raptorsfan29
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« on: January 12, 2006, 02:28:57 pm » |
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By STEVE SIMMONS
'How 'bout them Blue Jays?'
The phrase, once phased out of Toronto's vocabulary, has returned ... and so has the pressure to win
The dentist had one hand and one sharp object in my mouth when he asked the pertinent question.
"What do you make of the Corey Koskie trade?"
My answer was a lot like the deal -- mumbled yet slightly definitive.
The man working customs at the airport wanted to see documentation and didn't care much for Koskie. Instead, he asked what I had to declare about A.J. Burnett and all those piercings and how many games he'll win in Toronto.
The teller at the bank inquired about Troy Glaus and complained about the loss of Orlando Hudson.
The college kid who lives here on occasion wanted to know who will hit leadoff: Reed Johnson or Russ Adams.
A not-so-funny thing is happening here in mid-January in this city that baseball has forgotten. People are talking Blue Jays again. Like it means something. Like they care.
People are talking Blue Jays like they haven't in years. Suddenly everybody seems to be a Fergie Olver soundalike. How 'bout those Blue Jays?
And it feels so much more engaging than the sounds of baseball silence we've all been party to for to
o many winters.
This is a huge baseball summer for this city and this team.
Suddenly, there is something to believe in.
Suddenly, there is hope to be sold.
Suddenly -- and this has always been the greatest of baseball's attractions -- there is so much to talk about.
And yet we don't know what Toronto will make of this.
We don't know whether the optimism of winter will translate to the ticket sales of summer. We don't know, because we've been so far removed from the mainstream since the World Series years and since the strike of '94 and the giant crash of Blue Jays business that followed.
In the early 1990s, this team drew four million fans to the SkyDome -- almost 50,000 every night. Impossible numbers that will never be duplicated.
In the mid-to-late 90s, that number dropped to between 30,000 and 39,000 a game.
But as this decade began, the figures went back to the early porous days of the Jays at the decrepit Exhibition Stadium. An average of 20 or so thousand night. Seats sold but empty. A crowd seemingly without any kind of soul.
Now the Jays can sell a starting rotation of Roy Halladay, Burnett, Gustavo Chacin, Ted Lilly and Josh Towers with some kind of conviction.
Now they can sell a bullpen that starts with B.J. Ryan.
Now they can sell a lineup that has Vernon Wells and Glaus and Lyle Overbay and Shea Hillenbrand and the hopes that one day Alex Rios will stop disappointing everybody but himself.
At least, there's a sell. At least, there's a pitch. Even the players are buying in. Gregg Zaun and Towers are reporting to spring training two weeks before it begins, just to be ready for the season. Zaun already has called Burnett and invited him to join them early as well, just so catcher and pitcher can get used to each other.
Selling hope is nice. Performing is even better. This is a pressure year for the Blue Jays in many ways: They have to win more, draw more and get more people excited. They have to justify the investment reluctant owner Ted Rogers has made in them.
They have, for the first time in a long time, expectations to meet.
Last year the Yankees and the Red Sox each won 95 games and the Jays won 80. Now the Jays have to win more while the real big spenders win less. This is the hardest climb in professional sport: Going from conveniently average to great.
As of this date, the Jays have sold 46% more tickets than they had a year ago this time. Season ticket renewals, normally slow, are coming in at a surprising pace.
"People are excited about this team," said Rob Godfrey, the Jays' senior vice-president, who knows how hard it has been to try and sell tickets in the past.
"Everyone here is so pumped to come to work, it's the talk of the office."
It hasn't been like this in a long long time. A city excited. A staff excited. The unknown awaits. How will Toronto respond to the New Jays?
The answer, this coming season, is worth waiting for.
i'm sure some of you people already knew this. well maine anyways just thought about sharing this with you.
It's nice when people are finally talking about the team. Baseball is back baby. Hopefully we willl be back to the days of 4 million attendences
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