You are not going to boo Brett Lawrie

You are not going to boo Brett Lawrie tonight when you go down to the Rogers Centre to see his return to Toronto because you are a good person.

You are a new type of Blue Jays fan, one that can enjoy the successes of the current team and dream of finally returning to the postseason instead of always looking to past slights. You are the type of Blue Jays fans who would boo Edinson Volquez for throwing at Josh Donaldson but not the type who would boo Alex Rios for refusing an autograph or whatever he did a decade ago. You are also not the type of fan who booed Lyle Overbay when he returned to the dome just because you recognized his name and he didn't live up to your expectations as a Blue Jay, but did boo A.J. Burnett's first returned before, during, and after he was thoroughly lessoned by Roy Halladay.

You are not the type of fan to freak out and take offence at someone calling your team a "beer league softball team" because you know that is actually a compliment. You have been tortured for a very long time as a Blue Jays fan but you are still smart enough to recognize when someone is saying something good about your team. You are a smart Blue Jays fan.

You remember being excited about this intensive Canadian kid coming over for Shaun Marcum. You remember the months of watching Jayson Nix and Edwin Encarnacion and John McDonald at third base while Lawrie was being polished down in Las Vegas. You remember defending some of his more douchey behaviour (and photos) while he was a Blue Jay. You remember that extra-innings walkoff home run he hit against the Red Sox to break a 0-0 tie and how he jumped six feet in the air to celebrate.

You remember him playing with 100% intensity all the time, not caring about his body at all. You remember his chugging of Red Bulls, running full speed into the stands to catch a foul pop in a seven-run game, and falling into a photographers' well. You remember him throwing a helmet down which hit umpire Bill Miller, but you also realize that his intensity made him a really, really, really fun player to watch.

You know that he never played more than 125 games in a season due to various injuries and that he probably never lived up to the fans' sky-high expectations for him based on how he did during his first season, but you know that had always been an above-average third baseman and even played a lot of second base when the Blue Jays needed it. You know that helping the team to win was important to him and that he did a lot of work on the field to prepare to play second, which might have hurt him at the plate.

You are well aware that Brett Lawrie was traded away by Alex Anthopoulos and didn't opt out of his contract or choose to sign else where as a free agent while talking about how horrible cable service in Toronto was. You also won't be booing Kendall Graveman, Jesse Chavez, Felix Doubront, or Danny Valencia just because they were once Blue Jays and are now Athletics . You realize that booing them would be stupid and that it would reflect badly on your fellow fans and the people of Toronto.

You are not going to boo Brett Lawrie tonight, and I thank you for that.