I was in a California pub surrounded by bemused locals when Jose Bautista launched his now legendary ‘bat flip’ home run that subsequently cost me hundreds of dollars in free drinks to a group of absolute strangers. That’s not necessarily a declaration of my altruistic baseball nature, but it does reveal the extent of how I feel about the Toronto Blue Jays and this particular player.
After years of mediocre regular seasons and the inevitable heartache which comes from missing the playoffs for over two decades, it was initially difficult for me to grasp the sheer magnitude of what his home run actually meant to the fans in Toronto.