Hey, I got a joke for you. It’s about an artificial player who doesn’t want to play on artificial turf! You know, cuz Melky did steroids once and that makes you artificial, and turf is artificial… and…and… cheating! Amiright!?
Lame.
I read it in a comments section someplace and sighed a heavy, day-after-thanksgiving morning breath sigh. It was ferocious, with a hint of pumpkin. But that tired cliché, rooted lameness, reflects the prevailing sentiment among Jays fans when Melky said [paraphrasing] “If grass on the field, Melky play ball. No grass, Melky no play.”
Sorry Jays fans, Melky prefers his fields to be all natural.
Getting passed over is never fun, but before you get all pissed off and take to the internet to make an idiot of yourself, remember the following:
1) Melky may not be going. He said he’d prefer to go some place else and that means he could still come back to Toronto. I highly doubt this though. Not because the Jays don’t like his personality or character—for goodness sakes they picked him up after he was popped for steroids so obviously that’s not a factor. But, because they don’t like to over pay for free agents. They like to get value from trades and the market is full of outfielders this year. They can offer Melky a reasonable amount, but he’ll get more elsewhere, and the chances of that elsewhere being a grass field are high.
2) The Rogers Centre is, uh, not the best.… Go ahead, bash me for saying that, but it’s true. Free agents that do a lot of ground pounding in their career do not like turf fields. How many times have you seen this now? How many times has it been a standing concern mixed into analyzing how position players are going to perform/hold up?
But the turf is only the half of it. The Rogers Centre is, for all intents and purposes, a concrete airplane hanger with a sunroof. It was built at the wrong age for baseball stadiums, when that cavernous, sterile, utilitarian vibe was in swing. It’s like the baseball version of an indoor football arena. Oh, wait, that’s exactly what it is.
It’s novel, but it’s been out done by the newer stadiums, and, frankly, many of the older stadiums, too. I don’t mean as far as amenities—it’s got all the bases and stuff—I mean, the vibe. If you don’t think a baseball stadium has a vibe, you need to get to more baseball stadiums. Some stadiums feel like baseball. Fenway, Wrigly, St. Louis. Some places are just garbage—The Trop, I’m looking at you… The experience of baseball may be unique in the Rogers Centre, and thus unique to Canadians, but it’s just one of 30 to a major league player, and if you can pick a better location for better money, well, why wouldn’t you?
This leads me to my next point.
3) Big FA’s have the right to choose. However, they really should try not to let you know they’re doing it. The less a fan knows about a player’s criteria, the better off that player will be.
Some fans get mad when they don’t get chosen, like it’s personal. It doesn’t matter the reason they didn’t get picked, they’d get mad regardless ,so ignore all that anger flooding the net when you evaluate a player’s intent.
If you ever find yourself in the role of baseball free agent asked to give a reason why you’re leaving, if at all possible, say nothing. It’s like when you fire someone—just say you’re going in a different direction because if you supply a reason you’re really just supplying an argument.
I’m sure Melky really loved Toronto. He played well there. He had a flock of Latin players around him to talk with. He got his reputation back. People bought his jersey instead of burning it and cursing him a dirty rotten cheat. But, he still has the right to choose to go someplace else and you can’t get mad at the guy for the shifting seas of baseball doing what they do.
4) Don’t get mad at Rogers for not spending the money either. And, please, stop saying but they have the money, they need to spend it, my CELL PHONE BILLS ARE SUCKING ME DRY!
I, of all people, have got no reason to defend Rogers here, so please understand my meaning.
Yes, Rogers is a huge, multinational entity that fills its CEO’s swimming pools with your cell phone bill money. So, yes, it has the money to buy free agents. But the baseball operation has a budget, and that budget only represents a small part of the Rogers pie. Paying to have the best team is a diminishing return, negative time-value-of-money equation for a company that sees it major profit centers elsewhere.
Sports results are a speculative investment. In fact, the Jays are more profitable as an advertising revenue center than a winning team. Almost all teams are. Whether the Jays win or lose is mostly irrelevant to Rogers because they provide an income stream either way. Winning would increase revenue stream (advertising reach), but by how much? If the team can run a pay roll of 120 million and make near top dollar across all it’s markets, why up it to 200 or 300 million? Why take that fixed cost risk? Baseball will never be Canada’s number one sport—not by a long, long shot—so there is no need to argue it’s profitability upside per consuming fan. Moreover, no other rival can make money off it because if Bell covers the Jays ad nauseam, they are really covering a Rogers property.
If the Jays spent huge money or just average money, the chances of them winning in the post season are still 1-30. The rankings of who should win mean nothing. Furthermore, when Alex Anthopoulos goes into the Rogers archdiocese chamber, he can’t just say “mo’ money, mo’ victory, y’all” to the powers that be. Reason? Because no GM can guarantee a win with money alone, certainly not one that has to face those who answer to stockholders.
Don’t get me wrong, winning is a priority, I’m sure of it. It’s just not the only one, or the first one.
5) Have you been to the Jays spring training facilities? They’re bad. Real Bad. Like, one of the worst, bad. Oh, the Jays are smart for staying in Dunedin. I imagine the deals Dunedin cut them to run their spring training complex are great, but, their minor and major league complexes could be infinitely better, and better located. That said, the Dunedin Brewery is awesome. Go there if you get the chance. You won’t run into any player there—they’ll all be going down to the swinging hot spots of Tampa—but still, check it out.
—
Author’s Note: Sorry, there are links and ads on this website. Your clicking on them earns me a few pennies on the side, and helps keep content coming. If you find my content entertaining, click an ad, and/or share the story. That’s all I ask. It helps me out a lot. Thanks!