Why doesn’t Blue Jays ownership speak on behalf of the club?
“Who own da Chiefs? “Ownz. Ownz.”
Those lines, repeated over and over, are one of the great bits from the movie “Slap Shot”.
And I thought of it the other day when I put in a request to interview the owner of the Blue Jays. Whoever that may be.
We know Rogers Communications owns the Jays. We know Edward Rogers, son of Ted, is chairman of the club. We know Joe Natale is the CEO of Rogers. But who, as baseball stood on the precipice in a nonsensical negotiation, as the Jays try and find a place to play, as the club attempts to manipulate federal government regulations to be able to work at the Rogers Centre and allow teams to enter Canada without quarantine, spoke for the ownership of the team?
I asked a media relations person to arrange an interview.
One media relations person sent my request to another media relations person. The corporate wheels spinning. It might have gone to a third one. I’m not sure.
The answer I got back was to talk to Mark Shapiro. But as I pointed out, he doesn’t own anything, he’s an employee. He may be the club president, but he’s not the owner. He has no skin in the game.
The owner is a corporation — one with nothing to say as a major sport paddles in circles in the most complicated market in the game.
What does Blue Jays ownership think of Rob Manfred’s leadership as commissioner, about a season without fans, about the players demanding too much, about owning a team and a stadium with so many issues, about COVID19?
It was a funny bit in “Slap Shot”. Who own da Chiefs? Not so funny at this challenging time baseball in Canada.
THIS AND THAT
The question both Ontario and NHL players should be asking: If the NHL’S hub format wasn’t good enough for Dr. Bonnie Henry in British
Columbia, one of the MVPS of the COVID-19 season, why should it be good enough for Toronto and frankly, for those playing it it? What exactly were all of Dr. Henry’s objections to the NHL’S plan — and how are those being addressed now? … I want to see hockey. I’m selfish that way. I want the see playoffs in August. But I want them played under safe and healthy circumstances. And I don’t care where. Once the games are played, it won’t matter if it’s Toronto or Edmonton or Chicago or wherever. The arenas will be empty. The situations will be similar. The great hub-city dance is basically meaningless to most fans who will turn on their television and watch, no matter where the games will be played. The local economy will benefit for being a hub city. The fans will see games no matter where they happen to be played … The NBA should have scheduled its playoffs to begin immediately in August rather than waste time with eight games to be able to show Zion Williamson on television more. The Raptors, hopefully safe training in a Florida city currently besieged by COVID-19, have a tough schedule before the real games begin. If I had a vote as an owner with championship aspirations, I would have voted against the format the NBA settled on … For years, I’ve been hearing that the NFL is the only league that makes money before it sells a single ticket. That’s how huge the TV dollars are.
This year, we’ll find out if that old axiom is correct … There are MIT graduates who couldn’t explain the NHL’S draft lottery Friday night in less than 100 words. And try telling someone that some team won, we just don’t know which one. Weird stuff in the weirdest season in history.
HEAR AND THERE
This is what the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee should do in the future: Publish the voting results. Not with names, with numbers. We know Jarome Iginla got 18 out of 18 possible votes. That’s obvious. But we don’t know who got in with 14 votes and who may have lost out having only 13 or 12 votes. You need 75 per cent to be elected. The Hall should be more open with its disclosures. What it should announce every year is who was nominated and how the voting went. You don’t have to identify who voted for whom. The numbers will do and it will serve the hockey public well to know who didn’t get voted in and who wasn’t nominated at all.
In baseball, we see the voting. In football, we find out who got in and who didn’t. In basketball, everybody gets in, so it doesn’t matter. In hockey, we’re on the outside looking in.