Stuck In Thee Garage #609: December 5, 2025

It has already been established that time has no meaning anymore. So when I think back to 2005, it's like it just happened. But it was, you know, 20 freakin' years ago. Nevertheless, this week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs from good ol' '05 in hour 2. It was a great flashback to last week when I was in my 30s. One thing that hasn't changed is Mr. Pibb and Red Vines equals crazy delicious.

This playlist says eat my digital shorts:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

The Lemon Twigs - I've Got a Broken Heart/Single

Glitterer - Somebody/erer

S.C.A.B. - I Hate Expectations/Somebody in New York Loves You!

Sharp Pins - I Don't Have the Heart/Balloon Balloon Balloon

Pigeon Pit - Landlord Special/Leash Aggression

The Belair Lip Bombs - If You've Got the Time/Again

The Dears - Tears of a Nation/Life is Beautiful! Life is Beautiful! Life is Beautiful!

Big Bill - Young Men of the World/Sick Myth

Curious Volume - Fidelio/Nothing is Good

Husker Du - Eight Miles High (1/30 at First Ave.)/1985: The Miracle Year

Bass Drum of Death - Never Gonna Drink About You/Six

Pynch - Post Punk New Wave/Beautiful Noise

Militarie Gun - God Owes Me Money/God Save the Gun

Jeff Tweedy - This is How It Ends/Twilight Override

Wednesday - Reality TV Argument Bleeds/Bleeds

The Lemonheads - Cell Phone Blues/Love Chant

Tony Molina - Don't Belong/On This Day

Gouwzee - Cold Roller/Gouwzee

Hour 2: 2005

Sleater-Kinney - The Fox/The Woods

Queens of the Stone Age - Everybody Knows That You Are Insane/Lullabies to Paralyze

The Mars Volta - The Widow/Frances the Mute

The Hold Steady - Your Little Hoodrat Friend/Separation Sunday

Greg Dulli - Early Today (And Later That Night)/Amber Headlights

Spoon - My Mathematical Mind/Gimme Fiction

The White Stripes - Blue Orchid/Get Behind Me Satan

Black Mountain - No Separation/Black Mountain

Broken Social Scene - Our Faces Split the Coast in Half/Broken Social Scene

Bloc Party - Helicopter/Silent Alarm

Kaiser Chiefs - Everyday I Love You Less and Less/Employment

Art Brut - Emily Kane/Bang Bang Rock 'N' Roll

Against Me! - Don't Lose Touch/Searching for a Former Clarity

Wolf Parade - Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts/Apologies to the Queen Mary

Okkervil River - Black/Black Sheep Boy

This playlist is going viral!
 

Completely Conspicuous 667: Everything In Its Right Place

 Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we pick our favorite songs released in the 21st century. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• We're a quarter through this century
• Phil: Thought this would be easy but came up with a long list
• What about a song grabs you?
• Jay: Original top 10 list was all songs from the 00s
• Songs that didn't make our top 10
• Phil: Tribe Called Quest, Vampire Weekend, Meatbodies, Wilco, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, TV On the Radio, Wet Leg, Franz Ferdinand, Michael Kiwanuka, MJ Lenderman, U2, Frances Forever, Patrick Sweeney, Mudcrutch, Sufjan Stevens, Shearwater, Jason Isbell, Songs: Ohia
• Jay: Radiohead, Bowie, At the Drive-In, Drive-By Truckers, Sloan, Sleater-Kinney, Death from Above 1979, Jay-Z, Hold Steady, Gord Downie, Tragically Hip, Living Colour, Outkast, Wild Flag, White Stripes, PJ Harvey, Parquet Courts, Spoon, M.I.A., Kaiser Chiefs
• Jay: Found out about a lot of new music from MP3 blogs in the early 00s
• Phil's #10: Spoon breaks through
• Song was a cover of a song by The Natural History
• Jay's #10: Last song from Bowie's iconic farewell album
• Love the album but it's hard to listen to because of the sadness
• Phil's #9: Mournful ballad from Mark Lanegan
• Jay: My favorite Lanegan song
• Mixing bubblegum and chewing tobacco is a bad idea
• A duet with Chris Goss of Masters of Reality
• Jay's #9: A fiery hip hop blast from Run the Jewels and Zach de la Rocha
• Waiting for their next album; last one was in 2020
• Phil's #7: Bluegrass turn from Billy Strings
• Strings is winning over a lot of fans of other genres
• Phil's #8: Protest song from Drive-By Truckers
• Band chronicles a lot of real-life injustices
• Jay's #8: Angry ripper from Superchunk
• Commentary on the political climate of 2018
• Sometimes fans don't like the message
• Jay's #7: White Stripes hit the mainstream
• Took a year for their third album to become a hit
• To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through wherever you get podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Stuck In Thee Garage #608: November 28, 2025

Getting together with the family for Thanksgiving can be difficult for some folks. The travel, the food, the emotions, it can all be a bit much. But that's also what makes it great. And then the day after has its own vibe, involving leftovers, drowsiness, TV and general digestion. Today on Stuck In Thee Garage, I celebrated the whole messy holiday with an hour of music about eating and an hour about the aftermath. Listen to it after sharing a meal with the Green Goblin.

The playlist is taking a quick nap:

Hour 1: Eat

Artist - Song/Album

Ovlov - Eat More (demo)/Buds Demos

Getdown Services - Eat Quiche, Sleep, Repeat/Primordial Slot Machine

Bloodshot Bill and King Khan - Nibble the Pie/Tandoori Knights

A. Savage - Thanksgiving Prayer/Several Songs About Fire

They Are Gutting a Body of Water - American Food/Lotto

Titus Andronicus - Food Fight!/Local Business

Stove - Wet Food/Is Stupider

Electric Six - Talking Turkey/Zodiac

Odds - Eat My Brain/Kids in the Hall Brain Candy soundtrack

Thunderbirds Are Now! - Eat This City/Justamoustache

Mexican Slang - Eating Fettucine with Steve Albini/Blush

Destroyer - Eat the Wine, Drink the Bread/Labyrinthitis

Medium Medium - Hungry, So Angry/The Glitterhouse

The Godfathers - Cold Turkey (Live at the Cabaret Metro, Chicago)/Birth, School, Work, Death (bonus track)

The Upper Crust - Let Them Eat Rock (live)/Entitled

Future of the Left - Eating for None/The Peace & Truce of Future of the Left

Motorhead - Eat the Rich/Rock 'n' Roll

Hour 2: The aftermath

Beck - Pay No Mind (Snoozer)/Mellow Gold

Eels - In My Dreams/Hombre Loco

Sloan - I Dream of Sleep/Steady

Broken Social Scene - Big Couches/Let's Try the After

Bethlehem Steel - Couches/Bethlehem Steel

Grand Archives - Torn Blue Foam Couch/The Grand Archives

Franz Ferdinand - Lazy Boy/Always Ascending

Kiwi Jr. - Football Money/Football Money

Colleen Green - TV/I Want to Grow Up

Sports - Reality TV/All of Something

Country Westerns - TV Light/Country Westerns

Jeff Rosenstock - TV Stars/POST-

Black Flag - TV Party/Damaged

Minutemen - There Ain't Shit on TV Tonight/Double Nickels on the Dime

Cheap Trick - The Ballad of TV Violence (I'm Not the Only Boy)/Cheap Trick

Steely Dan - Black Friday/Katy Lied

Faith No More - Black Friday/Sol Invictus

Palehound - Black Friday/Black Friday

Crank up the leftover rock HERE!

 

Stuck In Thee Garage #607: November 21, 2025

There are plenty of things in this world that are overrated, overhyped, oversold. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played a bunch of songs that I feel don't get their due (after playing new music from Big Bill, Curious Volume and Shudder to Think in hour 1). It's pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Larry knows what's up:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Big Bill - The Money Store/Sick Myth

Curious Volume - Try/Nothing is Good

Shudder to Think - Playback/Single

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - Manny's Ready to Roll/Pogo Rodeo

The Lemonheads - Marauders/Love Chant

The Dears - Dead Contacts/Life is Beautiful! Life is Beautiful! Life is Beautiful!

Middle Mass - The Room Next to Her/Songs for the Sapphire Hare

Snocaps - Cherry Hard Candy/Snocaps

Wednesday - Candy Breath/Bleeds

Guided By Voices - Replay/Thick Rich and Delicious

Tiberius - Felt/Troubadour

Guerilla Toss - Deep Sight/You're Weird Now

Shame - To and Fro/Cutthroat

Algernon Cadwallader - Revelation 420/Trying Not to Have a Thought

Pile - Holds/Sunshine and Balance Beams

Superchunk - Cue/Songs in the Key of Yikes

Hour 2: Underrated

Material Issue - Valerie Loves Me/International Pop Overthrow

Gigolo Aunts - C'mon C'mon/Minor Chords and Major Themes

Graham Coxon - Freakin' Out/Happiness in Magazines

Richard Hell and the Voidoids - Blank Generation/Blank Generation

The Buzzcocks - Just Lust/Singles Going Steady

X - We're Desperate/Wild Gift

Thin Lizzy - Waiting for an Alibi/Black Rose: A Rock Legend

Judas Priest - The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown)/Hell Bent for Leather

Motley Crue - Take Me to the Top/Too Fast for Love

Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict a Riot/Employment

Maritime - Paraphernalia/Human Hearts

The Fiery Furnaces - Restorative Beer/Widow City

Johnny Foreigner - Ghost the Festivals/Grace and the Bigger Picture

The Boomtown Rats - Up All Night/Mondo Bongo

The Cars - Cruiser/Shake It Up

Joe Jackson - Kinda Kute/I'm the Man

Graham Parker - Local Girls/Squeezing Out Sparks

Get yer ya-yas out with the playlist, yo!

Stuck In Thee Garage #606: November 14, 2025

The future ain't all it's cracked up to be. When I was a kid, we were told things would be wondrous and utopian by now, but we're still slogging through the mud, as it were. Oh well, at least we've got cool music. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played hot new jammers from Kiwi Jr., Shudder to Think and The Dears in hour 1 and music about the future in hour 2. It'll make you want to watch a Joe Don Baker movie from 50 years ago. Wait, is that a good thing?

This playlist is as loud as Mitchell's blazer:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Kiwi Jr. - Hard Drive, Ontario/Single

Shudder to Think - Thirst Walk/Single

The Dears - Doom Pays/Life is Beautiful! Life is Beautiful! Life is Beautiful!

Husker Du - Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely (11-3 SLC)/1985: The Miracle Year

Rousers - Party Boy/1979 Sire Session

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - Born in the ADs/Pogo Rodeo

White Reaper - Eraser/Only Slightly Empty

Snocaps - Coast/Snocaps

The Belair Lip Bombs - Don't Let Them/Again

Spanish Love Songs - Heavenhead ft. Illuminati Hotties/A Brief Intermission in the Flattening of Time

Guided By Voices - Phantasmagoric Upstarts/Thick Rich and Delicious

They Are Gutting a Body of Water - RL Stine/Lotto

Jeff Tweedy - No One's Moving/Twilight Override

Militarie Gun - Wake Up and Smile/God Save the Gun

Just Mustard - Silver/We Were Just Here

Ex-Hyena - Details Fade/XX Your Love

Snooper - Pom Pom/Worldwide

Hour 2: The future

John Davis - The Future/Jinx

Jeff Rosenstock - Future is Dumb/Hellmode

Health - Future of Hell/Rat Wars

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Futurephobic/Data Doom

The Bug Club - Living in the Future/Very Human Features

FACS - You Future/Wish Defense

Radiohead - Subterranean Homesick Alien/OK Computer

Telekinesis - In a Future World/Ad Infinitum

Matthew Sweet - Future Shock/In Reverse

Wolf Parade - Fall Into the Future/Thin Mind

The Black Angels - History of the Future/Wilderness of Mirrors

Kal Marks - The Future/My Name is Hell

Future of the Left - Future Child Embarrassment Matrix/How to Stop Your Brain in an Accident

St. Vincent - Fear the Future/Masseduction

Wild Flag - Future Crimes/Wild Flag

Swearin' - Future Hell/Fall Into the Sun

The Beths - Future Me Hates Me/Future Me Hates Me

This playlist is beamin' from the Satellite of Love!

Completely Conspicuous 666: Playing Favorites

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we pick our favorite songs by randomly selected artists. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as"). [NOTE: Something weird is going on with the Libsyn player but the episode definitely exists. You can still download it and it's in all the podcast catchers of choice.]

Show notes:

• More of our favorites from artists picked out of a hat
• Phil: Pretenders
• Overcoming the deaths of half the band
• Jay: James Brown
• Love the '70s funk era
• Prince was able to replicate JB's dance moves in concert
• Phil: Parquet Courts
• Built a great catalog over the last 13 years or so
• Influenced by the late '70s NYC CBGB sound
• Jay: Beatles
• How do you pick a single Beatles song?
• Phil: Sleater-Kinney
• Powerful band
• Janet Weiss is a powerhouse drummer
• Jay: Led Zeppelin
• Favorite song depends on the day
• Phil: Prince
• He could play any style
• Jay: Hoodoo Gurus
• Saw them for the first time last year
• Caught the mid-80s college rock wave
• Phil: The Police
• Ghost in the Machine was one of the first albums Phil ever bought
• Early Police is untouchable
• Jay: The Clash
• Political rock that still holds true today
• Covered a lot of musical ground
• Phil: R.E.M.
• Was introduced to the band by his uncle
• People who jumped off the bandwagon after they went to a major are missing out
• Jay: Elvis Costello
• EC has been all over the map musically, but his lyrics are always on point
• Phil: Squeeze
• Difford and Tilbrook were great songwriters
• Amazing string of classic songs
• Jay: Joe Jackson
• Easy choice 
• The first few albums were outstanding
• Musical chameleon

Completely Conspicuous is available wherever you get podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian. 

Stuck In Thee Garage #605: November 7, 2025

Nobody wants to get old. It just happens. The key is not to act like you're old, or so they tell me. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about getting older in hour 2 (after an hour of new music) and I swear they'll clear up your diabeetus in no time.

This playlist is the right thing to do, and a tasty way to do it:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Middle Mass - Unsettled/Songs for the Sapphire Hare

Courtney Barnett - Stay In Your Lane/Single

Snocaps - Over Our Heads/Snocaps

Sleaford Mods - The Good Life (feat. Gwendoline Christie and Big Special)/The Demise of Planet X

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - Salsa Verde/Pogo Rodeo

The Lemonheads - In the Margin/Love Chant

Guided By Voices - (You Can't Go Back to) Oxford Talawanda/Thick Rich and Delicious

Melody's Echo Chamber - Eyes Closed/Unclouded

The Belair Lip Bombs - Hey You/Again

Just Mustard - That I Might Not See/We Were Just Here

Ex-Hyena - Vanishing Edge/XX Your Love

Phantom Wave - Splashed/Echoes Unknown

They Are Gutting a Body of Water - Sour Diesel/Lotto

Militarie Gun - Throw Me Away/God Save the Gun

The Telephone Numbers - Telephone Numbers Theme/Scarecrow II

Steel Beans - Full-Flavored Vibrations/Steel Beans

Sprints - Rage/All That is Over

The Hives - O.C.D.O.D./The Hives Forever Forever the Hives

Hour 2: Older

Genesis Owusu - Old Man/Struggler

The Fall - An Older Lover, Etc./Slates (Live)

Nosferatu D2 - Older, Wiser, Sadder/Older, Wiser, Sadder

Guided By Voices - The Old Grunt/Mag Earwhig!

Catholic Action - Yr Old Dad/Celebrated by Strangers

Boygenius - Letter to an Old Poet/The Record

La Fille - Everyday Feels Like I'm Getting Older/Alright Already

The Clean - Getting Older/Compilation

Spider Bags - My Old Lady/Live on WFMU 6/13/15

Stephen Malkmus - Old Jerry/Pig Lib bonus track

Eels - In My Younger Days/End Times

Wilco - When You Wake Up Feeling Old/Summerteeth

Pulp - Help the Aged/This is Hardcore

Sloan - Dignified and Old/Recorded Live at a Sloan Party

Teenage Fanclub - Older Guys/Thirteen

Bob Mould - Silver Age/Silver Age

Take yer Metamucil and crank up the playlist HERE! 

Completely Conspicuous 665: Choose Your Fighter

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we pick our favorite songs by randomly selected artists. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Phil's idea: Blind rankings
• We each pick 10 artist names out of a hat and name a favorite song for each
• Phil picks names from N-Z, Jay gets A-M
• No prep time for our answers
• Phil: Velvet Underground
• Plenty to choose from
• Trying not to choose popular songs
• Jay: B-52s
• They made the "no play list" at Jay's wedding
• Great catalog of bangers
• Phil: Talking Heads
• Band had different phases
• Mixed Afro rhythms, funk and skronky guitar from Adrian Belew
• New David Byrne album is good
• Jay: Living Colour
• Band played many different styles well
• They still bring the heat
• Phil: Neil Young
• A musical chameleon
• Amazing solo or with Crazy Horse (or other backing bands)
• Jay: Grateful Dead
• Easy choice
• Always had a favorite song by them
• To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Stuck In Thee Garage #604: October 31, 2025

Some people don't like Halloween: Too commercialized, too scary, too whatever. I'm not one of those people. I love it. I don't love it so much that I'm going to join the throngs of people in Salem tonight, but I enjoy the general vibe of the season. And part of that is putting together two hours of Halloween-adjacent songs for Stuck In Thee Garage. There's a wide assortment of songs about ghosts, goblins, evil and assorted other mayhem. Best enjoyed with a nice chianti and some fava beans.

Check out the playlist, Clarice:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

X - Devil Doll/More Fun in the New World

The Gun Club - Ghost on the Highway/Fire of Love

The Jam - Ghosts/The Gift

Eldridge Rodriguez - The Ghost of Emily Post/Atrophy

Hallelujah the Hills - Confessions of an Ex-Ghost/Bootleg: Live 12/15/23 at the Sinclair

Boeckner - Ghost in the Mirror/Boeckner!

Ghost Party - Ghost Moves/Ghost Moves

TV On the Radio - Let the Devil In/Return to Cookie Mountain

Concrete Blonde - The Beast/Bloodletting

Peter Murphy - The Line Between the Devil's Teeth (And That Which Cannot Be Repeat)/Deep

Alien Sex Fiend - Now I'm Feeling Zombified/Curse

The Raveonettes - Dead Sound/Lust Lust Lust

L7 - Ouija Board Lies/Scatter the Rats

Queens of the Stone Age - The Evil Has Landed/Villains

Hour 2:

Black Sabbath - N.I.B./Black Sabbath

Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden/Live After Death

Dio - Don't Talk to Strangers/Holy Diver

Metallica - Am I Evil?/Garage Days Re-Revisited

Howlin' Wolf - Moanin' at Midnight/My Baby Walked Off (Sun Records 1951-1953)

Johnny Cash - Rusty Cage/Unchained

South San Gabriel - Of Evil/For Evil /Dual Hawks

Thee Oh Sees - Withered Hand/Mutilator Defeated at Last

Faith No More and Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. - Another Body Murdered/Judgment Night soundtrack

Soundgarden - Beyond the Wheel/Ultramega OK

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Fire/The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies/Billion Dollar Babies

The Afghan Whigs - Tonight/Congregation

Crank up the soundtrack and howl at the moon or something!

Stuck In Thee Garage #603: October 24, 2025

Every so often, it's fun to look back at a year in the distant past and see what was going on. It's scary to think that 2010 qualifies as one of those years, but it was 15 years ago! Among the new developments that year were the iPad, Game of Thrones and Angry Birds. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs from 2010 in hour 2 and they're as kickass as I remember, so that's good, right?

Prepare for battle with the playlist:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Weird Nightmare - Forever Elsewhere/Single

They Are Gutting a Body of Water - The Chase/LOTTO

Steel Beans - Throwin' Stones/Steel Beans

Katy and the Null Sets - F*** Me!/Troublemaker

Militarie Gun - Fill Me With Paint/God Save the Gun

Weakened Friends - NPC (ft. Buckethead)/Feels Like Hell

Snooper - Relay/Worldwide

Geese - Trinidad/Getting Killed

Phantom Wave - Wanton/Echoes Unknown

The Telephone Numbers - Scarecrow/Scarecrow II

Jeff Tweedy - KC Rain (No Wonder)/Twilight Override

Trapper Schoepp - Mad, Mad, Mad (Sweet Salvation)/Osborne

Wednesday - Pick Up That Knife/Bleeds

KISS - Strutter/Alive!

KISS - Detroit Rock City/Destroyer

Ace Frehley - New York Groove/Ace Frehley

Hour 2: 2010

Los Campesinos! - Romance is Boring/Romance is Boring

Grinderman - Worm Tamer/Grinderman 2

Les Savy Fav - Let's Get Out of Here/Root for Ruin

Superchunk - My Gap Feels Weird/Majesty Shredding

Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Gimme the Wire/The Brutalist Bricks

Black Mountain - Let Spirits Ride/Wilderness Heart

The Henry Clay People - Switch Kids/Somewhere on the Golden Coast

The Hold Steady - Rock Problems/Heaven is Whenever

The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang/American Slang

The New Pornographers - Your Hands (Together)/Together

Wintersleep - Encyclopedia/New Inheritors

Wolf Parade - Ghost Pressure/Expo 86

LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls/This is Happening

Spoon - Got Nuffin/Transference

Drive-By Truckers - Drag the Lake Charlie/The Big To-Do

Titus Andronicus - No Future Part Three: Escape from No Future/The Monitor

Dude, this thing claims I have mail and/or a playlist.

Bringing It All Back Home

I've been pretty distracted today. Sure, I've been working, but I'm still riding high from the Toronto Blue Jays' amazing ALCS Game 7 win last night that has propelled them into the World Series. They're underdogs against the well-heeled LA Dodgers, but there's a reason they don't just award the championship to a team without playing the games.

The Jays' success this year has reinvigorated my interest in baseball. It had been waning in recent years thanks to lackluster Jays performances, culminating in 2024's horrendous last-place finish. Add to that my rapidly shrinking attention span, which made watching a full baseball game a very rare occurrence. I watched parts of the World Series last fall between the Dodgers and Yankees, but if you're not a fan of those teams, you tend to get sick of seeing them spending their way to success every season (moreso the Dodgers than the Yankees, who haven't won a title since 2009).

I paid more attention to hockey, which has always been my favorite sport, and football. But this season, after a slow start, the Jays started to play better and by midseason, were starting to make some noise in the AL East. I've been a subscriber to MLB.tv for years so I could watch Jays games and in June, I started paying closer attention to the team and actually watching full games. On Canada Day (July 1 for the uninitiated), the Jays beat the Yankees 12-5, with George Springer hitting a grand slam in the 7th to put the Jays ahead. They swept the four games in that series and took over first place in the division, which they managed to hold onto for the rest of the season.

The team was different than past editions. Even though they had stars like Springer, Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, the Jays received contributions from players up and down the lineup and were winning in different ways. New hitting coach David Popkins helped them become a much tougher team at the plate, striking out less and wearing down pitchers. The pitching staff, while not flashy, was efficient and effective. At the trade deadline, the big acquisition was former Cy Young winner Shane Bieber (who was coming off Tommy John surgery) and high-leverage relievers Louis Varland and Seranthony Dominguez. Manager John Schneider ran the team calmly and confidently and the players seemed to have a closer bond than past editions.

In the East, the Jays were battling the Yankees and the Red Sox, who were also armed with strong pitching staffs and potent offenses. After a September swoon, the Jays finished the season with four straight wins, including a sweep of Tampa Bay, to hold onto first; they had the same record as New York but held the head-to-head tiebreaker. 

That earned them a bye in the Wild Card round. Toronto played the Yankees in the best-of-5 AL Divisional Series and despite having a week off, their bats pounded the NY pitchers into submission. The Jays won the series 3-1 and played the Seattle Mariners in the AL Championship Series. The M's, who entered MLB in the same year as Toronto (1977) but had never been to the World Series, started strong by completely shutting down the Jays offense in the first two games on Toronto's home turf. But the Jays, led by their superstar Guerrero, went to Seattle and took two of three. They still came back to Toronto for game 6 trailing 3-2 in the series, but they won the last two games to win the right to play the Dodgers. 

Game 7s are rare and important since they're do-or-die situations. The Jays had only been in one before, losing the 1985 ALCS to the Kansas City Royals. Last night's game didn't start much better, as Seattle's pitchers didn't allow much after the first inning and the M's held a 3-1 lead going into the 7th. But then the Jays were able to put runners on second and third for Springer, who was limping after getting hit in the kneecap by a 96-mph fastball in game 5. He then turned the game on its head by drilling a 1-0 pitch into the left field stands for a 4-3 Jays lead as the stadium exploded. One of the biggest homers in team history and the Jays made it hold up, with closer Jeff Hoffman striking out the side to finish the game in the 9th.

The Jays are now going to their first World Series since 1993, when they beat the Phillies on a walk-off 3-run homer by Joe Carter for their second consecutive championship. I was watching it by myself in my rented room in a house in Middleton. The Jays had a dominant team that season and I thought it would just keep going. I was 26 at the time. They didn't make the playoffs again until 2015! And now they're finally back in the World Series. 

I know that given what's going on in the world right now, sports can seem pretty trivial to get worked up over. But I've always been a huge sports fan and dammit, it's a good distraction. I'm not getting overconfident about the Jays' chances against Shohei Ohtani (who they famously courted a few offseasons ago before he signed with LA) and crew, but I've seen stranger things happen. There have been plenty of major upsets over the years, so why not now? Hopefully I'll be in a good mood about this stuff in a week's time; game 1 of the World Series is Friday in Toronto (they actually had a better record than LA). Hope springs eternal!