Jose Bautista was the last man to leave. He walked slowly, singularly towards the Blue Jays dugout. He didn’t wave, didn’t tip his cap, didn’t look up, wasn’t sure at the moment what to do or what to think.
This was the end.
The end of another magical Blue Jays season. The end, quite likely, for Bautista as one of the great Blue Jays to ever play. A soldout crowd at the Rogers Centre was almost silent as he disappeared down the hallway beneath the stands. And then a second later, as if on cue, the Jays fans took to their feet and in all this disappointment began their “Let’s Go Blue Jays” chant.