TORONTO, Ont. – Next year has finally arrived.

For more than two decades, teams that were mostly good but never good enough have teased Blue Jays fans, and the promise of a better future always dangled like the proverbial carrot before a racehorse. We waited for next year, and we waited for it every year. Children were born, got their drivers’ licenses, had their first drink, had their first legal drink and graduated university since the last time Toronto saw playoff baseball live and in-person, and now a whole new generation gets to experience it for the first time.

The last time the Blue Jays were in the playoffs was the culmination (though we didn’t know it at the time) of an 11-season run over which the Jays won at least 89 games eight times, never had a losing record, won five division titles and two World Series. From 1985 to 1993 – a span of nine seasons – the Blue Jays finished more than two games out of first place only once. We thought it would last forever. It didn’t.

In the 20 seasons from 1995 to 2014, the Blue Jays finished higher than third in the A.L. East only once, had six seasons in which they were at least 10 games under .500 and finished more than 10 games out of first place every year but one. And not once did they finish ahead of the New York Yankees.

Remember when Erik Hanson was the Blue Jays’ big free-agent acquisition? When the Joey Hamilton trade was going to deliver a playoff berth? When Esteban Loaiza was the piece that was going to push the Jays over the top? When the bullpen problems were going to be solved by Jeff Tam, Terry Adams and Kerry Ligtenberg?

There were certainly some greats who wore the blue and white, or the rightly-lamented T-Bird, or the black and gun-metal grey over the past two decades. Roy Halladay is going to go to the Hall of Fame and Carlos Delgado can make a strong case for having been the greatest Blue Jay ever. Roger Clemens won two Triple Crowns of pitching and two Cy Young Awards, tainted though they may be, in his two years here. Vernon Wells spent a dozen years with the Jays, winning three Gold Gloves and going to as many all-star games.

Blue Jays fans fell in love with John McDonald, Reed Johnson and Shawn Green, saw two Alex Gonzalezes come through town and imagined a rotation anchored by The Big Three of Halladay, Chris Carpenter and Kelvim Escobar.

Jeff Frye hit for the cycle, Josh Phelps’ star rose and fell like a comet through the cosmos, Brandon Lyon and Jesse Litsch had incredible major-league debuts, Brandon Morrow threw one of the greatest games ever pitched, both Ken Huckaby and Greg Myers hit an inside-the-park home run and Charlie O’Brien debuted the goalie-style catchers’ mask.

Eric Hinske was rookie of the year, J.P. Arencibia had one of the greatest big-league debuts ever, Frank Catalanotto had a six-hit game, Howie Clark was spooked by Alex Rodriguez and Mark Hendrickson hit a home run. Jon Rauch almost killed both an umpire and John Farrell in one fell swoop, Brett Lawrie disappeared into a camera well in The Bronx and Johnny Mac hit a home run on Fathers’ Day that made us cry.

Who can forget Josh Towers, Shannon Stewart, Brevin Mencherson, Homer Bush and Jose Cruz, Jr? And who can remember Dave Berg, Simon Pond, Aquilino Lopez, Pasqual Coco and Doug (“we’re not exactly doing backflips”) Davis?

So much has happened over the past two decades of Blue Jays baseball, much of it forgettable because the team always fell short of the post-season. But not anymore.

Even if the Blue Jays lose each of their final eight regular-season games, they’re going to the playoffs. At the very least, they’ll host the American League wild card game. Even if the Blue Jays lose all eight of those remaining games, they’ll finish with the franchise’s highest win total since 1993. But they’re probably not going to lose all eight games that remain on the regular-season schedule.

In 2013, the Pittsburgh Pirates snapped the National League’s longest playoff drought at 21 years, getting to the wild-card game with their first winning record since 1992. Last season, the Kansas City Royals ended baseball’s longest walk through the wilderness – their playoff appearance was the first since they beat the Blue Jays in the 1985 American League Championship Series and went on to win the whole shebang.

The Blue Jays went into this season having taken over the role of the team that had been waiting the longest to get back to the post-season, and that wait is about to be over. The Jays wrap up their regular-season home schedule Sunday afternoon against the Rays, and for the first time in 22 years, they know they’re going to be coming back for more baseball.

It’s a beautiful thing.