December 28, 2005
Calling All Jays Fans
Richard Griffin is calling out the Blue Jays fans:
Many are the fans who for the last four years were outspoken in boycotting the Jays because they were clearly not trying to compete. These same fans must now step up and spend their own money to buy tickets for a team that has committed the funds experts believed it had to in order to be competitive.
Not everyone among the general populace is so obliged, just those who had been ripping the organization since the Jays cut payroll after the hiring of general manager J.P. Ricciardi in 2002.
Countless were the times I heard fans claim they didn't go to games because the Jays were cheapskates. They claimed, convincingly, that as soon as the Jays stepped up to the financial plate and spent the money to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox, they would return to the Rogers Centre. That time for digging deep is now.
Posted by David Pinto at
09:53 AM
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Give the Jays credit. They have really had a great offseason in my opinion. Glaus is a bit of a risk but with Ryan, trading Batista isn't a big deal. AL East should be interesting this year - particularly with the Os and Jays making moves.
Richard Griffin is definitely a nominee for Deadspin's "Why Your Hometown Columnist Sucks" feature. He is widely regarded as a) having a personal agenda against Ricciardi; and b) being full of it. Also, I don't recall hearing anyone calling the Jays cheapskates (althouogh to be fair, I did spend some time living in Chicago). Rather, if anything, there was chagrin at the disparity being the Yankee and Jay payrolls
That being said, I expect I'll attend my usual 5 or so game this year
Personally, the Jay's have made this offseason exciting for me as a Sox fan. I'm legitimately concerned that the Red Sox won't make the playoffs next year, and will come in third in the division. And for that, I'm thankful. So count me in as a partial Jay's fan next year (interestingly, last year I went to 0 games at Fenway and two games at Skydome for Sox vs Jays...).
It's funny to see how many Red Sox fans go up there for those games. And, ironically, the ticket sales in Skydome from Sox fans is helping the Jays to buy players like AJ and BJ.
As a Red Sox fan, I'm less concerned with the Blue Jays than the Yankees, White Sox, Indians, A's, and Angels. Would anyone be surprised if the wild card ends up coming from one of the other divisions this year?
Almost every AL team has shown some improvement, which should keep the obvious big guys from running away with their divisions. The Yankees and White Sox are probably the only teams with 100-win potential, on paper. But other teams in their division have improved too, even the bottom feeders. If KC picks up 5-10 wins thanks to their mediocre acquisitions, will they take them from Chicago, Cleveland, or Minnesota? (Probably the latter. Has any team had a more useless off-season than the Twins? Yay for... Tony Batista?)
If Griffin wants people who have been ripping the Jays to buck up and buy tickets this year I certainly hope he's first in line. He's the ripper-in-chief. I'd be interested to know if he plans to spend one dime of his own money on Jays tickets this year. Somehow I bet not. What a hypoctite.