Joe Cowley, Chicago Sun-Times: Move the Toronto Blue Jays to Venezuela

[Double J]

This asshole Chicago Sun-Times writer says baseball is dead in Toronto and uses noted deep thinkers Alex Rios and Ozzie Guillen to help prove his "point."

What a ridiculous suggestion that MLB yank the franchise from Toronto and move it to ****ing Venezuela. Who is this stupid asshole? And what was he saying 11 and 12 years ago when the Sox couldn't average 20,000 fans?

Hey, Cowley, are you gonna say the same thing this weekend about Cleveland, where the attendance there is even lower than it is in Toronto? How about Baltimore? Oakland? Florida?

By the way - not a smart idea to quote Rios about Toronto and expect an unbiased answer, considering he hates the city and vice versa. Maybe Toronto fans just got tired of shelling out good money to watch arrogant $64-million douchebags who struggle to hit .250, then curse out people who inexplicably still want his autograph after a five-strikeout performance in a single game.

Then again, after doing a little reading up on Cowley, it seems this pathetic putz has had it in for Toronto (and Canada) for years. So much so that the Chicago BBWAA considers him an embarrassment and suspended his award-voting privileges in 2004. Wow.

 

[fishhack2009]

This is a story that just begs for the spike. This is what happens when a lazy sportswriter has no more arrows in his quiver and needs to be moved off a beat. Picking up a pile of **** and throwing it at the wall ... and starting with a bogus premise, then finding two obviously biased patsies to help you sell it ... is not journalism. Opinion piece or not.

 

[Beef03]

So I suppose the NHL should have folded up shop in the Windy City when the Blackhawks were struggling to draw 10,000 a game a few years ago.

What a douchenozzle.

They have committed owners who are willing to spend money, but is in overhaul mode right now. Toronto has been a great baseball market and they can be again. They just need management who knows what it's doing, like any organization. However, coming right out and telling the public that this is going to be a rebuilding year is not exactly the best way to sell tickets. That right there is the problem. When the team wins the fans come out.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Yeah, I'm sure teams will really want to fly down to Venezuela.

 

[Sea Bass]

I don't like the column either, but I don't disagree with anything Rios said. Or what Guillen said about Toronto as a market.

 

[Football_Bat]

Yeah, I'm sure teams will really want to fly down to Venezuela.

Air-wise Caracas is closer to New York than Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.

 

[mb]

Nothing like a Player-X-was-kidnapped story to liven up a dull summer on an MLB beat.

 

[Cousin Jeffrey]

I think he was being facetious. He only used Caracas as a joke destination because of Guillen.

 

[Huggy]

I'd give a **** about what Alex Rios had to say if he put as much energy into his play here as he did to ****ing around with remote-controlled helicopters and toy cars.

Anyway, to me this is a story if Toronto is the only market experiencing ****ty crowds right now. But it's not, so should MLB move the Pirates, Orioles, A's, Indians and Royals? There were comments on the baseball thread that Dodger Stadium was empty for the series against Arizona. Move the Dodgers to Venezuela, then.

I have been a Blue Jays fanboi looser since April, 1977 and I think Toronto is a great baseball market that has not been particularly well served by the Jays in recent years.

Certainly the strike killed any momentum the Jays had from back-to-back World Series wins (and killed baseball in Montreal) but Jays' fans haven't been given much to get excited about in the years since.

Unlike the sympathizers who continue to fill the ACC to watch the Leafs, Jays fans have voted with their wallets (even if TV ratings supposedly remain strong). Even the drunks who support Toronto FC thinking that its Man United seem to be coming to their senses and questioning whether they are getting their money's worth from a poorly-run, but very profitable, team.

Tickets and concessions are expensive at Jays' games and while the Rogers Centre may have it's deficiencies, anybody who almost died of exposure watching early-season games at Exhibtion Stadium will appreciate the place. A new stadium will not be built in Toronto any time soon. Cleveland, Baltimore or Pittsburgh have great stadiums, no excuses about outdated facilities there.

In this story in today's Star, Gaston (who would remember what a great market it was from 1985 thru '94) and Wells put the onus on the team to win back the fans by putting a good product on the field. Now that Ricciardi is gone I think the team is moving in the right direction even if the next few years will be tough ones.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/mlb/bluejays/article/796608--win-and-they-will-come-jays-say-about-dwindling-crowds

 

[poindexter]

Who would possibly care what some columnist thought? I kinda got over the Jim Murray-bashing on cities thing in 1983.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

He couldn't have found three bigger Einsteins to quote than Rios, Guillen and Freddy Garcia.

Rios might be the most brain deficient baseball player I've ever tried to talk to. And that's saying something.

 

[JR]

I'd give a **** about what Alex Rios had to say if he put as much energy into his play here as he did to ****ing around with remote-controlled helicopters and toy cars.

Anyway, to me this is a story if Toronto is the only market experiencing ****ty crowds right now. But it's not, so should MLB move the Pirates, Orioles, A's, Indians and Royals? There were comments on the baseball thread that Dodger Stadium was empty for the series against Arizona. Move the Dodgers to Venezuela, then.

I have been a Blue Jays fanboi looser since April, 1977 and I think Toronto is a great baseball market that has not been particularly well served by the Jays in recent years.

Certainly the strike killed any momentum the Jays had from back-to-back World Series wins (and killed baseball in Montreal) but Jays' fans haven't been given much to get excited about in the years since.

Unlike the sympathizers who continue to fill the ACC to watch the Leafs, Jays fans have voted with their wallets (even if TV ratings supposedly remain strong). Even the drunks who support Toronto FC thinking that its Man United seem to be coming to their senses and questioning whether they are getting their money's worth from a poorly-run, but very profitable, team.

Tickets and concessions are expensive at Jays' games and while the Rogers Centre may have it's deficiencies, anybody who almost died of exposure watching early-season games at Exhibtion Stadium will appreciate the place. A new stadium will not be built in Toronto any time soon. Cleveland, Baltimore or Pittsburgh have great stadiums, no excuses about outdated facilities there.

In this story in today's Star, Gaston (who would remember what a great market it was from 1985 thru '94) and Wells put the onus on the team to win back the fans by putting a good product on the field. Now that Ricciardi is gone I think the team is moving in the right direction even if the next few years will be tough ones.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/mlb/bluejays/article/796608--win-and-they-will-come-jays-say-about-dwindling-crowds

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGOOOOOOOOOOOOS!

 

[Starman]

Remember the White Sox used the threat of skipping off to Tampa Bay to extort New Comiskey out of the taxpayers in 1990, then barely a decade later, with attendance ****canning again, they started grumbling about moving AGAIN, extorting the remodeling/renovations necessary to convert it into an acceptable baseball ballpark.

I suppose maybe this is a prelude to threats of the White Sox moving to Caracas so they can blackmail ANOTHER new stadium out of the taxpayers.

 

[Cosmo]

Orioles and Blue Jays fans know the season is over on opening day. What's the point of going? Impossible to compete long term in that division the way it's presently set up, though Tampa has the recipe that others can follow. It just can't happen overnight, though. It took years of high draft picks and patience to work out.

 

[WaylonJennings]

Remember the White Sox used the threat of skipping off to Tampa Bay to extort New Comiskey out of the taxpayers in 1990, then barely a decade later, with attendance ****canning again, they started grumbling about moving AGAIN, extorting the remodeling/renovations necessary to convert it into an acceptable baseball ballpark.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but I don't recall any grumbling about moving prior to the latest renovations. I thought that they simply used the stadium naming rights money, and that was that.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Orioles and Blue Jays fans know the season is over on opening day. What's the point of going? Impossible to compete long term in that division the way it's presently set up, though Tampa has the recipe that others can follow. It just can't happen overnight, though. It took years of high draft picks and patience to work out.

If the fifth-largest city in North America isn't willing to support its team, then maybe the team should move.

 

[Starman]

Orioles and Blue Jays fans know the season is over on opening day. What's the point of going? Impossible to compete long term in that division the way it's presently set up, though Tampa has the recipe that others can follow. It just can't happen overnight, though. It took years of high draft picks and patience to work out.

If the fifth-largest city in North America isn't willing to support its team, then maybe the team should move.

If the ownership of the team isn't willing to spend at a minimally-competitive level, they should go bankrupt.

NO team that plays in a taxpayer-funded stadium should be allowed to move -- ever.

 

[Stitch]

Yeah, I'm sure teams will really want to fly down to Venezuela.

Air-wise Caracas is closer to New York than Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.

So is Tahoe.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Orioles and Blue Jays fans know the season is over on opening day. What's the point of going? Impossible to compete long term in that division the way it's presently set up, though Tampa has the recipe that others can follow. It just can't happen overnight, though. It took years of high draft picks and patience to work out.

If the fifth-largest city in North America isn't willing to support its team, then maybe the team should move.

If the ownership of the team isn't willing to spend at a minimally-competitive level, they should go bankrupt.

NO team that plays in a taxpayer-funded stadium should be allowed to move -- ever.

There were a couple grains of a point in the column -- 1) that Toronto won't support a team and 2) that it's not just attendance that shows it but that news coverage shows the Blue Jays are second or even third-fiddle.

The column execution follows along the lines of John McKay's famous comment. I'm in favor of it. Getting comments only from only a couple guys on the White Sox who have connections to the columnist's point shows a lack of interest in doing anything but filing a story, any story, and getting back to your hotel to watch TV.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Yeah, I'm sure teams will really want to fly down to Venezuela.

Air-wise Caracas is closer to New York than Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.

And there would only be one team for everyone else to fly down to.

When teams fly coast-to-coast, they are out there for a week or so to play two or three teams in a close geographical area. When the Dodgers and Giants were approved to go west, one of the reasons they were allowed to was because the other teams wouldn't have to fly out there for just one road series.

Plus, I'm sure it would suck for the Venezuela Blue Jays players to have to fly long trips on every road trip.