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by James Scarfone

It is August. The back to school commercials return, your office feels empty as co-workers go on vacation and the dog days of summer officially begin. It’s hot and sunny every day yet you’re somewhat depressed. The lone stat holiday is mysterious in its origin and thus lacking in celebration, and if you’re in Quebec, you don’t even get one. There are fewer weddings and birthdays too it seems.

As a sports fan, there’s not a whole lot out there for you unless you count those contrived Entourage cameos. The NFL is still about six weeks away, hockey and basketball are at the furthest point from their seasons ending and starting again.

Sure you have the CFL but as a Ticat fan, where losing is a science we’ve perfected, the season doesn’t really kick off until Labour Day. The result of that game usually tells us where the season is going. And, with the Lions, Esks and Bombers also underwhelming—plus a not-so-confident-anymore Argos squad—more than half the league is in crisis mode only a few weeks into the season, leaving so many fans feeling hollow.

The month’s lone golf major is the least relevant. Frankly, it’s a dud, especially in 2010 with Tiger reeling. Nothing in tennis and no decent auto race (I’m kidding, nobody watches that at any time).

This year, we also have World Cup hangover so soccer nuts aren’t as primed as usual for league play.

At Least We’ve Got Our Jays

All you really get to enjoy in August is baseball, but unfortunately it’s right about the time where the Toronto Blue Jays’ season starts to tail off. The rest of the schedule becomes more about dragging their fans for the deliriously long trip back to mediocrity and hopelessness for two months. All the good feelings that were built up with four solid months of “just a few games back of the wildcard” start to dwindle in what I call the “slow month.”

August: Baseball’s Slow Month

I don’t recall any memorable Jays moments from the month of August, and I’ve been going to games since the late 80s. From Exhibition Stadium as a small child, to attending about 10 games a year during the glory years of 1991-1993 at a packed SkyDome sitting 23 rows up from the first base line (amazing seats), to riding the blasé post-strike years in the same seats but feeling unfulfilled by a mediocre team, up to the present day.

Now, I go to about five games a year in the post-Halladay era. Today, there’s more hope than there was 10 years ago and the team is about as relevant as it was when contention was on the doorstep like it was around 1985. You can say I’ve been around the ballpark enough to have a few memories. Yet, nothing in the slow month.

Stieb’s no-hitter was a couple days shy of August. Gruber’s cycle was in April. Delgado’s four homers in a game happened in September as did the unforgettable 10 team home runs game. The ’91 All-Star Game in July, moving into SkyDome and rebirth in June, last year’s Halladay-Burnett matchup in May. Nope, nothing in August.

Also noteworthy, August is the only month never to have a perfect game. Giants fans have Bonds’ 756^th home run to savour as an August memory and A-Rod will get his 600^th some time this month, where, ironically, the Jays might be the victim and thus setting up a dubious memory.

Actually, I do remember some things from August. It’s usually the time of year I take my grandmother to the Jays game. Those are always memorable, but the game is usually secondary.

Not a great comparison, but when a bunch of my buddies and I go to our one Bills game a year in Buffalo, we don’t know what the hell happens in that game nor do we really care. This is a group of guys that just spent the past 24 hours drinking in a smelly and cramped hotel room with five coolers and a bad college football game on the 21-inch screen, gambling, hopping sports bars that have recliners, pretending we like the funny-looking waitress from Niagara Falls so that we can get a deal on beef nachos and pitchers, tailgating with nothing but Old Milwaukee and sausage, and sitting on a cold bleacher bench in 20-below winds. We like the company, that’s all.

The August Blue Jays

The other unforgettable August memory I have, probably because it is annually reinforced, is of the Jays folding. For any baseball team is worth its salt, its run in August will often dictate where it stands in September, preparing them for a run in October.

It’s very tough to win in the dog days. Pitchers arms get tired (which might explain the lack of perfect games cited previously), hitters slump, home runs go down, bullpens deflate more and fans grow weary in the middle of a long season.

All things lead to mediocre play unless your team has the grit and leadership, not to mention talent, to persevere.

For over 15 years now, the Jays have subjected their fans to less than stellar Augusts, which has meant no October baseball in Canada. Some years they’ll bend without breaking, like in 2008 where a steady but not impressive August led a pretty good team into September playing the most meaningful games—including an electric series at Fenway—they had played in baseball’s final month since the World Series years. But generally speaking, the Jays play in August has been its undoing.

The Blue Jays’ Toughest August Ever…

This month, Toronto embarks on perhaps its toughest schedule in memory: 38 straight games against teams with a .500 record or better including eight series against division foes in New York, Boston and Tampa Bay.

Through Sunday, the Jays are 54-51 and 11 games back of the wildcard spot. It’s a make or break ’em month. It would be nice to see some meaningful baseball games in September in this town, but to have that, you need a good August run.

Winning series on the road, beating better clubs and maintaining a healthy lineup. Those are the keys to success. Based on this schedule and the wishy-washy performance of the club thus far, plus all that history of bad Augusts, all signs point to this being a messy month.

Management warned us that 2010 would be a rebuilding year and fans grudgingly accepted. After all, the best pitcher to don the uniform is gone and there was very little foundation to build from. So, really, what did we all expect? Everyone thought Toronto would be out of it well before the all-star break anyway, so we should enjoy what we’ve had.

All this season’s over-performance really did though was set the team up for another bleak August perhaps. Unless, of course, A-Rod gets that elusive hit. That will be memorable for some people. Just get me to the NFL.

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