10. A woman gave birth to a baby in a baseball stadium.
On September 24th, around the third inning of the Padres vs. Giants game, baby boy Levi was born on the concourse of Petco Park. (The Padres won, by the way.) Mom and baby were eventually reunited with the nurse and EMT who helped with the delivery, and they’re all going to have a story to tell for years to come.
9. A wiener dog got loose.
Nothing has better symbolized our collective baseball joy than the rogue dog who escaped from a race at a minor league ballpark and just kept running and running and running without a single care in the world.
8. Bryce Harper’s Hair.
Yes, he’s admitted that it takes thirty minutes for him to do his hair. Yes, he bleached and dyed it white/grey for fun in the off-season. Yes, it’s entirely wind-machine glorious. But the thing that gave me real feelings about Bryce Harper’s mane was that it seemed to symbolize a new kind of pretty baseball diva. The much-derided Harper wore his own well-groomed vanity like a badge of honour, and took it all the way to National League MVP status. This isn’t the brutish toxic jock machismo that consistently sullies sports culture, but instead a “feminized” confidence that came through like a breath of fresh air.
7. Cliff Pennington pitched in a playoff game.
Oh, the glorious, rare masochism that is watching a position player pitch in a blowout. When outfielder Clifton Randolph Pennington (his actual name) pitched for the Jays in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the ALCS, it was hard not to just give up, sit back and enjoy the total absurdity of the moment. Not only was it the first time Pennington had ever tossed in the major leagues, it was the first time any true position player had ever pitched the playoffs in major league baseball history. Even though the Jays were down by ten runs in such a pivotal game, even the team admired the ridiculous magic of the moment.
6. Scherzer threw a no hitter. And then Scherzer threw another no hitter.
While the Washington Nationals may have imploded in a pool of their own squandered promise, Max Scherzer delivered not one but two complete no hitters in 2015.
5. Josh Hamilton was welcomed back to the Rangers.
Josh Hamilton had a history of addiction, had a relapse and was open about it with the MLB, and the Angels treated him egregiously as a result. (Securing their place in my heart as baseball’s official villains.) Hamilton’s previous home, the Texas Rangers, stepped up to take him on, and the welcome home was tear-jerkingly glorious.
4. Sean Doolittle and Eireann Dolan were consistently amazing.
Oakland Athletics pitcher Sean Doolittle and his partner, Eireann Dolan, made a public offer to purchase tickets from season ticket holders who expressed “discomfort” over the team’s announcement of its first Pride Night. The offer was to buy any unwanted tickets to the upcoming game at face value, with a plan to fill the stadium by donating the seats to Our Space, a Bay Area program for LGBT youth. None of the homophobic fans took the bait, so Dolan instead raised money for members of Our Space to attend, with a commitment from Doolittle and her to match up to $3,000. The pair also recently hosted seventeen Syrian refugee families for Thanksgiving. “Hearts and minds are changed through small actions that we all have the ability to take every single day,” wrote Dolan, and she’s right.
3. David Price became a Blue Jay.
3. Marcus Stroman came back.
By all knowledgeable estimates, there was no way young Marcus Stroman was going to return to the field in 2015—a torn ACL during a spring training bunt play dashed all the optimism that he was the Blue Jays big pitching hope for the season. But in a near mythic comeback he returned to pitch a rain-soaked win against the New York Yankees. Stroman’s entire brand is positivity and proving doubters wrong, and the end result was his tearful dad cheering him on during the playoffs. If that doesn’t choke you up, you’re probably dead inside.
2. Pretty much anything Josh Donaldson did.
Toronto’s collective “Charming Dirtbag Boyfriend” just kept winning our hearts all season long. Not only was he was responsible for what might be the most mind-bending catch of the year, he could easily destroy a baseball with the best of them. Before that hallowed Bautista Bat Flip happened, he gave us what could be argued to be the most blisteringly emotional moment of the season, and then a series of Powerade drenched pics of him in a now legendary black tank top. He could hover-slide into home plate, got the most All Star votes ever, and when the MVP conversation inevitably started to rumble, he was an obvious shoe in. (Sorry Mike Trout.) That, and when he did inevitably get crowned most valuable, he turned to his devoted single mom and said, “we did it.”
1. Seventh Inning, Game 5.
I probably had more feelings in those fifty-two minutes than I’ve had in my entire life. As far as baseball magic goes, the now legendary Bautista Bat Flip was mind-blowing emotional perfection, not only hitting the number one moment spot on many a Jays fan’s lifetime list, but capturing the admiration of fans from around the league. What else would explain me “accidentally” purchasing a giant framed photo of it from a silent auction after a few beers? (I still have no idea where I’m going to hang that thing.)
Stacey May Fowles is a writer of novels, essays, a kick-ass baseball feelings newsletter, and much, much more. You can read her Big Truths essay, “Locked Tight” over at the Walrus (and soon in our Tech-ology collection). We can’t say if all the fans in Toronto deserve a Blue Jays championship, but we do know that Stacey May deserves one, without a doubt. Go Jays Go.
