I do think this team and the core have had their praises sung a bit too much in their time here. Rogers owning both the team and the sports network they play on doesn't help as they're constantly blowing smoke up the teams ass, but also the Jays are the darling team of Canada. Everyone from coast to coast loves the boys of summer, and I'd reckon across Canada they Jays are more popular than the Raptors despite both teams being the only Canadian ones in their respective major leagues (give the Raptors another decade or two and that might change though). So unlike the Leafs, despite playing in the same city, they don't face as much criticism or scrutiny as they probably should. I also never got this arrogant vibe from the Raptors core en route to a Championship, or from the Leafs core despite both them and the Jays score being roughly the same ages. I think the Leafs core going to the playoffs early and often and losing has kept them from being overly confident like the Jays. Plus most of this country and media is just as eager to tear down the Leafs as build them up, whereas building up the Jays is a constant project by Rogers.
The likes of Vladdy, Bo, Lourdes, Kirk, Manoah, and Romano have all been hyped up to no end by Rogers. They've pushed the "this is our year" thing hard, desperate to re-live the 2015-2016 Jays who were exciting, contended, and won in the playoffs and had the whole country behind them and buying merch and jacked up ticket prices. Despite all the propaganda they can't will the Jays into a playoff run, and as such have only two sold out playoff games to show for their effort.
And as far as cockiness goes, maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill but I've never cared for how the Jays treat middle of the season wins compared to the Raptors or Leafs. Every bloody time they win at home Vladdy or someone has to come out with the tub of water and soak whoever Hazel or Arash is interviewing. Like come on, it's the middle of July, grow up. I'm not an "I hate fun" guy, the jacket for instance is more than fine, the goofing off in the dugout is fine, but Christ let's save the post-game dunking for wins in actual important games, something this team hasn't managed to do in four tries now. Don't recall the Lowry and DeRozan/Leonard Raptors celebrating every regular season win like this, nor the Leafs, not that they’re examples to hold up for playoff success.
