TORONTO (July 22) — We are eight days removed from the trade deadline in Major League Baseball and the Toronto Blue Jays are still the purview of a general manager that has defaulted on virtually every promise.

How, then, Rogers Communications will permit Ross Atkins to begin a teardown of the club he allegedly “built” is a mystery… yet so annoyingly typical of baseball and hockey in this town. The Blue Jays and Maple Leafs talk big and act small. Particularly when it matters. The Raptors and Argonauts at least make an effort to improve, and both have provided Toronto recent championships. The Jays haven’t appeared in the World Series for 31 years; the Leafs in the Stanley Cup final for 57 trips around the sun. Neither famine will end in the foreseeable future.

There is, however, a potential disparity.

While the Leafs are effectively run by the five players (William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Morgan Rielly) accorded full control of their contracts — reducing Brendan Shanahan and Brad Treliving to mere observers — the Blue Jays have the a chance for a dramatic reset. Only problem is the same tandem that wrecked the franchise is somehow still in position to execute the rebuild. Resulting in a total confession of failure.

Does any baseball observer (other than Steve Phillips of TSN) trust Atkins to flip the script? You’d have to look long and hard. Heck, even the last holdout, Mike Wilner of the Toronto Star, advocated for a “new front office” and the end of “selling false hope” in his Saturday column. Other media voices have directly called for Atkins’ scalp — accompanied by the man that oversees the entire operation: president Mark Shapiro. Instead, it appears that both executives will remain in their roles for, arguably, the most–important trade embargo in franchise history. Am I the only person wondering how that can result in a positive outlook for the club? Would you trust Kyle Dubas to (hypothetically) tear down the imbalanced hockey team he constructed? It’s a rhetorical question. Neither should we depend on Shapiro and Atkins to solve the disaster occurring on their watch for, now, nearly a decade.

If only Edward Rogers had a pulse.

We assume he’s still alive… even without irrefutable evidence.

Not that ol’ Ted Jr., or anyone else in the high tower at One Mount Pleasant, is gripping over the ball club. The billions poring in from “Ignite” packages routinely depreciates the Blue Jays within the company. Baseball is a small potato at Rogers, which retains ownership primarily to offer 162 nights of programming for Sportsnet between March and September. And, for garbage like this to appear as lead item, earlier today, on the Sportsnet website:

I’m sure all Blue Jays fans are thrilled that Erik Swanson is back from the minors (sigh). It matters not, to the club–owned sports channel, that Shapiro and Atkins remain in charge of the franchise they have ruined. Nor that Kevin Gausman, the suddenly scalding (at the plate) George Springer, Yusei Kikuchi, Danny Jansen, Justin Turner, Yimi Garcia and others could help to restock the diminished farm system, thereby offering some hope down the line.

Were, for the sake of argument, Alex Anthopoulos available to clean up the chaos, you wouldn’t recognize the Blue Jays during their matinee game at Baltimore on July 31. All of the aforementioned would have been moved out… along with, potentially, the alleged “cornerstones”, Vladdy Jr. and Bo. Instead, Shapiro and Atkins will probably nibble around the edges; doing just enough to provide more false promise while attempting to retain a morsel of credibility among their peers. It won’t work. Not with the fans; other baseball executives, or on the field.

Nor, quite obviously, can circumstances change in the next eight days. Were Ted Jr. concerned about his terrible baseball team, Shapiro and Atkins would have been shown the door once it became obvious that no viable improvements were made last off–season. Or, approximately the middle of April. Instead, the unaccomplished pair will remain in charge of the July 30 trade cutoff. Having to swallow its pride and dismantle the club Atkins “felt so good about” on countless occasions. Shapiro, the invisible man, will rest on the laurels obtained while overseeing the renovation of the ‘Dome. So far, it has tricked the fan base into spending obscene amounts to gaze at the new lower bowl in person. Regardless of the miserable product on the field. But, it cannot be sustained. Once the baseball public becomes a spectator for pennant and playoff drives in September, the bloom will fall from the rose.

For the Blue Jays, the on–field mess is superseded by ineptitude in the executive suite.

Everyone knows it. Everyone can see it clearly. Except the lazy, reclusive owner.

VISITING THE OLD NHL BARNS

Prior to and during my years as a hockey reporter at The FAN–590, Canada’s first all–sports radio station, I had the privilege of visiting a number of National Hockey League arenas that no–longer exist. Including, all of the so–called “Original Six” buildings: Boston Garden, Chicago Stadium, Detroit Olympia, Montreal Forum and, of course, Maple Leaf Gardens. The current Madison Square Garden in New York, home of the Rangers, opened in February 1968 and remains the longest–serving venue in the NHL. I watched hockey there on numerous occasions, including the night, in June 1994, when the Rangers won their lone Stanley Cup of the past 84 years.

Other arenas were temporary and marginally suitable for hockey. Combing through the scrapbooks I made while covering the Leafs in the 1997–98 season, I came upon these images and stories from games attended at former NHL facilities America West Arena (Phoenix), Reunion Arena (Dallas), Joe Louis Arena (Detroit), Miami Arena and the Greensboro Coliseum (Carolina). Included are game stories I wrote for the Globe and Mail, as I pulled double–duty for much of the ’97–98 campaign. In 1998–99, I would begin a nine-year run of covering Maple Leafs road games for The National Post. Lots of work… but, heck, I was young. Enjoy these quarter–century old memories:

 
   
 

 

 
 

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