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Blue Jays winning like it's 1993

How about those Toronto Blue Jays? It's been a long time since Canadian fans of Major League Baseball could say that about Canada's team this late in the season.
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How about those Toronto Blue Jays?

It's been a long time since Canadian fans of Major League Baseball could say that about Canada's team this late in the season. Back in 1993, the Jays were the defending World Series champions, looking to repeat, which they did in dramatic fashion with a Joe Carter home run to put away those upstart Philadelphia Phillies.

It's been 22 years since the Jays have been on top of the American League east division standings in the middle of August, with less than 50 games left in the regular season. As of Thursday morning, there the Jays were, a half-game ahead of the despised New York Yankees, thanks to an incredible 10-game consecutive win streak by the Jays (make that 11 as of Thursday afternoon), combined with a five-game losing skid by the men in pinstripes.

To put the length of that 22-year drought into historical context, in the summer of 1993, Internet access was through America Online and Netscape Navigator, Bill Clinton was president, Kim Campbell had succeeded Brian Mulroney as prime minister of Canada, the Montreal Canadiens were Stanley Cup champions, the Montreal Expos were still playing at Olympic Stadium, and there were nearly two billion fewer people in the world than there are now.

Just as much has changed in baseball during that time. After Toronto repeated in 1993, they remained World Series champions through 1994 because of a labour dispute that saw the cancellation of the entire post-season, making it the first time in 90 years that a World Series wasn't played. Fans were slow to return to the game for several years until Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa both broke the 37-year-old single-season home-run record set by Roger Maris in 1998.

Then Barry Bonds happened, and then the performing-enhancing drugs scandal that engulfed Bonds, McGwire, Sosa and many others.

The money went on steroids, too. In 1993, the Jays had the highest payroll in baseball at $51 million and the highest earning player took home about $6 million. Multiply both of those numbers by a factor of five to get to the top annual payrolls and player salaries in 2015. The broadcast rights for Major League Baseball are worth billions alone, before a single jersey or ball cap or game ticket are sold.

Baseball got smarter, too. Numbers and statistics were always part of baseball but as something for fans to obsess over, never something used at the decision-making level. Baseball was a qualitative, not a quantitative science, until Billy Beane of the Oakland A's kicked out his scouts and their tired gut-level understanding of the game in favour of more precise, analytical measurements. Beane's statistical approach, memoralized in Michael Lewis's book Moneyball and the movie adaptation with Brad Pitt, has since swept through the front offices of virtually every Major League Baseball team, including the Jays, to varying degrees.

As a Globe and Mail story pointed out this week, it was the story the numbers told that drove team management to go out and boldly acquire pitching ace David Price and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki in late July. While their win-loss record showed a .500 team with an outside chance of making the playoffs, a more detailed statistical analysis showed one of the best teams in the league that had dropped too many close games this year because it was missing a couple of important contributions at key moments in games, both at the plate and on the mound.

A few smart player personnel changes has abruptly transformed the Jays into a team that expects to win each time its players take to the field and bullies opponents that show any weakness. Best of all, the players are in the right head space. A story in Thursday's Globe noted that there was no celebrating Wednesday night when the team overtook the Yankees in the standings. The team has to play the Yankees 10 more times before the season is done, starting with a three-game set this weekend. Leading the division is nice in the middle of August but the real goal is qualifying for the post-season and winning a championship.

The players are taking the all-business approach but the fans can get excited. The Jays are playing meaningful games in August and heading into September for the first time in a generation.

No time like the present to climb aboard the bandwagon.