The Noise Factor

Odds are, the 2008 World Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and Philadelphia Phillies won’t break any ratings records.  However it should be noted that these are two very good teams who happen to match up very well across the board.

But I couldn’t help but recollect for a minute about the fact that Tampa Bay wasn’t suppose to walk into the World Series, well, ever in their entire existence.  Yet here we are just days before the start of the Series and here is the team that use to be called the Devil Rays just a short time ago.  This is a team that has found it difficult to fill their stadium during the playoffs (LOTS of Red Sox fans in the park during the entire ALCS).  Yet for the majority of the season they had us shaking our heads to the point where now they have made us believers.  Better yet, it’s hard to imagine that we doubted them this entire time.

As I continued to recollect I thought back to some of the previous championships and realized that Tampa Bay has had it harder than anyone coming into this finale.  Philadelphia beat up a team that back into the Wild Card position in Milwaukee (thanks to another Miracle Mets Meltdown), and then beat a team that was below .500 for most of the season until the arrival of Manny Ramirez, Los Angeles.  Not to say the Phillies haven’t been pressed, but the Rays have certainly had it harder from day 1.  First you have the Red Sox and New York Yankees to deal with.  Then you have the Toronto Blue Jays, a team that was suppose to be the team that would emerge victorious over the other two.  Then there is Baltimore, who could have been one of the strongest last-place teams in recent history.  Let’s face it, Tampa has not had any pushovers in their division; there are no Washington Nationals to beat on in the AL East.

Think about the last 24 years of World Series match ups; from Baltimore’s win in 1983 against Philly to today (no 1994 World Series), 9 titles have been won by teams to, today, reside in the AL East (you can also add Detroit in 1984 to make 10).  New York had 4, Boston 2 and Toronto 2 to add to Baltimore’s title to kick things off.  No other division comes close.  Those 8 titles from New York, Boston and Toronto have all come since 1992.  That is what you call a long history of division dominance.

That said, along with the battle with Boston in the ALCS, Tampa Bay will come into the World Series with very little experience yet they have already been battle-tested.  Philadelphia will be facing their toughest opponent of this post-season.  They have also been able to rest up and watch this Tampa Bay team.  They should know what to expect already.

People may not tune in to this match-up the way they would for New York v. Boston, Yankees v. Dodgers or Cubs v. Anyone, but this year’s World Series should prove to be outstanding.

Tampa Bay in 7.

Final point: Nothing against Matt Garza, who had a clutch performance last night, but the MVP should have gone to BJ Upton.  That was an all-time performance he put on.

In 1867, a new country was founded north of the American border.  That country is known as Canada.

In 2000, a new perspective was founded by one teenager towards the Toronto Maple Leafs.  That kid was The Dan.

Although tonight’s festivities will be celebrating the former, my head can’t stop thinking about the former and how it came about.

Less than a week before I had attended a Toronto Blue Jays game against Pedro Martinez and the Boston Red Sox.  When the series started, Toronto had never been as close to first place this far into a season since 1993, when they won the World Series.  Pedro was virtually unhittable that year as his ERA was in the low-1’s - very dominant considering that season was one of the greatest offensive seasons in baseball history.  Needless to say, Toronto had their work cut out for them as they started the series a half-game up on the New York Yankees, who were in the midst of their dynasty.

Toronto won the first two games and set up the showdown against Pedro on the Sunday.  Boston jumped out to a 4-1 lead and if they scored 4 runs for Pedro the game would usually be over.  But the Jays tightened the ball game to 5-3, thanks to some horrendous fielding by the BoSox and to Jimy Williams’ careless handling of Pedro’s pitch count.  To the 7th inning, Carlos Delgado steps up to the plate.  Carlos was having an MVP season and challenging for the triple crown.  He had been owned by Pedro all game until he hit an opposite-field, 2-run homerun just above my face to tie the game up.  It was Pedro’s 134th pitch of the ballgame and we weren’t finished the 7th inning.  Talk about careless.

Toronto went on to win the game, sweep Boston, and push their AL East lead to 2 games.  Yet, there was little coverage of the team’s climb to the top.  All I read in the newspaper, watched on TV or heard on the radio was how the Toronto Maple Leafs were going to get Eric Lindros from Philadelphia and how they would spend their money to contend for a Stanley Cup.  The Leafs, afterall, is Toronto’s team and with the extra revenue made from their first full-season in a new facility, the Air Canada Centre, they would be looking to spend more than usual, right?  We’d wait and see…

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays pushed their lead in the AL East to 3 games on the morning of July 1st.  I turned the radio dial that morning to the sports station and they were talking hockey and the Maple Leafs (yes, in 90 degrees farenhiet weather we still talk hockey up here).  I flip the television on and what do I see?  Maple Leaf executives telling the media how things are going with the off-season.  July 1st is the day NHL teams can go after free agents.  Problem was, Lindros was under contract with Philly and he wanted out because of the feud he was having with overrated-GM and ex-player Bobby Clarke.

My brother walks through the door asking me if I wanted to read the newspaper.  I looked at the front page and all I see is a digitally-manipulated picture of Lindros in a Maple Leafs uniform.

That was all I needed to see.  I was angry, pissed, insulted, and I felt stupid to think the media or the fans in the city of Toronto would do the right thing.  We should have been supporting a first-place team.  We complained for years that Toronto sports teams weren’t winning, and here we had a team battling with everything they had to stay in first place ahead of a strong Boston team and one of the greatest Yankee teams they ever had.  Yet all we could muster was just over 21 000 people per game.  That covered about 41% of the ballpark seating.  That is embarrassing.  When the team earned the support of the people in Toronto, the people weren’t there to back up their talk.  They didn’t care about baseball (most that went to games in the late-80’s and early 90’s never did), and all they cared about was their precious, mediocre Maple Leafs.  And everyone was offended when David Wells insulted the fans of Toronto after the 2000 season.  Wells said Toronto fans “stink” for not supporting the team enough.  As big of a jerk Wells can be, he was right.  He was right about the fans who asked for a winner, got one, and went AWOL.

But everyone was excited about the mediocre Maple Leafs who did nothing spectacular during the off-season yet optimism bloomed around Toronto about their chances of winning everything.  It was funny since there was no salary cap in hockey and that Toronto was one of the richest hockey teams in the league yet they’d spend as much money as a bird eats.  And when it was time for the team to raise ticket prices, season ticket holders were happy to loosen their pants and bend over before the team could finish speaking.

This is why Toronto doesn’t deserve a Stanley Cup nor do they deserve a winner in any sport.  They do not know how to use the word “loyalty” in a proper manner and their word is worthless.  Baseball goes on strike and they lost all interest in baseball due to that strike, yet hockey loses an entire season due to a lockout and Toronto does not lose a single ticket holder.  Not one.  It wasn’t the strike, it was the sport.  Liars and traders - that is why the Blue Jays lost 30 000 fans in a span of 5 years.

Although I can’t really say all that much.  My family had season tickets until 1994.  That year I started umpiring and played on 2 baseball teams while my brother and father coached one of my teams on top of my brother playing for his high school and rep team.  Needless to say it was our love for baseball that took us away from ball games.  If I wasn’t playing I was umpiring.  Had I played for 1 team like my brother and I did years previous and had my dad not coached, we could have continued going to games.  So instead of 81 games, we’d go to 10.  I’m sorry Toronto Blue Jays, I turned my back on you because I loved baseball.

I also love my country, and I wish Canada a happy 141st birthday.  Speaking of which, could you imagine not hosting a home game on the 4th of July or Memorial Day?  Well, in the late-90’s Toronto would actually get a sellout or close to it on Canada Day.  Yet, I can’t remember the last time we’ve had a home game on our national holiday or even Victoria Day.  Either Major League Baseball needs to get their heads out of their asses (because why would they want to snub themselves of a better overall attendance?) or the Blue Jays organization better demand a home game on those particular days.  Its nonsense, people are off that day and will come out for a great day and a ball game.  It was in the high-70’s today and sunny - great weather.  It makes no sense to me at all.

Then again, I can’t understand why people like the Toronto Maple Leafs but they do.  That said, I’ll put that to rest and enjoy the holiday.  USA, you guys are up in 3 days.