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		Toronto's love affair with the Jays ended long ago By Morris Phillips May 2, 2010

	TORONTO--There’s history here, but, clearly, history has moved on, seemingly to more viable AL East outposts New York and Boston. You know the names on the Ring of Fame: Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar and George Bell, but with the exception of Cito Gaston, who was lured out of semi-retirement to return to his managerial post in 2008, those guys can’t help this year's team battle the Yankees and the Sox. Most of the fans have moved on too. In the glory days of the early 90’s, the Blue Jays drew 4 million fans three years in a row and led the major leagues in attendance. Nowadays, instead of 30,000 fans, Toronto specializes in 30,000 empty seats, making the Rogers Centre, formerly the Skydome, a very quiet place. This week the Blue Jays hosted a series against the hated Red Sox and drew fewer than 16,000 fans for each of the three games. Only once, on Opening Day, have the 2010 Jays drawn more than 17,000 fans. Toronto Metro columnist John Chick describes the 21-year old Rogers Centre as a “cavernous stadium that was state-of-the-art for 15 minutes.” The fan experience suffers terribly when the roof is closed, and the old-school layout leaves the fans a distance from the field, like at the Oakland Coliseum. But make no doubt, this is still an attractive place, and the lack of corporate suites that killed so many other facilities before their time, isn’t a problem here. So what gives? More than anything, Toronto is a complex place, and like the Rogers Centre’s artificial turf, the city’s connection to America’s pastime is paradoxical. Even though minor league ball has been played in Toronto since 1896, the sport has never come anywhere near the prominence enjoyed by hockey, the unquestioned pastime of Canada. Also, the city is layered in snow half the year, which limits the participatory draw the sport holds in most places in the USA. But Toronto is a big place, the fifth largest city in North America, and big places need the big time, and nothing says big time more than professional sports. So in January 1976, Horace Stoneham, lacking all the resourcefulness and vision that resulted in Pac Bell Park, agreed to sell the Giants, then a bad team stuck in a bad yard (Candlestick) to the Labatts group of Toronto. The dollars were agreed upon, and the Giants were slated to play that ’76 season in a converted Exhibition Stadium, a place that, yes, would have to be considered an even worse home for baseball than Candlestick Park. Ouch. Of course, Bob Lurie stepped to the plate in San Francisco, and baseball by the bay was saved. But Toronto didn’t have to sit in the on-deck circle any longer, coming aboard, along with Seattle, with an exhibition franchise in 1977. Of course, opening day, April 7, 1977, is remembered as much for a pre-game snowstorm as Doug Ault’s two home runs. The Blue Jays limped along for years until the late 80’s as quality players such as John Mayberry, Dave Stieb and Willie Upshaw as well as solid managers Bobby Cox and Jimy Williams never really added up to much in the win-loss column. But in May 1989, with the team struggling at 12-24, Williams was replaced by Gaston, a reluctant replacement, who really just wanted to be a batting coach. A month later, the team moved into SkyDome in mid-season, and a five-year run of success began. The ’89 Jays flourished under Gaston, finishing that season with wins in 77 of its final 126 games to win their division. Toronto went on to win three straight division crowns starting in 1991. With the incredibly successful trade of Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez for San Diego’s Carter and Alomar, the Blue Jays reached even greater heights, winning the World Series in 1992 and 1993. Four million fans attended games at SkyDome in each of those seasons, making the Jays the hottest ticket in the major leagues. And then that quickly, the success and the fans disappeared. The team faltered in ’94, then the strike took the steam out of baseball, but especially out of baseball in Canada, with the Montreal Expos and the Jays hit hard financially. Gaston would be fired late in the 1997 season, even as $24 million dollar mercenary Roger Clemens brought his best stuff to the mound in Toronto. Other big name free agents, Jose Canseco, Randy Myers and others would follow, as well as home grown talent like Shawn Green and Carlos Delgado, but the winning never did. After the World Series seasons, the Jays have finished as high as second place in the AL East only once. So what’s the climate today, and can anything bring the sizzle back to the Blue Jays? Well, one thing would surely help. A shift in the AL landscape that would move Toronto to the AL Central and Kansas City to the AL West would be a major help. Since the revival of the Yankees in 1998, followed by the resurgence of the Red Sox a few years later, the AL East has become a billionaire’s club, where the other three clubs can barely compete. The fact that the Devil Rays made the World Series in 2008, and bumped the Yankees from the post-season, is a story that grows in improbability by the day. The problems that Baltimore, Tampa Bay and Toronto have are problems that no business owner would want. But the way the MLB is structured, you could say, baseball wouldn’t have it any other way. Combine that with a frustration Rogers Communications has suffered since taking over in 2005, in boosting the payroll without realizing any improvement on the field, and the situation really stands out—as much as a smattering of fans at a major league ballpark. First off, Toronto’s unique in that no culture dominates the scene, especially with the growth in immigration in recent years that has made the metropolitan area an authentic melting pot. The people that live here don’t have a connection to baseball; they grew up playing and watching other sports. Also, the construction of the Air Canada Centre, right down the street, and the success of their tenants, the NHL Maple Leafs and the NBA Raptors, siphons critical dollars from the pool of luxury box leasers. Even in Toronto, and especially in this economy, few companies can afford boxes in both venues. Guess who wins out when companies have to choose? Also, ticket prices at Rogers Centre are ridiculously high, among the highest in Major League Baseball, a policy that grotesquely skews the principles of supply and demand. Blue Jays CEO Paul Beeston says to revisit the pricing structure would be foolish, saying that it would devalue the product. Man, this product is already devalued. You think Dodgers Stadium would be baseball heaven if the Dodgers played 16 seasons of mediocre ball? Exactly, if things got that bad over that long of a period, the Dodgers brass would be talking about moving to Disneyland. So what will lift this franchise? How about the next great Canadian athlete: the baseball equivalent of Wayne Gretzky or Steve Nash. Have you seen how this country supports its great athletes? Oh well, the next Great one more than likely has a firm grip on a different type of stick, and it’s not the one from Louisville. Yikes.