Chicago Reporter Calls for Toronto Blue Jays To Relocate

I realize I'm a bit late on this, and I apologize for that.

It seems that Joe Cowley, a sports reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, believes that baseball just cannot exist in the city of Toronto, Canada.

This is not really that strange of Cowley, however, who in 2004 referred to Canada as a "third world nation" and said he refused to stand for the singing of "O Canada" following Montreal Canadiens' fans booing the Star Spangled Banner in a playoff series against the Bruins.

While it may have been a classless act by Habs fans, one would hope that a paid reporter would at least have the decency to be the bigger man, as opposed to acting like someone with a biased vendetta against an entire country.

Back in 2003, he also elected to inexplicably not vote for Carlos Delgado in the 2003 MVP ballot, which led to his vote being uspended the next year.

Again, hating on Toronto.

Anyways, that's not the issue today.

In his article, he calls for Major League Baseball to relocate its only Canadian franchise because as he explained, Canadians care more about hockey at every level, Justin Bieber, and Texas Hold Em tournaments, rather than showing Jays' highlights.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that this would be rather funny, had he not been actually serious.

It seems that it's hard for Cowley to realize that it might be better for the Canadian sports networks (many of which are national, mind you) to broadcast the NHL playoffs highlights, as opposed to those from the Blue Jays in April.

He argues that baseball was forced upon the Toronto market, and that they don't really want the sport there.

In the article he quotes White Sox outfielder (and former Blue Jay) Alex Rios, who notes the sad state of attendance at the Jays games, referring to his time spent in Toronto as MLB's witness protection program.

He also quotes White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen as one of his punctuation marks on why the team should move.

"It's kind of a sad situation up here," said Guillen in the article. "There are people supporting Toronto baseball, but it's sad when you remember 10 to 20 years ago how exciting it was to come play up here. There was enthusiasm in the city, there was excitement."

An eye-opening point in the story.

When the team was winning back-to-back World Series championships, there were more fans than there are now. Who would have figured?

He completely ignores the fact that the Jays are in a rebuilding phase, and that as such, maybe fans don't want to pay to go see a team lose.

Also, there has been much stirring about Rogers Centre as a suitable venue, with many Jays fans (yes, regardless of Cowley's ignorance, there are fans, and lots of them) asking for the team to build a new stadium to move into.

He goes in the article to discuss how the Jays should move to Caracas, Venezuela for a new MLB team. He uses quotes from Venezuelan native Guillen and Freddy Garcia to really drive home the point (who would have guessed Venezuelans would support a team in their home nation?).

Anyway, enough about my getting furious at this article.

Cowley's article raised the question to more mainstream media, as well.

ESPN's Rob Neyer expresses his concern with Caracas as a destination, noting how no-one has ever considered it because of the stupidity that would be involved with road trips for both the Caracas squad and the visiting teams.

He also states that while the Jays may be on the list of teams to be looked at with problems, they are not in the top five for those that need to move.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim catcher Mike Scioscia dismissed the idea of moving the team out of Toronto, noting that the team just lost its franchise player, and that summer has not really began yet in the city.

Last year the Jays sported the 22nd-best attendance in the Majors. Not an impressive stat, but with the limited success they saw, it showed that they did have decent attendance (it came in averaging 23,162 per game).

Teams below them included Oakland, Florida, Cleveland, and Tampa.

Cowley's White Sox came in at just 5,000 more per game.

The Jays attendance has fallen early this season, but is still above the Indians, who Chicago faced following their trip to Toronto. Many fans were putoff by the increase of ticket prices by the Rogers Center, which caused a slight downfall in attendance.

The timing of Cowley's article is also strange, as so many analysts consider Florida to legitimately be in trouble of being moved elsewhere.

Regardless of the Chicago reporter's article, Jays' fans should not be biting their nails yet.

Discussions of a new stadium are in the (very, very early) beginning, and the team plays in arguably the best and most profitable division in all of sports. Add that to the good exchange rate, a franchise that is rebuilding and looking to spend money, and the team should improve over the next couple of years, and as such attendance and support will as well.

As a commenter on the blog Drunk Jays Fans noted, what could really hurt the Jays is if TV figures drop, as the owners also own the rights to broadcast on their channels, and could lose money as such.

Regardless, Toronto is Canada's team, and the Blue Jays should live in Toronto for a while.

You may read Cowley's article here.

You may read Neyer's article here.