Jays fans get few views from training camp
George Springer was eloquent and insightful, polished and professional when he gave us a glimpse of spring training Toronto-style on a Tuesday Zoom call from Dunedin.
If you are a Toronto Blue Jays fan, it might have left you wanting for more than the team’s US$150 million man.
Good luck with that. The pent-up demand to see how Springer fits in with the rest of the young Jays team normally would create a huge opportunity for the team. Show the fans what they want with as many Grapefruit League games as possible over the next six weeks and let the infatuation blossom.
Instead, Canadian fans will see only glimpses of their team over the 28-game exhibition schedule. It remains to be seen how many spring training games will televised — Sportsnet has yet to release a schedule — but it’s almost certain it won’t be more than a handful and none will be produced by the rightsholder.
“We don’t control that and we obviously are supportive of having as many games as possible being broadcast,” Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro told Postmedia on Tuesday. “But we’re understanding that (Sportsnet) have their own business to run.”
There’s plenty to read between Shapiro’s lines, starting with a reasonable guess that the Jays clearly would prefer to have more exposure from their corporate Rogers brother.
The good news — such as it is — is that Sunday’s spring training opener is scheduled to appear on Sportsnet, one of a handful of games the network will squeeze into its yet to be announced schedule.
The bad news — and Jays fans are grudgingly being forced to get used to this — is it will be produced by the YES Network, which broadcasts New York Yankees games.
So instead of Springer expanding on his Tuesday thoughts about the Jays clubhouse, his former Houston Astros teammate Teoscar Hernandez and what he expects of himself, Canadian viewers will be overloaded with tales of Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole and Yankees prospects.
And if Springer’s name comes up at all, good chance it will be with reference to a garbage can and related to the Astros win over the Yankees in the 2019 ALCS.
The Jays have always pushed for not just a high number of spring training games to be aired in Canada, but for Sportsnet to produce them. With mutual ownership, it made sense.
A team loaded with bright, young players makes for good storytelling which makes for good ticket sales. That’s less of a factor in 2021 with it being unlikely that any fans will be allowed in Rogers Centre, even if games are played north of the border and the pandemic is certainly a complicating factor.
The frustration began last year when, as a cost-cutting measure, Sportsnet opted to produce just two Jays spring training games, both scratched due to the COVID-19 shutdown. A dozen more were scheduled, but were simulcast broadcasts from the opposing team.
The pandemic certainly makes it challenging for Sportsnet — and all media outlets, this one included — but it only accentuates the void.
And then there is radio. As of Tuesday, there were no announced plans in place for coverage of spring training games, either on flagship station Sportsnet 590 or on the network’s website. As well, the network has yet to name a partner for play-by-play man Ben Wagner.
At a time when fans are starved for news and information in advance of the season, it’s a head-scratcher, even with the recent management shuffle at Rogers.
Meanwhile, there are some television logistics to be worked out prior to the regular season at TD Ballpark, where the Jays will play at least the first two homestands.
Among the renovations to elevate the Dunedin facility to big league standards, the team must determine where cameras will be placed to produce acceptable broadcast quality both for the Jays and for the visiting team.
Another concern the Jays are addressing is upgrading lighting at TD Ballpark, including the addition of four light standards to improve visibility of high fly balls.
And in the final week of home exhibition games, the Jays will have 6:35 p.m. starts to mimic the regular season.
“We always have believed that night games at the end of spring training are a good idea because players eyes need to get re-acclimated to tracking the ball and seeing the ball under the lights,” Shapiro said.
“Certainly with playing major league games in Dunedin, we want to use that as a test drive for the additional light towers we’re going to add, for broadcasting and anything that might be different.”
As for other renovations, that will be an ongoing effort, particularly in addressing the cramped visitors’ locker-room. Shapiro said the team is considering holding its own batting practice and game prep at its training complex some six kilometres away and then busing over for first pitch.
Nothing is easy and as Shapiro put it, right now “there is no normalcy.”