Ahhh, if only there were truly a way to describe the Blue Jays experience in Major League Baseball in just a few words! The highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows can be experienced by a fan of the Toronto Blue Jays and indeed when you take a look at what the team has done over its thirty plus year history, what you are going to find is that the Blue Jays experience in Major League Baseball has been a series of peaks and valleys. It's always the two extremes; very rarely is it ever somewhere in between.

When the team was initially founded as the second MLB franchise north of the border, that was the first peak in the experience of Blue Jays fans. Baseball had always been a big sport north of the border; a lot of people like to say that baseball is to Canadians like hockey is to people in the Southern United States, but that is completely wrong. Baseball is a sport loved by Canadians all around the country and indeed the founding of the Blue Jays organization just made the sport even higher profile in the country.

However, for the most part, the Jays stayed on the outside of the MLB looking in at the champions for a very long time and it got to the point where the initial novelty of the team wore off; this was the first valley. People stopped going to games at the cramped and uncomfortable Exhibition Stadium and in general people that were in charge of the team wondered what they should do.

But roller coaster rides are normal for the emotions of a Blue Jays fan and it wasn't long before the Blue Jays rose to prominence within the league. At the same time that the Jays were getting better as a team, they also received a new stadium; the SkyDome. Now known as the Rogers Centre, back then the SkyDome was the most modern stadium in all of Major League Baseball. The new stadium and then later on in 1991 and 1992 the World Series victories resulted in the second peak. All of a sudden baseball was big again and the Blue Jays players were gods.

All good things must come to an end however and pretty soon the Jays were back on the outside looking in; a position they inhabited up until the 2005 season. The 2005 season was ripe with expectation and while the Jays were not able to make the playoffs, they did finish second place in the American League East; the first team to break up the monopoly of the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox on those first two positions in quite some time. The peak had been reached then as great things were expected in 2006 from a team that was stronger than the one that had finished second in 2005.

Peak, valley, peak, valley, peak and once more now a valley as the Blue Jays succumbed to the injury bug and ultimately disappointed all their hopeful fans this year by finishing well out of the playoff race. It was a very disappointing season and one that left Blue Jays fans emotionally bereft.

So where are we now? We are in one of the valleys of the emotional roller coaster ride that is fandom within the Blue Jays organization. There will come a time very soon when another peak comes along and I'll be right there excited with the rest of them. Until then, we have two other top tier professional teams that exhibit the same roller coaster ride to watch!

Learn more about this author, Justin Lemaire.
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