It's Not the Band I hate, it's their fans...

It seems that my recent facebook and Twitter scolding of Blue Jay fans has touched a nerve amongst some of the folks who actually support the Blue Jays. Well, despite the fact that I did not intend to insult the few who actually support the team, perhaps it may light a fire within some folks and get them to up their efforts…

As a few people pointed out, Toronto is a hockey town. This is a fact that will never change. However, we claim to be a world-class city in all respects, and from what I can tell, this comes with the caveat of “if it is successful”. We are not a town that creates a buzz for itself...it has to be forced on us. The bulk of us will ignore something until someone else tells us it is good. Why do you think so many musicians have to go elsewhere and achieve success? It is at this point that everyone in Toronto will start boasting, “oh, they are from Toronto you know” with that smugness that makes my skin crawl. Sports fans in this town are no different, and Jay’s “fans” are the worst of all. I was stunned last year when I attended the home opener vs. The Tigers…the place was rammed full of people…notice I said people, NOT fans. This became clear when these people felt it necessary to start yelling at people for wearing Tigers jerseys and hats. They were trying to be hardcore fans and came across as ignorant, shouting personal insults at players and behaving like morons…Magglio! Magglio! I can still hear it ringing annoyingly in my head.

Trying to take a positive from the experience, I was hopeful that my brother and sister in law were right; the Jays mattered again. However when I flipped on the game the next night, it did not even look like the same park…empty seats as far as they eye could see and the vacuous echo ringing louder than the crowd. I don’t say any of this to be mean; I just want to make that clear. The entire thing breaks my heart. This is the beginning of the end of this franchise. They are quickly becoming the Florida Marlins and that is disturbing to say the least (the Marlins draw about 600 people per game). Baseball is the cheapest ticket in town, so why all of the empty seats if the team actually does matter?

I have asked a number of people over the last few days, all of who claim to be genuine baseball fans if they were excited about the new season. Each of them instead of speaking optimistically about the quick start openly complained how it just isn’t fair that they have to compete against the Yankees and Red Sox every year, and how given those teams huge payrolls, the Jays never have a chance. I suggested that if maybe any of them went to games and showed their support, the team might not be so awful. Nope, its all because of the salaries of their opponents…how weak is that? Doesn’t Roger’s, who have openly stated they will increase the payroll, own the Jays? Maybe if the empty stadium wasn’t quite so empty the parent company would not mind sinking some money into it? I mean, you don’t become successful in business by throwing money into a black hole, which sadly the Jays have become. Secondly, if ANYONE went to the games than perhaps it may be easier to lure some decent free agents or even keep ones that we have. Admit it, they would look a hell of a lot better with Roy Halladay and Cris Carpenter at the top of the rotation instead of Shaun Marcum and Ricky Romero despite the promise the latter two have shown so far this year.

This is why I feel all those who attend opening day, drink their faces off, act like total idiots and never attend a game again for the rest of the year should be ashamed of themselves. As quickly as you build hope for a successful year, you take it away through your indifference. In the same way that the media blames Leaf fans and their unconditional love and support for a terrible team as the cause of management’s ineptitude/indifference towards actually building a winning team (why bother when the fans come anyways?), I blame the indifference of so called fans of the Blue Jays for not showing them the unconditional love and support that is necessary to encourage ownership to commit to building a winner again, and to create an atmosphere that players want to be a part of. Have we all forgotten 1992 and 1993 and how amazing it was to feel a part of something special? It was pretty great when Toronto were the ones buying championships. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, it just isn’t fair…boo hoo!

It was unconditional love and support that brought a winner in the first place, maybe its time to show your commitment to winning. Set the tone and create the atmosphere. That kind of enthusiasm is awfully contagious. If half of the people wearing Jay’s hats and jerseys actually went to games I would not have had to even write this, but evidently that is just a trend, not a sign of actual affection. When the economically ravaged fans in Detroit can average 37000 a game, there is no excuse for Toronto to not be equally that mark, especially with neither NHL or NBA playoffs coming to the ACC this year.

There are some true and loyal Jays fans left out there, but they can’t do it alone. They need some of you fair weather opening day attending whiners to buck up and help make the Skydome a fun place to be again before it gets to the point where the Jays are forced to move, which judging by the ghost town atmosphere of the last two home games, isn’t as far down the road as we all hope…

Oh Canada!

We did it! We absolutely did it! In all my years of watching and playing sports, this was certainly one of the 9 greatest moments in my sports (watching) life. Here they are in no particular order…

!985 Blue Jays Division Championship – the Drive of 85 If you will

1987 Canada Cup…Gretzky to Lemieux

1988 Summer Olympics…Ben Johnson…thanks buddy!

1992 Blue Jays World Championsip…still can’t believe that happened

1993 Maple Leafs March to the Cup, until Gretzky cheated and derailed the whole damn thing, particularly Game 7 vs. Detroit in Round 1

1993 Blue Jays World Championship..touch ‘em all Joe! Followed by a broken arm from the celebration

2002 Olympic Gold Medal. Canada 5, US 2

2002 Maple Leafs Playoff Drive (high fives and head rubs on Glenside)

2010 Olympic Gold Medal on Home Ice

Is that sad of me to admit that? Perhaps, but what else brings a massive group of people together than a win by their favourite team*, especially when it is your country. Sure the Blue Jays may have had a similar impact in Toronto, but I doubt very highly it was something the entire country celebrated as vigorously.

What made it even more incredible was that we beat our biggest current rival to win the Gold Medal. You could hear my entire block erupt as Sydney Crosby buried the overtime winner past a stunned Ryan Miller. I am still way to excited to even properly articulate what was going through my mind at that moment. I do know that the bottle of Spumante bambino was sprayed from Glenn’s balcony and will no longer sit in my kitchen as a horrifying reminder of the Tigers collapse last fall…

As soon as the puck went into the net, Ryan, Clement, Tannis, Carly, Glenn, Lyla and I were jumping up and down, doling out high fives and head rubs along with hugs in a jubilant dance in my living room. No sooner had we emptied the champagne in celebration of the win and our new house, we took to the streets…a scene I had not witnessed since 2002, people leaning out of cars waving flags, hugging strangers, all in an unabashed show of patriotism. My neighbourhood had turned into one giant victory party…everyone sharing their love of country and our team, and the most successful Olympics by a host nation ever! Sure, we were expected to win the gold in hockey, but that only made the realization of those expectations that much sweeter. Let’s hope we get to experience this again and again and again.

Gary Bettman, the man who is singlehandedly killing hockey, has already raised doubts as to whether we will be shutting down the league to allow players to participate in the 2014 games in Russia. From his perspective I can sort of see why as we have been spoiled by such a superior product over the last 12 days that going back to watching regular season NHL hockey is going to be very difficult. Not just because the product is worse, but because in the Olympics everyone has a chance right up until close to the end. For me as a Leaf fan, my season is already over so I am watching simply to watch hockey, with no stake in who wins or loses. With the Olympics every country was at least playing meaningful games up until Tuesday. I realize it is a short schedule with single elimination games once the preliminary round was done, but that is part of what makes it so great. Pro sports seasons do go on far too long in most instances and that makes it hard to feel the importance of every single game. This magical tournament takes pressure to a whole new level. It is what makes the NFL so successful…one loss and you are out. Each game has significant importance and once you move to the next step each game feels likea proverbial game 7…win or it’s all over until next year.

I know that from a financial standpoint leagues would never abandon the playoff series format, but from a fans perspective it certainly makes every nuance of every single game that much more important. From a health standpoint, my heart is probably very happy that this only comes around every 4 years. This is why we are hockey fans though and what makes us so proud to be Canadians!!!

See you in Russia, I hope!