In the Saturday Star, there's a front page picture of the Blue Jays, 25 head shots. Is it celebrating the club's remarkable turnaround, two years ahead of schedule? Introducing the players to a city that's just waking up to the reality of being in a pennant race? Nope, it's drawing attention to Geoff Baker's feature, headlined "Whitest team in the majors," which occupies a lot of the sports section.
Baker consults an "expert" who points out the large Japanese turnout in Toronto to see Ichiro. Talent has nothing to do with it, I guess; perhaps Hideki Irabu would be a similar draw. Then there's this gem:
Complicating the entire issue of race is the fact the Jays aren't really seeking the best players available, many of whom happen to be non-white. Budget-conscious Toronto instead is looking for value.
Yeah, we all hate value. OK, so J.P. should spend more money, and start considering the "issue" of race, which happens to be irrelevant to his job of building a winner. Why? Isn't what he's accomplished in 18 months good enough?
I'm not outraged, or even surprised. The Star feels compelled to criticize the team, and the Jays are making it very difficult by winning. This "study" is supported by two sidebars, one about the "free-swinging Latino" stereotype, the other correctly asserting that college players, identified by J.P. and company as the best pool to draft from, given their budgetary constraints, are mostly white. Richard Griffin weighs in with some timely marketing advice to help the Jays, who are apparently, according to the headline, "striking out in bid for diverse crowd":
Certainly, the Jays can build a winning team with whatever ethnic breakdown they desire, but a strong season (unless a World Series is involved) is not going to get the job done when it comes to filling the stadium. The Jays have acknowledged the challenge with some novel marketing ideas, but still refuse to bend in the direction of attracting a more ethnic crowd using the 25 men on the field.
What a load of rubbish; I guess it sells papers. Fortunately, J.P. may be reading this, and realize what a huge mistake he made signing Cat when he could have had Shinjo. Greg Myers is no Alberto Castillo, either. When is this front office going to learn what's important?
By the way, the game story for last night's exciting comeback win is buried on page E7, after all the self-righteous indignation. Not only do I wonder about the paper's agenda, but just how ethnically diverse is the Star sports desk? Or do they ignore their own invented issue and hire only the "best" reporters?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20030628104158999