I’m sorry, this Yankees/Red Sox whining is quite annoying.  This decade, the Yankees and Red Sox have both made the playoffs in four of nine years.  In those other five years, they could have beaten out another AL team for a WC berth (in 2006, in fact, they DID finish ahead of the Sox, though not the Tigers), and they failed to.

Rule 76: No excuses, play like a champion.

I wonder how much of that feeling is tied to hockey and basketball cultures, in which the regular season is just a warm-up for play-offs. I became a baseball fan in a city where you knew the team had no shot at all, and that the goal would be to finish a place higher than the previous year. 3 games out of 4th in September is what mattered, not the 24 out of first. First? Are you kidding me? But the games were exciting and it was our team. I saw great plays. I saw great players. I saw games I remember 30 years later. I saw a no-hitter, a bunch of close calls, three cycles and lots of other amazing things. The real baseball cities still are like that, aren’t they?

Now, the Expos are another story. It would take quite a fan to keep going to that mint green horror the Expos had to play in. And if my team was finally looking like it was going to make a Series run after 25 years and baseball picked that season to shut down the season and the Series…well, let’s put it this way: if there had been a strike in 1967 just as the Red Sox were in their first pennant race since 1950, I wouldn’t bet that the team would still be in Boston today. Blaming the strike is usually unconvincing, but in the case of the Expos, I believe. Do Toronto fans identify that closely with Montreal? I wouldn’t think so.

(1) Considering the huge number of successful Canadians in MLB (off the top of my head: Jason Bay, Eric Bedard, Justin Morneau, Russell Martin, Scott Richmond, Matt Stairs….I’m sure there are at least a dozen more) and considering how popular they were in the 90’s (first team to draw 4m) saying that the team can’t draw in Canada is asinine.  There are clearly a lot of Canadians playing at a high level and there are clearly a lot of Canadians who’d pay to watch competitive baseball.

(Incidentally, a player on the ‘93 Phillies team said that the Skydome was the loudest stadium he’d ever heard in his life, including rock concerts.)

(2) However legitimate his excuses might be, the fact of the matter is that Riccardi has had nearly a decade to make this team a playoff team and he hasn’t.  Furthermore, he’s had a number of PR debacles and he seems to think that it’s cute to spout out at the mouth about stupid crap (including disparaging his own prospects as well as denigrating other team’s players on talk radio).

It’s possible - not likely, but possible - that Riccardi’s a great baseball man and has the crude baseball knowledge to run a team.  But he’s the complete opposite of a leader, motivator, or steadying force (and believe me, I use those terms very begrudgingly because I think that 99% of the time they’re used by retarded American businessmen as an excuse to avoid having to actually, ya know, build anything).

It’s time for the Rogers company to thank Riccardi for his efforts, recognize some of his good works, and then send him on his way. 

(3) The Nationals are the worst organization in baseball, in my opinion.  Nevermind the uniform (“Natinals”) incident, nevermind Elijah Dukes and the back-and-forth about firing Acta, nevermind the barren, taxpayer subsidized stadium that the residents resent.  No, this organization’s standing can be summed up in one anecdote: the team’s president phoned Philadelphia sports talk radio and pleaded with the opposing team’s fans to attend games at his team’s stadium.

Kind of some long and winding logic there, JTuttle.  Sox didn’t simply go out and spend more than anyone else to get Bay.  As stated earlier, Toronto had an opportunity to aquire Bay, but whether through ignorance or apathy, they did not.

The Nationals are the worst organization in baseball, in my opinion.  Nevermind the uniform (“Natinals”) incident, nevermind Elijah Dukes and the back-and-forth about firing Acta, nevermind the barren, taxpayer subsidized stadium that the residents resent.  No, this organization’s standing can be summed up in one anecdote: the team’s president phoned Philadelphia sports talk radio and pleaded with the opposing team’s fans to attend games at his team’s stadium.

Yeah, I suppose it’s really, really easy to rebuild an organization after it had been plundered by Loria and raped by Omar Minaya and MLB. But thanks for not mentioning those facts, because after all, an anecdote will adequately explain everything.

Geez, look what happens when you’re away from the internet for 18 or 19 hours!  I’m surprised (pleasantly) that there is this much reaction to a post about pro ball in our “home and native land”.

Without looking back on what I wrote this winter and in no particular order, the future of pro ball in Toronto is threatened by;

1. Ownership.  Big media companies - Time Warner, FOX, Disney - did a 180 and decided pro sports franchises weren’t a good fit with their business model.  I suspect Rogers might reach the same conclusion (the Toronto papers were rife with rumors in the spring that Rogers wants out, no doubt Rogers was the source of the rumors).  If Rogers bails, what group or individual will step up?  MLSE is always mentioned and that is plausible but outside of them?....And this brings us around to Beeston, why is he involved?  Certainly he has better things to do than be the caretaker of a club with a mid (or perhaps looming low)level payroll competing in the AL East.  Does Beeston know something the rest of us don’t?

2. The AL East.  Yes the Jays more often than not field a competitive team but that don’t cut it in the AL East.  I think it is unfair (I’m biased due to fandom) and I think a lot of Toronto sports fans think the same.  Note that the 27-14 start this season generated no boost at the gate, an indicator that fans didn’t believe this team was a contender (and they were correct).  (Side note, the crappy attendance in Toronto this year also has to be impacted by economic concerns and job losses in Southern Ontario)  Since the introduction of the Wild Card, only 4? (IIRC)franchises haven’t made the playoffs, KC, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Washington (TB and Milwaukee were part of this group prior to last season).  Making the playoffs once every 15 years or so would help boost the popularity of pro ball in Toronto but that is a whole lot more difficult when you have to best either Boston or New York.

3. Rogers Centre.  Toronto just missed out on the “mallpark” phenomenon.  Mallparks are under construction in Minnesota and Miami, which will leave only Oakland, TB and Toronto playing in big multi purpose stadiums (technically I don’t know if the Trop is multi purpose but that isn’t the point).  Rogers Centre is ok, it sure is nice to have a roof in Toronto in April but it is not a place to “see and be seen”.  Look at the enormous success of FC at BMO Field, no doubt the intimate soccer only facility has to be a major contributor to the poplularity of that product.  Again, maybe Beeston know something the rest of us don’t.  I think the future of the NFL in Toronto is tied up with the future of baseball.  I can’t see the owners of the NFL in Toronto recouping a billion dollar investment playing out of the Rogers Centre, it ain’t up to snuff….so, if it ain’t suitable for the NFL and not so great for baseball…..what gives?

I digress, but I’m sick of the 94 strike being blamed for the demise of baseball in Toronto, it is an excuse not a reason.  See the reaction in this country to the NHL lockout for evidence.  When the NHL returned TV rating went up significantly and attendance was boffo. The reason?  Simple, we missed hockey.  We didn’t miss baseball, it was an excuse for the trendy fans to jump off the bandwagon.

Professional baseball is dead and dying in Canada.  The Expos died, the Jays are floundering at the gate.  AAA has left Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.  Lower level leagues abandoned London, St. Catherines and Medicine Hat.  Indy ball folded in Ottawa and is struggling in Edmonton and Calgary.  There just aren’t enough ball fans here….

Why was Bay available again?

Tim: I never said there weren’t empty seats. There are always fans who only care about winning teams, and the presence or absence of those fans affect the bottom line, often critically. These are the people who will jeer at team icons in their waning years. I just find it amazing, coming from an era in which every single team in the American League realized annually that the chances of anyone but the Yankees winning the pennant were slim and none, that people can seriously offer the argument that the strength of Boston and New York depress the enjoyment of genuine baseball fans in watching their home team play baseball.

Having a chance to win matters, and it matters for nearly everyone.  You don’t need to win, but you need to demonstrate the capacity for winning at a minimum to keep a large % of your fanbase interested, and more importantly, willing to spend their money to support you.  The original question was about what killed baseball in Toronto and I stand by my original argument:  Fans in Toronto have the deck stacked against them. 

No one is arguing about how genuine the fans are in Toronto, or whether they have hard-core fans, or the nature of bandwagons.  Go read DJF and you’ll easily see that there are passionate, knowledgeable fans of Toronto baseball and that’s not in question. 

The question is:  Why is support for the Jays flagging in Toronto?  There have been many good reasons given and among them is that the Jays are in a position (the AL East) where the chance at winning is substantially smaller than nearly anywhere else. 

As the fans in Philadelphia, or St. Louis, or here in Chicago whether they’d like to switch divisions with the Jays and I guarantee you that you’d have a not-insignificant % of fatalists that would throw their arms up in despair. 

Incidentally, you’d also re-invigorate that fan base up in Toronto…