Time for Change

This is one observer who keenly waits for baseball's second season, the excitement that will begin shortly in eight cities and produce extraordinary tension and drama. TV - particularly high-def TV - highlights baseball like few other sports, focusing in on the raw nerves of players and coaches in the late innings of a tight ball game, without helmets or masks to cover the human condition on display. The wild card has only added to this, producing more baseball that matters.

Once again, however, we won't be seeing any of that live here in Toronto. In fact, HD television wasn't even invented the last time we saw a Blue Jay playoff game. The Quebec Nordiques hadn't even moved to Denver the last time post-season baseball happened at the dome.

The past 10 days, in fact, have proven emphatically the dangers of getting too excited about winning a few baseball games or losing a few baseball games.

It's a sport where the big picture is all that matters, where a player can't be judged by a hitting slump in May because by September his numbers may end up being exactly what they were projected to be, or even better.

For the Blue Jays, the past month has been an exercise in understanding the big picture, not focusing on two weeks here or two weeks there.

But my goodness, what a turnaround in fortunes there's been.

Less than two weeks ago, the club was basking in the warmth of a September hot streak. Cito Gaston looked comfortable and serene again as the club's manager, various bats were booming that hadn't boomed much all year, kids like David Purcey and Travis Snider were appearing to be sure-fire factors for the future and J.P. Ricciardi's job seemed secure for at least one more year.

Today, things are much different. The club is now 3-5 since losing a theoretically important back-end of a double bill in Boston, Shaun Marcum appears lost for all of next year, the possibility of finishing ahead of the Yankees is the "goal" left to play for (do you think the Yanks have their eye on that prize?) and with A.J. Burnett likely heading out the door as well, spending millions of dollars more on free agent players to buttress the lineup appears to be the likely plan.

It's the same plan that's been in play for a while now, different than what was sold seven years ago when Ricciardi took over. Then, the Jays were supposed to become the Minnesota Twins of the east, a smart, resourceful team that didn't spend zillions on other team's players but developed its own and throughout the organization played the game the right way.

Ring a bell?

Seven years later, there are some younger players on the big league roster, and some good ones. But no progress has been made in the standings despite an enormous infusion of cash. Fifteen years out of the playoffs is 15 years, and Ricciardi's teams haven't made so much as a dent in that problem.

So now its a straightforward choice. With next season looking damaged already because of the loss of Marcum, Dustin McGowan and probably Burnett, keeping Ricciardi now probably means keeping him for another two seasons, minimum. Could he ultimately produce a winner? Well, Joe Madden would tell you anything's possible.

On the other hand, changing management now could be an opportunity to re-define what this team seeks to be and offer the fans of the ball club at least the hint that year after year of mediocrity isn't acceptable.

Its one thing to constantly lament playing in the American League East with New York and Boston, but quite another to have watched Tampa Bay zoom past the Jays as well. Would Toronto baseball fans have willingly endured all those years of horrific losing in Tampa to be where the Rays are now, or do fans prefer a the steady drumbeat of being competitive but not nearly good enough?

Its an intriguing question.

Two weeks ago all those wins had some, not all, Jays fans giddy with possibilities. In a city where the football team's gone south, the hockey team is already expecting a bad season and only the basketball team is a serious factor in its league, any team that can put together a string of victories is bound to get a lot of attention. Heck, a couple more wins and the Buffalo-Toronto Bills will be getting a parade up Yonge Street.

Today, the feeling about this baseball club, however, is more "here we go again," more helplessness than optimism.

You don't have to regard Ricciardi as the worst GM in the history of baseball to want change.

He put the team in this position, of that there is no debate. All season he asked fans to wait and see how the season played out, and it has played out in a defineable way.

Surely it's time to see if another executive can build on Ricciardi's foundation.

Unless more of the same is what you want.

Winning and Meaning

Of course a 10-game win streak means something. Of course it means all that was supposedly bad about the Blue Jays is now good.

Well, of course it does, but with one caveat.

If you believe that the Jays have truly accomplished something meaningful over the exciting two weeks, that J.P. Ricciardi deserves to stay and a bunch of players will carry this over into next season, then you also have to believe the opposite.

That is, if the Jays now lose five in a row, Ricciardi et al are bums and need to go.

If that's how you evaluate a pro sports team, by the length of their latest winning streak or slump, then you have to go both ways. Wins mean security and contracts extensions, losing must mean comprehensive change and mass firings.

The smart fan, of course, simply enjoys the 10 wins for what they were, a combination of skill and luck at a time of year when expanded rosters change the elements of the game to some degree.

Beyond that, this streak means no more than the 8-0-2 rush with which the Maple Leafs finished the 2005-06 NHL season.

That wasn't exactly a harbinger of good times ahead was it?

Nor, as colleague Dave Perkins pointed out when the Leafs were putting that season-ending streak together under Pat Quinn, did the 34-18 finish of the '98 Jays under Tim Johnson.

Or the 19-7 finish in '03 that led directly into a 67-94 record the next season.

It's not that winning when the games don't matter is meaningless.

It's just not particularly meaningful.

If Paul Godfrey and Jays ownership have their heads screwed on right, they'll evaluate Ricciardi on the basis of his entire record since 2001. They won't just look at Travis Snyder and marvel at the farm system, but will examine the entirety of the youth and prospects that have been acquired under Ricciardi's reign.

Finally, they'll have to understand that this is a team that has never been to the post-season with Ricciardi at the helm.

Logically, that will be a fact that only the wilfully blind will choose to ignore.

Losing the Handle

It matters less what A.J. Burnett says than what he does.

And what he does, very consistently, is win about the same number of games as he loses. He’s 75-72 over the course of his major league career, 10-8 last season and 6-6 this season, albeit with an ERA more than a full run per game higher.

He’s been getting an awful lot of money to be basically a .500 pitcher from the Blue Jays mostly because J.P. Ricciardi believed he could be more than a .500 pitcher, and has been proven wrong.

With the team sinking – again – and with Burnett approaching a clause in his contract that will allow him to opt out of his deal after this season, of course there is going to be speculation about his future.

But instead of being bothered by the fact he apparently would love to pitch for the first place Cubs rather than the last place Blue Jays, Blue Jay fans should probably be more encouraged by the possibility that over the next six weeks there may be a chance for the team to cash in on this opportunity to auction off the right-hander for significant returns.

Of course, it would be quite another thing for Ricciardi to be excited about that opportunity.

If he has to dump Burnett, it will be painful repudiation of his baseball judgment, or at least that of his administration. Moreover, with the club currently sitting six games behind the Tampa Bay Rays, there is also rampant speculation already surrounding the future of Ricciardi and manager John Gibbons.

This ball club hasn’t played meaningful games in August and September for a long time, and Ricciardi was supposed to change that. Burnett is symbolic of Ricciardi’s empty promises, and for him to be forced to peddle the pitcher to a contender would probably erase the last vestiges of the baseball reputation he once held in this city.

Ricciardi and Paul Godfrey probably really began to lose a handle on this thing in spring training of ’07 when they out-and-out lied about B.J. Ryan’s arm injury, and the faith of local baseball fans was tested more in the fall when Troy Glaus was pinpointed as, if not a steroid user, one who liked to order them in the mail. Rather than face the truth police again, the Jays just helped Glaus never answer the questions about his training regimen.

The Jays made Glaus go away in exchange for the peppier, easier-to-sell Scott Rolen over the off-season, but now along comes the Burnett issue with the team having lost two of three in six consecutive series. Attendance is flat, with another season apparently gone south already by June.

So in the bigger picture, it really doesn’t matter what Burnett, a decent pitcher destined to never fulfill his potential, thinks about playing for the Cubs.

What matters is when a direction-less Blue Jays baseball club is going to get a new direction.

Burnett's simply an expensive symbol of seven wasted years.

This Story's Getting Bigger

Don't expect any resolution of the he-said, he-said squabble between Rogers Clemens and his former trainer, Brian McNamee, on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

The way it looks is that Clemens is going to stick to his story and McNamee isn't backing down an inch. The congressmen can ask all the questions they want, but they don't have the ability to thoroughly examine evidence and make it clear which of these, ahem, gentlemen is lying his butt off here.

It may be rivetting TV, but it'll still be he-said, he-said when the smoke clears.

From McNamee's point-of-view, it's probably somewhat ominous that Andy Pettitte, Clemens' buddy, has now been excused from testifying. Pettitte has already publically corroborated McNamee's statements to some degree, and it's an intriguing question why the former trainer would lie about one player (Clemens) and tell the truth about another (Pettitte).

Remove Pettitte from the picture, however, and its just Clemens vs. McNamee, an easier fight for the pitcher.

Meanwhile, an even more damaging story may have erupted today, albeit through the disgraced John Rocker, a former major league pitcher.

Rocker says back in 2000 that he and other players, including Alex Rodriguez, were counselled by Texas Rangers management and baseball union officials on how to more effectively use steroids.

Hey, isn't that the team George Bush once owned?

Like Jose Canseco, Rocker is easy to discredit because of his checkered past. But it's a controversial angle on baseball's steroid story, one that draws a direct link between player use and possible insider knowledge in the upper levels of the game.

Of course, anyone who thought the owners, Bud Selig and the union was completely unaware of what players were injecting into their bodies has been living in a fairy tale land.

Alex Just Being A-Rod

You know, it's not 1965 anymore.

Most of us have more than two or three TV channels at home, more than one or two media outlets, more than enough time to scan the web for any and all information we want on pretty much anything at any hour of the day we find convenient.

So for Major League Baseball to cry foul and suggest the announcement by Alex Rodriguez that he was opting out of the final portion of his contract with the New York Yankees somehow detracted from the final game of the 2007 World Series is rather an empty complaint.

A-Rod didn't take away from the Red Sox winning it all. He, either by accident or by virtue of his massive ego, added content and context, kept the chatter of the sport electric and alive for an extra few days and plunged baseball right into the intrigue of the off-season.

The world doesn't have to stop for the World Series to be appreciated or acknowledged or critiqued or ignored, for that matter. Most sports fans have their eye on more than one sport at once anyway and are more than capable of ingesting the excellence of one team while pondering the future of another superstar athlete.

To me, having the Red Sox win and A-Rod bolt on the same day just added to the depth and richness of commentary on the sport. It didn't detract from anything. People didn't hear the Rodriguez announcement partway through the game, immediately turn Joe Buck and Tim McCarver off and go running into the street in a state of delirium. They went, "Hmm, hey, that's interesting," and kept watching the game, if they were inclined to do so in the first place.

It wasn't like A-Rod had a plane fly over the stadium with an "I Quit!" message while Lou Gehrig was making his famous speech about being the luckiest man on earth.

This is the world of sport we live in. It doesn't proceed in an orderly manner, with each sport and each athlete politely taking a turn at the podium. Should Tom Brady and the Patriots not have been quite so excellent on Sunday so the Bosox could have had the spotlight all to themselves?

Everybody in every sport is out there screaming for attention, and baseball, with all the negatives of Barry Bonds and the upcoming Mitchell report to deal with, probably should be happy to have as many other types of big stories going on as possible.

Should A-Rod have waited a day or two? Sure, I suppose, if he wanted to be a nice guy about it. But in not doing so, he again showed his Darth Vader side, again showed he's one of the more complicated characters in sport, and certainly made the choice of his next team a major talking point.

It gave baseball at little more attention. And it sure didn't take any attention from a World Series that was, quite frankly, forgettable all on its own.

Barrelling Headlong into History

It's as though they are stride-for-stride, each pushing the other in what has to be the most spectacular city to be in a sports fan in North America right now.

And,. interestingly, one of the nastiest media towns, as well.

That, of course, would be Boston, which is cheering on the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox to glory these days. The Patriots are just incredibly good, looking for a fourth title and simply shrugging off all the negative chatter that came with accusations of videotaped cheating earlier this season.

Bill Belichick and his squad are looking at that undefeated season possibility, playing with that type of dominance excuse-makers in sports with salary caps argue just isn't done anymore.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, have to be considered arguably the greatest comeback organization of our time, having charged back from 0-3 and 1-3 deficits in the ALCS over the past four autumns to move into the World Series.

Sure the Colorado Rockies are on a roll. But would you really bet against Terry Francona's group right now?

And here's the final badge of honour for both of these teams.

Boston is a tough, tough media town, and these two teams get most of the attention, the same type of attention that goes to high-profile teams in other markets - say, Toronto and the Maple Leafs - and is used as an excuse as to why those teams aren't successful.

The Boston media, or more specifically, the newspaper writers, hounded Ted Williams for years and years. It's an unrelenting media pressure that Boston applies, yet the Pats and Bosox seem to flourish within it.

So the next time you hear a Leaf player talk about how tough it is to play hockey in a city like Toronto, remember how Boston's baseball and football clubs deal with it and recognize such baloney for what it is.

Tough Night for the Empire State

Hard not to be in a New York state of mind this morning. Just like the Billy Joel song for starters, but after watching the Yankees and the Bills go down to defeat last night, its hard not to hum it with a little irony.

First the $215 million Yankees, and frankly, the fact they were eliminated from post-season play by the Cleveland Indians in four games isn't the most interesting part.

It's that George Steinbrenner has already said publically, or at least in a newspaper, that Joe Torre would not be returning as manager if the New Yorkers lost in the first round for a third straight year.

Well, it happened. Maybe George is a man of his word, maybe not. But if he is, and if Torre is cut loose, one thought immediately jumps to mind.

The Blue Jays must seriously investigate Torre's availability if he becomes a free agent. It's just a no-brainer.

Now, maybe Torre doesn't want to become involved with the Blue Jays, or maybe he retires after a great run in the Big Apple.

But maybe he listens, and teams other than the Blue Jays - his old team, the Cardinals, for starters? - will likely be interested.

Even Paul Godfrey, for goodness sakes, would have to see the possibilities here, whether its with Torre as manager, GM or some other role. Torre made $7.5 million this season with the Yanks, a number that will scare any number of teams, but the man's got a serious resume.

If you're the Jays, you at least kick the tires on this one. You owe it to the fans were were misled and at times out-and-out lied to this past season. Hiring Gary Denbo to tutor the hitters just isn't going to be enough.

If Torre is cut loose and were to join the Jays, the entire profile of the franchise changes. Maybe the fans even respond by averaging more than 30,000 per game.

Now to the Bills, those poor, suffering Bills.

That just wasn't fair what happened to them last night in a 25-24 loss to Dallas in their first Monday Night Football appearance in 13 years.

It was as though the Bills won the game three or four times, but in the end lost because Cowboys kicker Nick Folk kicked it through the uprights not once but twice from 53 yards to decide the thrilling, topsy-turvy contest.

The difference was Folk, a brilliantly-executed onside kick and the ability of Cowboys QB Tony Romo to shake off five interceptions and then still put his team in position to win it on the last play of the game.

Maybe the game shouldn't have been that close, and maybe the undefeated 'Boys had their eyes on New England next Sunday a little too much.

But the Bills, with a ton of injuries on defence, played a whale of a game and just deserved better.

Then, of course, so does Joe Torre.

An Historic Game - And Reason for Change

It was so late even Monday Night Football had gone to bed, with the Cinncinnati Bengals the newest team mauled by the machine-like New England Patriots.

But they were still playing baseball, still finishing the major league regular season, in Denver nearly a full day after J.P. Ricciardi had made his final excuses in Toronto.

Four hours and 40 minutes after it started, the Colorado Rockies had beaten the San Diego Padres 9-8 last night in dramatic, comeback style against baseball's all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman, ending the longest one-game tiebreaker in major league history in the bottom of the 13th innning.

And emphatically illustrated the desperate need for replay review in baseball.

WILL POWERS/AP

Holliday scores! Or does he?

Matt Holliday, who moments earlier had tied the game with a triple that also won him the National League batting title over Chipper Jones, was credited with the winning run, racing home on a short fly ball by Jamey Carroll with nobody out and apparently using his left hand to touch home plate, thus evading the tag by catcher Michael Barrett.

Or did he?

As Holliday lay behind home plate and Barrett scrambled to pick up the ball, home plate umpire Tim McClelland made no signal. Not safe. Not out. He seemed to simply stare at home plate, seemingly waiting to make the call, seemingly indicating that the play was still alive because Holliday hadn't touched the plate.

Then an instant later, McClelland made the sweeping "safe" sign, and the Rockies were in the post-season for the first time since 1995 after winning 14 of their final 15 games.

"This is why we in uniform, the people in the front office, the fans, love baseball," said a gracious San Diego manager Bud Black. "It's because of games like this."

But as the Rockies danced around the diamond and a woozy Holliday tried to regain his senses, television replays seemed to indicate that Holliday's attempt to touch the plate had been brilliantly blocked by Barrett.

If McClelland sees it that way and Holliday is tagged out, there's one two outs with nobody on and they're probably still playing.

"The umpire called me safe, that's all I know," Holliday said.

They're been debating replay in baseball for years, and so far there's been no move towards implementing any system.

But surely even a system that decided one thing - did a player touch home plate? - would be simple to implement and logical in a time when football, hockey and baseball all employ some form of review.

To me, it sure didn't look like Holliday touched the plate. If I was a Padre fan - Steve Garvey and those crazy brown uniforms turned me off that team forever - I wouldn't feel at all satisfied with the way the game was decided or the call that was made.

What if it had been Game 7 of the World Series?

Earlier in the game, in the seventh inning with the game tied 6-6, a blast off the bat of Colorado's Garrett Atkins may or may not have cleared the fence for a home run. It was ruled a double, Atkins didn't score and it was another instance in which replay might or might not have been a useful tool for the umpiring crew.

You've got to at least try to get it right. Baseball, after a fabulously dramatic night in the Colorado altitude, should know that for sure this morning.

Breaking Bonds

Play or not play, stay or leave, Barry Bonds spent 15 years in San Francisco polarizing a community and the baseball world.

This was, last summer, the most cynical deal possible between a sports team and an athlete, the Giants unwilling to say goodbye to the troublesome outfielder knowing he could attract huge crowds and revenues in his historic home run chase, and Bonds happy to take another year's enormous salary. The Giants undoubtedly knew they would not be able to fashion a winner with Bonds as the central figure, and Bonds himself appeared like he could care less about that facet of the sport.

You can't even say it went sour because the Giants announced last week that they won't be bringing Bonds back next season.

The team got what it wanted. Bonds got what he wanted, even if he's been booted out, rather than ending his San Francisco run in triumph.

When it was officially all over, it left a crowd of confusion. Even the San Francisco Chronicle, which has doggedly pursued Bonds and accusations of steroid use, couldn't quite decide how it felt, and in a unique decision printed two separate versions of its front page on Saturday to reflect to very different attitudes towards the aged star.

It's not that unusual for a relationship to end like this between a team and a star. It happens all the time, mostly when the star is unwilling to say his skills have deteriorated and the team decides it can no longer win with that player or wants to spend money elsewhere.

But it doesn't usually happen immediately after a season in which an historic accomplishment is recorded. You couldn't see Green Bay just dumping Brett Favre now, for example.

And its not like Bonds, who is hitting .279 with 28 home runs (he's at 762 now) and 66 RBIs in only 337 at-bats can't play at all anymore.

"He's still their best player," said former teammate Moises Alou.

But the Giants don't want him anymore because from a business point of view, they've decided they no longer need him. The profited from their cynical deal and now want to move on.

But it seems so very likely some other team will decide it does need Bonds. This isn't over yet.

The Perfect Ending

Can't wait until the first pro athlete in Canada demands to be paid in Canadian funds.

They can't call it funny money anymore, can they?

Somehow, you have to figure the Blue Jays, to name one team, will twist the soaring Canadian loonie into a new excuse after blaming it for many of their financial ills over the years.

Can't you hear it? "How can we possibly compete having to pay our players in Canadian? Those loonies are heavy and cost us a fortune to bring in by truck."

Otherwise, the 2007 season, which is turning out to be nothing short of a full-fledged disaster for the Rogers boys, is really ending in perfect style for the people who have to make baseball excuses for a living, in this case Paul Godfrey and J.P. Ricciardi.

They promised one thing, delivered quite another, namely a team that just needs to finish 10-0 to draw even with last season's 87-win effort.

Happily for Godfrey and Ricciardi, their players are dropping like flies in the final days of the season.

The team will end the season with B.J. Ryan, Lyle Overbay, Troy (It's In The Mail) Glaus and Vernon Wells all disabled, which puts a lovely ribbon on the big excuse, that the Jays had a wonderful team this year but it was all ruined by injuries.

Forget that the teams above them, Boston and New York, also had to deal with all kinds of injuries. And forget that even when the Jays had most of their lineup intact, they weren't any good anyway, and that it's quite likely that next season will be filled with tricky injury issues again, as is the case with most major league teams.

Godfrey and Ricciardi have hung on the injury excuse all season - that is, when they weren't lying about Ryan or running interference for Glaus -and you can bet they're not going to let go now.

If they finish .500 over the last 10 games, this is a ball club that will have averaged 79 victories per season over the last four years. Throw out the 67-win season of 2004, and you have an average of 83 wins per season over the last three years.

I think Godfrey and Ricciardi have pretty much established that of which they are capable, don't you?