inimitable appurtenances

#BlueJays #SotF: Sympathy for the Front Office. Analysis of Monday’s season ticket holder event has been covered by a fleet of awesome Jays bloggers, but it’s left me wondering.

The bug that’s been stuck in my head all day (and honestly, for the last few seasons) is the question - how many MLB players have the Toronto Blue Jays on their just-say-no list? It’s not like it’s something you can look up on Cott’s or find on any of the reference sites. I wonder what percentage of players, who have that kind of control in their contracts, have stipulated a big NO to bunking down in Canada for a spell?

Alex Anthopoulos and Paul Beeston manfully fielded questions on opportunities missed (Darvish, Fielder, Beltran) with grace and humour. With the recent reports that we’ve been spurned (love that word) by Oswalt and Uehara, I worry that the thanks-but-no-thanks list might be uncomfortably long when it comes to marquee acquisitions.

So what’s wrong with playing in Toronto? Issues seem to include border crossing problems, moving families to Canada, the turf at Skydome, and team competitiveness both on the field and in the wallet. It’s far easier for AA to sign prospects (who are happy to grab any opportunity to play pro) or veteran-aged players (also happy to play for one more season).

Which brings me to the sympathy part. If I was in AA’s hot seat, I’m pretty sure I would snap, get super defensive and start pointing fingers to the tune of “but they don’t want to play heeeeerrrrre” ~sobbing~

Next time it looks like we missed out on someone because of timing, cost in prospects, salary or length of contract, I think I’m going to hold on to the thought that none of this can be easy for AA. It must be incredibly frustrating to lose out on negotiations (real or rumoured) and then get slammed by a small group of petulant ticket holders and fairweather tweeters.

I’m ok with being the kind of season ticket holder that likes going to the games for the moments therein. The other stuff will be here when it gets here. And by other stuff, I mean championship runs.