Don't do what Donny Don't does - Righting a Wrong

 

I once booed the Blue Jays all time HR leader.  I once booed the Blue Jays all time RBI leader.  I once booed the Blue Jays all time best hitter. I mean he wasn't all those things in 1997, but before he left town, Carlos Delgado would own the Blue Jays record book.

 

Sometimes when we are "young" - which really just means younger than we are in the present - we do stupid things.  Some stupid things are major transgressions in the eyes of others, but one personally does not view it as that big of a deal. Other stupid things are minor transgressions in the eyes of others, but for whatever reason it bothers the guilty individual for an extended period of time.  This one is the latter.

 

Booing a ballplayer might not seem like a big deal as it happens every night in ballparks across the continent.  Except I never boo the home team.  In fact, I think I've only done it once and it happened to be King Carlos. 

 

It was 1997 (I think) so I would have been 21 or 22 years old. I was at a game with a buddy from university and his older brother.  Well his older brother started laying into "Two Five" early on.  Delgado was going through a tough patch and us Jays fans were starting to realize what it meant to be a mediocre baseball team after being only 4 years removed from back-to-back championships.  Let's just say us fans did not handle this new reality all too well.  So I joined in and booed "Two Five".  In fact we heckled him pretty good for an inning or two.  To make matters worse, we were behind the Jays dugout and at one point after a K, I swear Carlos looked up at us and gave an icy cold stare.  Not my finest moment.

 

For whatever reason, this event always bugged me.  It was just so stupid and immature.  Not only was he the team's best player, from all accounts he was likely the team's best human being.  Arggh.  So silly.

 

Anyways, that was why when the schedule came out this year, the very first game I checked off to attend was Sunday July 21.  That was the day Carlos got his due accord from Toronto and got his name up on the Level of Excellence.   It was also the day I got to cheer and clap.  It was the day I got to make amends for a previous transgression.

 

So thank you Carlos for many wonderful seasons.  On many nights you were the lone bright spot for the team and you were a lot of fun to watch. It is too bad the team never went anywhere while you were here, but we loved you anyways.  Oh and by the way, I'm really, really sorry I booed you 15 years ago.