AND AARON HILL?

Yes, it's Dan the Man, back from the dead.

I've been avoiding the Toronto Blue Jays like a pandemic. I haven't really watched many games since I started working weekends sometime in July, but there were highlights in the downturn of the Toronto Blue Jays. You could compare this season to the beginning of the recession last September when the stock market crashed from an all-time high to the newest lows ever in a couple of decades. Just like how the Jays were 27-14 in May before falling to a dismal current 65-79.

It was games like Halladay's one-hit absolute dynamite shutout of the New York Yankees last Friday, and Randy Ruiz's assault on Yankee pitching that gave way to extended Blue Jay boners once in a blue moon, and prompting famous sportswriters like I to post such things on facebook like this:

when they look back at the storied career of pitching great roy halladay, they'll remember the times like tonight when he dominated the new york yankees in absolutely convincing fashion....

ROY HALLADAY HAS SHUTOUT THE NEW YORK YANKEES WITH A ONE-HIT COMPLETE GEM OF A COMPLETE GAME SHUTOUT!

And yet, only 11,198 fans- the lowest ever attendance to go to a Blue Jays' game would show up to his next start. It just shows how apathetic Toronto fans have become towards the Blue Jays, just as they were to the Raptors after the firing of Sam Mitchell- which would end up becoming a key point in a season where Toronto took too long to adjust under Canadian-born Jay Triano.

And then there was last night- a game in which the Blue Jays trailed but never gave up? They'd won two straight games and made it three with Aaron Hill's 32nd dinger of the season, which happens to be just seven behind league-leading Carlos Pena. One may never have dreamed of Hill shattering the club-record for most homeruns by a second baseman formerly held by Robbie Alomar, but to hit thirty two? To double that total by season's end with at least 34 homeruns? Wow, there is all but one thing to say- that Aaron Hill is certainly the real deal.

AARON HILL HAS A FAVOURABLE 3-1 COUNT HERE, DRILLED INTO LEFT FIELD, THIS IS BACK, BACK, BACK, BACK AND GONE! AARON HILL HAS PUT THE JAYS UP IN THE TOP OF THE NINTH 8-6! AND FRASOR SHUT THE DOOR IN THE NINTH!

You know, it's exciting baseball like that that gets the fans back into it. And for one night, even if they lost today in terrible fashion to the Tigers 7-2, you become that baseball fan you've always been again.

It's just the way it is. And I'm geared for playoff baseball, but hey, would the Rangers ever fucking catch up to Boston? That's the one thing that I want to see left in this season I have now formally declared a write-off.