I Hate Mondays: I Am Canadian

Okay, okay, Blue Jays, Blue Jays, let's play ball!

Those lyrics that open the seventh inning stretch at the Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays, seem to have a more acute importance nowadays rather than their usual torpid tunefulness.

Canada is looking bleak in the world of sports — this is definitely a time of need.

The National Hockey League is usually the main outlet that most Canadian bacon turns to since it is the one professional sport that represents more than one Canadian city, but with the NHL temporarily out of order, Canadians are left with slim pickings.

It's either the Toronto Raptors or the Toronto Blue Jays.

Feels a little lonely doesn't it, eh?

This is the time of year where Canada usually makes a name for itself and sometimes even finds its way on ESPN's "SportsCenter."

At this point last year, Canadians were like a pancake in a maple syrup store. For the first time in Avril Lavigne's recent memory, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary all made the NHL playoffs.

This year those same Canadians have been pancaked by the sport's collapse.

Add to that an au revoir to the Montreal Expos as well as Vince Carter and Carlos Delgado, two of the biggest Canadian sports icons over the past decade, and it's no wonder that Molson is brewing a beer with an elevated alcohol percentage of 6.5.

So that leaves us with igloo building, lumberjacking, and the CFL — and of course the aforementioned Raptors and Jays.

The Raptors may have crumbled faster than a three-day-old cruller, but they still stand to make a dent in their sport sooner than the Jays. Sure, the team has quit trying and the front office is undergoing examination, but next year an even record will give them postseason possibilities. Meanwhile, the Jays can play moneyball all they want, but as long as the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox are in the same division, World Series aspirations remain grim. It's like Alanis Morissette going up against Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears. Bonne chance.

One thing the Jays can do is become competitive and bridge the gap until the other franchises returns. Generate some excitement, contend for a little while and give us a little bit of hope. Continue to make a vocal statement, like winning two out of three against the World Series champions, so that the North American sports remain just that, and not merely American.

Let's go Blue Jays because right now, they are all we've got.

Canadian stereotypes and Canadian sports mix like Mondays and me.

"My country is not a country, it is the winter." — Gilles Vigneault