The Toronto Blue Jays New Era and Attitude

(And all of the MLB – like it or not ol’ school folk)

How well do you embrace change? Me, well I take it with a little bit of huh (with an American southern drawl) and a lot of eh (with Canadian excitement). But for many of the ol’ fashion ‘Goose’ baseball folks, they take it with a big deep breath followed by one word – disrespect. Like it or not people the baseball times have changed, and you should like it.

The new era and attitude of MLB players is what’s so appealing to generation iPhone. It has style, it has chips on shoulders, bat-flips, and all the bat-flip retaliation punches you want in this new game. It’s making baseball great again – in a way Trump could never hand shake the shit out of - and it’s here to stay.

Now some of you may not remember the WWF (Wrestling – not World Wildlife Fund, pre WWE) in the 1990’s and the poor ratings that the ol’ fashion face/heel angle brought to Mr. Vince McMahon’s empire. But all of that soon changed when Razor Ramon and Big Daddy Cool Diesel flew the coup and landed in Ted Turner’s playground where they formed the NWO with the Hulkster and like that – a new attitude was formed. It was an attitude with personality, spray paint, and black NWO shirts scattered around all the streets in North America. Now, this isn’t an article about wrestling – but it is about the new MLB attitude.

Last year, good ol’ Goose called out Bautista on his bat-flip and people chimed in on the disrespect his act showed – fuck that, and all Blue Jays fans know it. These new young players in the MLB are the new generation, and a generation that comes with a new swagger, so I say let them swagger. The new attitude of the Jays is what has brought them success. Last year, the Jays were kind of (ahem, were) stumbling hard out of the gates – with their attitude and all. Then Shapiro/Atkins make an attitude move that impacted the locker room – the fire up the grill (Grilli) attitude that breathed life into the malaise birds.

It’s this attitude that is contagious and infectious and rides – (please not like the wave) in the stands. It’s hard to not love the intensity that Josh Donaldson brings to the game like he is storming the Sussex shores with his Viking bat. It’s kind of hard not to love the big bat-flip chip that Bautista brings with every spoken word, at bat, and play in the outfield – as long as he doesn’t injure himself doing it - ahem - like that throw to first against Baltimore two seasons ago. How can you not love Stroman’s energy and fights with his own monsters on the mound? How? It’s impossible. There is an attitude that stretches from the stoic Gibbers to the platoon Zeke to the WTF Biagini all the way to the bellicose fans - that's why it’s hard not to love this new era and attitude Jays. This attitude smiles, has a hip-hop swagger, a Grilli kind of fire, and a Latin passion that should be shown and be in every inning of baseball. It’s real – it’s 4 Life, and it’s too sweet to ignore. Sure there have been some changes in the game you can find to be moot topics like instant replay or the let’s take the aggressive fuckin’ slide to second out of the game, which I fuckin hate because I miss the real DP – but so it is (and please don’t start the runner on second to begin extra innings) but we have to live with it. And we have to live with the new attitude that has risen up in an ol’ school game – I say let the rap unfold with a little bit of rock n’ roll – a little noise never hurt anyone.