Oddly, Rojas seems to bookend the story with an additional "And who is this Vernon Wells character, besides?" theme. It's a story, essentially, about how Toronto ballplayers don't get noticed by the American baseball fan public.
Rios, to his credit, professes not to care. So the question to you is ... can (or should) anything be done in this regard?
As an Expos fan from their inception, this is definitely deja vu. From Rusty Staub, through Cromartie-Dawson-Valentine, to Vladimir Guerrero, outstanding baseball talent seems to be ignored or overlooked simply because they play on the (perceived!) wrong side of the border.
Why is this? Were the Expos (and are the Jays) some kind of second-class, AAAA-franchise, the red-headed stepchildren due to the accident of geography? Or is it due to haughty arrogance on the south side of the border? Or is it due to the woeful lack of television exposure in the US of Canadian teams? It is, I suspect, a combination of these reasons, and others, as well.
What can be done to correct this? As Mike Green accurately points out, winning will get their attention. They still remember Roberto Alomar, Joe Carter, Dave Stieb, and Tom Henke, I'll wager ...
As a counterbalancing argument, I feel constrained to point out that there's not an abundance of affection flowing from the CBC or TSN for the Carolina Hurricanes. Bias can cut both ways, I'm afraid.
I see it frequently around here, but I don't think there's any Canadian bias in the US media, related to baseball. If there was you wouldn't have seen half the coverage of the offseason that the team got.
The Jays have simply been a mediocre team since 1994. Those kind of teams don't get much attention. Winning teams, or controversial teams, get noticed.
I don't think there is much anti Canadian bias. You don't see a lot of media attention for players of most teams outside of New York, Boston and California (and maybe Atlanta). Think your average baseball fan pays much attention to or hears about Jason Bay, Johan Santana, Ichiro, or a guy like Johnny Gomes? If they played with the Yankees we would never hear the end of them.
Anyway, media attention seems to do as much harm as good.
Before we condemn the U.S. Media, I think we should look at the nuissance of the CRTC as the first dilemna. Why would ESPN give more exposure to Canada's only Canadian team if Canada won't even broadcast their television network north of the border? What could possibly be gained?
Canada needs to open their arms to the U.S. sports media before the U.S. Sports media decides to give the Jays any more coverage than they usually do.
Well the 10% of those north of the border is still better than the current <1% that currently do. You can justify more Jays coverage if you have a potential market of 30 million people instead of the current zero (except those with satellites).
I don't think anyone expects to get hugely significant coverage of the Jays if ESPN was available to Canadians. All most of us are asking is the odd ESPN game, or the odd feature on the Jays. Certainly something like that could be justified if the 95% of Jays fans in Canada actually got the channel and could watch it.
As long as ESPN is unable to be viewed in Canada, there isn't a sniff of hope that the Jays will ever be featured in a Sunday Night Game or any high profile game. When ESPN has Sunday Night Baseball, they need the ratings of both teams on the field. And if 95% of one team's fans doesn't get that channel, the ratings will be cut in half immediately and the opportunity cost will be great.
It's much more profitable to showcase two American teams in the same timezone, which is why we so often see WhiteSox/Indians/Yankees/Red Sox.
ESPN owns part of TSN.
If you've watched SportsCentre on TSN, it clearly doesn't show--as 12 straight hours of Live NHL trade deadline coverage can attest.
I'm not even sure if I'm amongst the group that is complaining, as the Jays have been on ESPN the odd few times in the last year. But clearly if there is a problem, it begins with the CRTC's blockage.
When was the last time the Jays played on Sunday night baseball?
Few things are worse then Sunday night baseball. I don't know why anyone would want to be on, the games don't end until the middle of the night. If you have ever been to one, you certainly wouldn't want to repeat this experience. This isn't college football where you need exposure to move up in the polls, all you have to do is win.
As a resident of Bristol, Connecticut I can tell you that in this area the Blue Jays have gotten more media and fan attention then they have since 94. Mike and the Mad Dog considered the Mets' trip to Toronto to be the beginning of a challenging trip through the AL East. Red Sox fans have become increasingly frustrated with their difficulties with Toronto. Just today in the gym a Red Sox fan told me that it was a good thing that Josh Towers is having the season he is having or the standings would be that much tighter, and most intellegent fans are starting to realize it might be a single representative from the AL East in 2006.
It's only been 75 games, if the Jays are there in September they will get their credit. 3 months of pretty good baseball isn't something that should generate hard feelings because the press clippings aren't positive enough yet.
I notice that Ozzie Guillen has selected John Gibbons as one of his two All-Star coaches, along with Eric Wedge of the Indians, saying , "I have lot of respect for Eric Wedge and John Gibbons and what they have been able to accomplish with the Indians and Blue Jays. Every time we play those teams, it's a battle for the White Sox."
This illustrates two points to me. First, the profrssionals are fully aware of, and have respect for, the Jays, as opposed to large slices of the US sports media. That's what really counts: the respect of the opposition.
Second, old Ozzie is capable of saying something once in a while without offending someone ...
AWeb
Maybe you don't remember the Sportsdesk days that well, but TSN's ALWAYS had annoying and self-hyping announcers with ridiculous catchphrases. Mike Toth, during his brief stint, comes to mind, as well as the Michael Landsberg/Brendan Connor combination from the mid-90s.
to get Rios noticed in the american media, I suggest he do something stupid, like hit a homerun, round the bases, and then go onto the pitchers mound with his arms raised to celebrate.
