What now for the heartbroken Blue Jays and their equally heartbroken and exhausted fan base?
What now when the Jays put everything they could into signing the unicorn, Shohei Ohtani, and now are left with a giant opening in their lineup, runners in scoring position and nothing to show for it.
There is no prize for coming close to signing the most unique player in baseball history. There is no bragging to be done for being in the running, for finishing on the podium but losing out on the gold medal.
This isn’t the Olympics. You don’t celebrate second or third place. The past few days have demonstrated the excitement and the appetite of an engaged, frustrated and sometimes disbelieving Blue Jays Nation to bring this unique player to Toronto. Friday was maybe the most unusual day in Toronto sports history, with the belief that Ohtani was on his way to this city, that the free agent was this close to being a Blue Jay. And with that, came a feeling that was hard to describe around town.
And now that ends and there are numerous repairs that need to be made to more than just the stadium. The Blue Jays went at Ohtani with an Ohtani-like aggressiveness. They swung for the fences. In the modern-day world of baseball, though Mighty Mark Shapiro and Mighty Ross Atkins played the part of Casey, sadly, for a city and a country, they struck out.
But they should be congratulated for at least being in the game — and this was a serious game. They didn’t mail this in. This wasn’t a plan to get people talking.
They went hard at Ohtani. They made the process more interesting and more competitive. Other teams went hard at it, as well. But the Los Angeles Dodgers, the early-book favourites, wound up with the modern day Babe Ruth at a hugely expensive price.
The Dodgers will play a series at the Rogers Centre on April 26-28. No booing is necessary here.
