The Toronto Blue Jays lost game five of the American League championship series last night in an eighth-inning collapse, catalyzed by an utterly baffling decision to hand the ball to Brendon Little to pitch to the Mariners’ top of the order. The Mariners came from behind in a rally that started with Cal Raleigh hitting a leadoff home run and ended with five runs on the board. Ultimately, the end of that game can be characterized as “the wrong guy was trusted at the wrong time.” Doesn’t that sound like an accurate encapsulation of the last few years of Brendon Shanahan‘s tenure in Toronto?
This week on fan therapy, we’re gonna talk about gaslighting and the experience of being a Toronto sports fan. Gaslighting is “the practice of psychologically manipulating someone into questioning their own sanity, memory, or powers of reasoning.” In other words, gaslighting is someone trying to convince you that it is sunny outside while you can see it’s clearly raining. Or, gaslighting is the management of a team running back the same group year after year, claiming this time they’re ready.
The Shanaplan gaslighting
Look, I’ll be the first to admit that I am a fairweather Jays fan. I’ll go to maybe a game a year, I’ll turn it on and watch in the background very occasionally, and basically only follow the playoffs. However, I feel comfortable saying, based on every single non-Mariners fan who saw that game, that the decision to bring Little in, in the 8th inning, to face Cal Raleigh, was wrong.
Don’t worry, this piece is not going to be a referendum on the Toronto Blue Jays and their manager’s decisions. Far more knowledgeable people than I have plenty more to say on that, and you should read them. However, one common refrain after the Jays collapse was, “Of course, this is Toronto.” Toronto fans are used to this. We’re used to hearing those in charge of our teams spout pure fantasy in an effort to convince us that the plan is correct.
Misplaced loyalty seems to be a theme running through Toronto. John Schneider yesterday talked about how good Little pitched during the regular season. Brendan Shanahan, after firing Kyle Dubas for daring to want to make a change, phoned all of the Leafs top players to share the news and assure them that his intention was to keep the Core Four together. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The Leafs fan experience
Since the 2021 embarrassment (although an argument can be made for the 2020 Columbus disaster), and until this past offseason, being a Leafs fan has been an exercise in gaslighting. We lost in the same way. Every. Single. Time. And every year, we were told that we’re close, we’re on the cusp, just a little bit more tinkering and we’ll be there. Clearly not.
This is in no way unique to Toronto, but I think the relationship between the fanbases of different teams and management is an interesting case study. It often feels as if there is an antagonistic relationship between fans of the Blue Jays and Leafs and decision makers. However, I don’t see the same animosity for the Raptors. In fact, the response to the firing of Masai Ujiri was mostly heartbreak and shock.
On the Jays broadcast yesterday, Caleb Joseph said that the MLB is a “what have you done for me lately” league. I would argue this is also true for fandoms. Masai Ujiri brought a championship to Toronto; that’s what he did for us lately. This buys a lot of goodwill. The Jays haven’t won since 1993, and I don’t need to remind you of the drought the Leafs are currently experiencing. This buys a lot of animosity.
I’ve mentioned this repeatedly, but winning solves everything. Should the Jays win the next two games and make it to the World Series, the bottom of the 8th inning will be memory-holed and never brought up again. The same was true for any of the Leafs teams in the past five years.
Let’s go Blue Jays, and Go Leafs Go.
