justcaws.com

Jim Basille now that you have some time forget about hockey – please buy the Blue Jays. (If you have any money left). Corporate ownership is killing sports in Toronto. Profits come first at Rogers and winning – well it’s hard to rank something that doesn’t exist.

Management are trying to convince sceptical fans that you can win, then spend in the AL East. Good luck. Now thanks to the Tigers, Rangers, and Angels, they can forget about any wild card delusions – even with an expanded play-off format.

If the Jays get off to a slow start next season – it will be pretty lonely for the fans. The only ones who will be at the Robbers Centre will be the die-hards and the only cheering will be for the stars in the other dug out.

Guy I feel sorry for is Jose Bautista. He like the fans got duped into thinking this team actually wanted to win. Well now we know why winners don’t come or stay long in Toronto.

Do some reading of your own and you will see the writing was on the wall. Winning pennants has never been mentioned in Rogers’ annual reports.

NHL enforcers are suckers at the bottom of a fish tank – they’re ugly, but they keep it clean. If you want to ban fighting then do so, otherwise get rid of the instigator rule and let the big guys
police the idiots.

I know in hockey I have crossed the line , but luckily a bigger, player with hockey smarts has given me my wake up call and told me in not so many words – to clean it up or else. Unfortunately, the checks and balances are not present in the game today.

The rash of concussions I don’t believe are the direct result of the absence enforcers, but it hasn’t helped either. if the league wants to continue to follow its current path – then 4 on 4 will be the next evolution to create more space in what has become a very dangerous high speed game.

Finally Kadri is back and it couldn’t have come soon enough for the 3-4 Leafs. Funny how Kadri who Wilson has mishandled, may actually save the Leafs coach his job.

GuelphMercury_com – Opinions – I’m winning gold at being an Olympic cynic

Well that didn’t take long did it. Wilson’s Leafs are staring to fall into that familiar pattern. Starting quick – till Wilson alienates and disrupts the confidence of many a player. Now the Leafs are falling just before winter hits – again.

Whether it be his mishandling and possibly ruining the promising and talented rookie Kadri. Or his treatment of his new whipping boy Luke Schenn. This coach can’t help himself but to let his personality get in the way.

Take the mishandling of back up Jonas Gustavsson. Just as this kid gets his game going and is gaining his confidence – Wilson decides to bench him and throw in a rookie Scrivens. Rook has a good game – so instead of letting him enjoy his contribution – you throw him to the wolves (or Bruins) and let him suffer through being lit up for five goals before pulling him. Now Scrivens confidence is shot and Gustavsson is left wondering why an unproven rookie gets more love from his coach than he does.

I do think Wilson is a great short term coach. His records in short tournaments proves this ( world cup, olympics). His best before date is just shorter than most coaches and the smell of losing in Toronto is getting very stale.

I also don’t think I am the only one who is annoyed by Wilson’s penchant for saying “we” when the team wins and “they” when the team loses.

Yes, I know it is early. Leafs are only 2-1 (nhl converted to nfl season – see previous posts) so far, but we have seen this movie before. Burke will have to make a change sooner rather than later if he wants to avoid another wasted season. My choice would be the PEI mouthpiece Doug Mclean. He was always a better coach than a manager and he has the media savy to handle Toronto.

Will see what happens – but if this two- game slide (outscored 12-1) becomes a six-gamer – Burke will have to make a move for a coach that instils player confidence and says “we” when the team wins AND when it loses.

Big free agents will be out there this winter in baseball. Too bad Toronto is to poor to put a winner on the field. Wait a second …

Rogers Communications that owns the Jays is seen as one of the richest ownerships in baseball and M.L.S.E. is one of the richest ownership groups in the NHL and NBA. 

Salary caps preclude the MLSE from spending, but the Blue Jays have no excuse in this regard. In fact the Jays have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball at $ 61 million ranking them 22 of 30 teams.  Many people often get on the Yankees for spending so much, but their ownership worth is much less than the Blue Jays and yet they spend the money to win. Rather than getting mad at teams like the Yankees,  Blue Jay fans should start asking more of their ownership that is playing them for suckers. 

 Its’s no wonder Toronto was ranked dead last by ESPN as one of the worst sport cities. Not sure about that one, but I am staritng to think Toronto fans are the most gullible.

Apparently Cody Rasmus is a very talented player. He can feel free to demonstrate some of that talent anytime now.

Recently Jeff Blair of the Globe&Mail poured cold water on the idea that the Blue Jays will offer major long term contracts to coveted free agents this winter. Apparently A.A. is to continue making miracles happen on the cheap.

If this team ever wants to make the jump back into relevance in this city and the league for that matter, it has to spend the cash. There has been a noticeable uptick in Blue Jay enthusiasm this year, but that will fall off a cliff if big market Toronto fans sees rich Rogers ownership running the team like the poor KC Royals.

Rogers spend $120 million or say goodbye to recent followers and any goodwill. Sports Illustrated had it right when it said that the Jays are a team that CAN and should spend the money.

I find in the last few years the NFL has replaced horse racing as the betting fancy for North American sport enthusiasts. It’s like Sunday at the track. Betting on the game has become old hat with fantasy player pools becoming the new way to play.

What this has done is create a situation where fans seems to cheer for a result rather than team. This may not have an impact tv ratings, but ticket sales in soft markets could suffer.

Therefore my conspiracy prediction for this season is that these “soft” market teams will have play-off win-loss records by season end.

Finally the Blue Jays are getting new uniforms next year. The current logo and design are awful. If you win two World Series and have had the proud tradition of the Jays you don’t need to keep changing your logo every few years – in pro sports it’s a cheesy way to re-brand your team. Leave this to the teams with no sense of history. The odd tweak to modernise is fine, but proud franchises shouldn’t change a successful brand.

You don’t need to be the Yankees to keep your team look timeless. Look at the Atlanta Braves - they have kept their look pretty much the same since they met the Blue Jays in the ’92 World Series. 

Since the Jays are changing again – let’s hope they can finally get it right. To do that they first need to go back to the original style font for all numbers, names etc.. Next the old logo should be put back into place as the Blue Jays baseball logo. This logo should not appear on the uniform – but should be the franchise brand – just like the Twins, Yankees, Red Sox for example.  The  Jays logo (which has their tradional font style) are shown below along with other baseball team logos.

The logo on the hat does give the team the opportunity to sport a new look, but there are rules. A traditionalist would have the first letter of the team’s city on the cap. Notice none of the team logos from above appear on their caps. My suggestion would be to put a T in the original Blue Jays font over a red Maple Leaf, similar to the Maple Leafs Inter-county Baseball team’s logo.

The uniform itself in terms of size and design isn’t that big a deal as long as the template remains the same – think Leafs recent sweater update with the laces at the collar.

So ok Blue Jays you now have the justcaws new look and design rules to live by – stick with it.

Now that we have re-designed the new uniform it’s time to get back to the play-offs! In the MLB that means spending the money! To compete in the AL East each year the ante is 100 million. Thankfully the Jays are in the 5th largest market in North America and can easily spend the dough. The fact that they haven’t since Labatt’s lost control of the team is the main reason the Roger’s Field (who plays baseball in a centre) is half empty most nights.

During the Championship years the Jays were leaders in team payroll. Top free agents were signed and added for pennant runs. This high roller attitude spoiled fans in Toronto and most won’t return until they see evidence that the Blue Jays are in it to win it. That means no more Roy Halladay or Delgados going elsewhere like we are some small market team. Toronto is a world class city that wants a world class team – this isn’t Baltimore.

Part of the reason the Bills have not been a hit in Toronto is because Toronto fans don’t t want to share a team with another city – particularly Buffalo – sorry Buffalo – but it’s true.

So that’s why I am encouraged to see Blue Jays President Paul Beeston back in charge. He understands the market and he will make the Blue Jays a financial plus in the Rogers ledger. To do so he will have to convince Rogers to spend the money. I believe he already has that assurance – otherwise he never would have comeback.

Beeston’s sharp eye for talent promoted Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos. This shrewd move is already paying huge dividends as the team continues to acquire and develop young top notch talent.

But judgement day for the Blue Jays organiztion is coming soon. They have said they intend to increase the payroll going forward. Talk is cheap – as will be the selling price of the team be if they don’t.

Looks like another Leaf season is going to wither on the vine. While I am not blind to this team’s deficiencies – I do think they are underachieving. With the talent on the ice they should be 10-12 pts. better than they are and fighting for a play-off spot.

For this reason, I thought they should have fired Wilson 25 games ago. Now, they’re too buried in the standings to make a run. That would probably make some say there is no point in firing the coach at this point in the season. Usually I would agree – but not with the caustic Wilson leading this team. Keeping him on for the rest of the season would be a big mistake.

Wilson’s negative attitude is no fit for a young Leaf club. He’s killed the confidence of Kadri and now Gustavsson. Wilson continually calls out his young players for poor play. All this has done is ice a team that looks uptight and plays not to lose -which is a sure fire way not to win.

Wilson is a good coach – his record and time in the game prove this.  He is just the wrong coach at the wrong time for the Leafs. An interim guy who can rebuild the confidence of the team is needed right away.

For anyone still following this team, firing Wilson can’t come soon enough.

Hey I love hockey as much as the next Canadian – but the following of this Jr Hockey “World” Championship is getting nuts. There kids – not pros. Just because TSN has blown this tournament out of proportion, giving it more hype and coverage than it deserves (just like they do with the CFL) doesn’t me we need to lose our perspective. It is a non-professional hockey tournament in which a few northern countries participate. Enjoy it for what it is – win or lose.

If you follow the NFL you realize the importance of the regular season.  It is has the fewest games by far of any of the major North American sports leagues.  The NFL for now, have 16 regular season games compared to 82 in the NHL and NBA.

In order to gauge how your NHL or NBA team are doing to start the season, convert their record to roughly what it would be in the NFL.

You do this by taking the number of NHL/NBA games and dividing it the number of NFL games  (82/16).  It works out to 5.125 games. For simplicity,  we will say each 5 games in the NHL/NBA would work out to one NFL game.  If your NHL teams wins 3 or more games in a five-game stretch they would win an NFL game.  I don’t bother with ties or worry if a team goes 3-2 or 1-4, in the end under this system they would be 1-1 in my books.

So using the Leafs as an example – take each one of their five game blocks to start the season and convert it. They started strong and under my NFL system were a whopping 1-0. Then they went in the tank and all Leaf fans thought the sky was falling, but really they were only 1-2.

If they win the game tonight, the 2oth of the season against the Dallas – they would be would be 2-2.  So as you can see Leaf fans – it is way too early to make any call on what the Leafs are going to do this season.

I figure the NHL, being what it is the Leafs will need to go 9-7 to make the playoffs.  Now you have your dose of NFL/justcaws perspective.

Each season series the Leafs and Habs should play for the Pat Burns Memorial Cup – series winner takes it home.  Portion of the profits from a game/series and Merchandise etc. could be used to raise money to fight cancer.