s what happens when you throw a lot of talent together and they get after it every night,” said manager John Gibbons. “Good things happen.”
The opportunity for more awaits.
“We’re not going to take any breaks until we get to what our main goal is, which is win the World Series,” said Bautista. “We’re focused on that.”