... mourning the passing of baseball in Toronto

On Wednesday April 14th I was at an historic event for the Beloved Blue Jays as they drew their smallest attendance ever at Rogers Centre. Now, it's highly possible that there have been smaller crowds than the one that night (The Blue Jays used to have a convoluted way of reporting attendance that inflated each night's total. Not as bad as the NHL's borderline corrupt way of reporting it which makes every game seem like a sell-out...but more on that later).

Being at the game, I can tell you this:

1. I'm still willing to say that the number was over-inflated. It was very very VERY empty in there, no matter how cavernous the venue.
2. It does impact how much you enjoy the game. It's tough to get really involved when you feel as conspicuous as you would were you on a street corner wearing a tin hat and ranting about socialism.
3. None of it surprises me

Let's take away that this is an April game, early in the season when a lot of teams struggle at the gate. Let's look at the following factors

1. The team was arguably playing well: They were first in the AL East and were on a bit of a streak having taken 2 of 3 from the Misbegotten Rangers and swept the Lowly Orioles. True, it's a bit of an illusion, but a win is a win is a win
2. It came one day after Ricky Romero nearly threw a no-hitter, something that even people with the most passing knowledge of baseball can figure out, and was well reported
3. It came at the end of actually a pretty nice day - not nice enough to have the dome open, but definitely a day when people had summer on the mind.

If anything, those three factors should have mitigated the fact that it was an April game even by a little bit - it wouldn't have sold out, but it would haven't have been as bad. No, you weren't going to get a lot of families because it was a school night, but other Toronto teams play on a school night and can draw in more than that and have ZERO chance of playing a meaningful game, so I dismiss that argument with a wave of my hand as easily as I would dismiss a bunch of dead leaves.

So why was attendance so low?

Well, there was the Raptor's last game of the season, which they needed to win to have any playoff hopes. But more importantly, it was the first game of the NHL playoffs, of which Toronto has, at least count....lemme see...yes...zero teams in.

I've said this before, but Toronto is pretty much a one team/sport town - it's all Leafs/hockey, all the time. As such, ANY sport playing in this city is going to be second best, and it shows. The Raptors aren't the draw they used to be, and so few are aware that the Rock even exist that when the league nearly folded it was sidebar story. And before you start, I'll say it again: Don't be so smug, Toronto FC fans. There are already rumblings of discontent in your fanbase, and towards the end of last season there was red in the stands that were seats, not sweaters. You have about one year, possibly two, before a lot of those tickets start getting easier and easier to get.

So...what is my conclusion?

Baseball is dead in Toronto. Long live baseball in Toronto.

"But all they have to do is start winning, and people will come back!" Yes, that is true, and it's all the more proof that baseball is dead.

It's not that people aren't coming to the game because the team isn't winning - people aren't even really talking about the Jays. Traveling through other baseball cities during the season (New York City, Chicago), there's a difference in the air. People talk about the team as part of conversation (even the Mets). They are aware of who is playing and who is not. They have a passing familiarity with the rotation. You hear the game on radios and can see them flicking on TVs. They agree, they disagree, but it never gets heated of boastful. It's part of the fabric of the city and the conversation of its people.

Toronto will never be like that. It just won't. If they win, people will talk and dust of their old hats and banners, but once there's a bump in the road they'll go away. It's not a good thing, it's not a bad thing, it's just the way it is. It's already happened twice in this city (funny how people forget the lean years between the thrill of expansion and the opening of SkyDome...).

There are a lot of cities like this. Dallas has teams in all four sports, but you have to admit that it's a one sport town. Same as Miami, Kansas City, Houston - football is the REAL sport of those cities. There are baseball towns also - New York, Boston, Chicago, St Louis.

Toronto is a hockey town.

So does this mean that baseball is doomed? Does this mean that the city should count the days until the Jays fly south permanently.

No. First of all, there's no where else to go.

Secondly there has to be an attitudinal shift where we as Jays fans admit it: We're not going to draw in large crowds of baseball knowledgeable people, and can we live with that. But we can rebuild IF we are realistic about the outcome. It goes to the heart of what I've been mulling over for the past few years: How does one remain a fan of a team that won't compete yet not be a sucker as much as Leafs fans are? How do you embrace the inner Cubs fan?

There's one word in there that is the key: Cubs. It's about taking an interest in the game as a whole, in the 30 teams and two leagues that play it. It's knowing your team and their team, and talking about them. We're not going to win fans over by beating them over the heads with how great the game is, nor can we lie to them and say it's an exciting young team and that you only need the edge of your seat. The team is in a rebuilding process, so we as fans have to do our part and rebuild the base. We need to find ways to weave the topic of baseball back into the patterns of summers. We need to quietly but steadily show our love of the game and hope that by our example we lead others into a conversation about the sport and why it's worth following. If then they start coming to the games to see the GAME, not the uniforms, then when the team does better there's a base to grow on. A base that hopefully can remain there during the lean years. It's about pride in victory, stoicism in defeat.

I'm not a religious fellow, not in the least, but I guess it comes down to how we want to win converts: By the light shinning through us, or by knocking on people's door and bothering them until they say "Fine, I'll come to the game." I don't know about you, but the first option is what we need to do: Baseball is a game of patience.

Baseball in Toronto is dead. Long live baseball in Toronto.

Do not look directly into the navel
This week the Chicago Sun Times ran a story on the poor showing. Alex Rios and Ozzie Guillen made some great points that echo what I've been saying for a while: It's a one horse town etc.

A lot of strum und dang and pearl clutching came out of some comments in the piece that suggested that baseball would be better served moving out of Toronto and into Latin America.

Three things:

1. As a former Expos fan who still carries that wound, it's kinda hard for me to get too wrapped up in a team moving. Again, I didn't see many of you blocking the road from Montreal to Washington. (And I admit, Montreal is a one sport town also. Baseball, sadly, is not coming back there though I'm convinced it's a better baseball town than Toronto).
2. Cowley is wrong that moving is the only solution.
3. Yeah, it really sucks when someone writes a story about how a sport doesn't belong in your area, that the people aren't fans and don't care, and really the whole sport would be better served by picking up those teams and moving them to places where people really love the game. I'm so glad that we Canadians are completely and utterly blameless in this regard, and would never be so parochial about a game as to sit in judgement of how it's working somewhere else, nor go so far as to try to make it a political issue.