Over the past 15 years the Toronto Blue Jays owners have taken a big market team and turned it into a small market team. It is a crying shame.
During the Pat Gillick/Paul Beaston era the team had one of the top payrolls in baseball and attracted stars like Robbie Alomar, Joe Carter, Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield, Jack Morris and David Cone. They were World Series Champions in 1992 and 1993. At the time they were owned by Labatts Breweries who were committed to competing with the big boys.
But after Labatts was purchased by Belgian brewer Interbrew in 1994, the management approach changed drastically. Budgets were slashed and star players were dumped. Pat Gillick and Paul Beaston bailed out too. The team signed the occasional star player (Rogers Clemons, Jose Conseco, A.J. Burnett) but it also moved homegrown stars to keep the payroll down (Shawn Green, Carlos Delgado). The team was purchased by Rogers Communications in 2000 but not much has changed. Enough money is spent to keep some stars around but not enough is spent to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox in the AL East.
Over the 1991 to 1994 seasons, the Blue Jays averaged about 50,000 fans per game. Many games were sold out. But their small minded management, since that time, has destroyed the fan base. Today they are averaging less than half that amount. Only Toronto Maple Leaf fans will continue to come out to watch an inferior product. Leaf fans are an anomaly. Toronto baseball fans are not being fooled by management. So Burnett is allowed to walk without making an offer and with no effort to replace him. Each season they begin the seasons with huge holes in the lineup and quickly fall behind in their division. Miraculously they started strongly this season but quickly tumbled in the standing after 40 games. Management will tell you its the injuries. That is bullshit. They began the season with a patchwork pitching staff and somehow were competitive despite the weak lineup. There were no predictions from management about competing for a playoff spot this season. GM Ricciardi insisted that they would be ready to compete next season but don't believe it. It won't happen.
Now management is openly musing whether to trade away Roy Halladay, He is a fan favourite, a perennial all-star and likely the most dominant pitcher in the game. Not surprising fan reaction has been negative. Check out attendance once he is gone. It won't be higher.
We are told because of large salaries being paid to Vernon Wells, Alex Rios and Scott Rolen (and paying B.J. Ryan not to pitch), the team cannot afford to re-sign at the end of 2010. That is nonsense and fans are not fooled. As long as the tight owners treat Toronto as a small market, fans will not come out. Labatts and Pat Gillick understood the market and the Jays flourished. Rogers is slowly bleeding the team to death. Very shortsighted since without the Jays what will Rogers put on Sportsnet during the summer months?
