There are a few impending events that will affect the Toronto Blue Jays and, therefore, us fans.
I'd like to present some crystal ball musings - since these events don't really seem connected, some "big-picture" tying together is needed.
First, Roy Halladay is going to either the Yankees or Red Sox.
Notice I didn't qualify this statement: If someone (like the Angels or Dodgers) is going to win the Doc, then there is going to have to be an offer made that's so monumental that NOBODY could have predicted it.
If that happens, a whole lot of know-nothing posters on SportsNet and TSN are going to be "vindicated." You should see some of the utterly fantastic/ridiculous trades dreamed up by some of those "GMs." If that happens, this whole column is invalidated.
So, you see that I'm definite about the Yankees likely outbidding the Red Sox. Why? One reason: The Steinbrenners are back in harness.
It's a congenital character defect. The Steinbrenners do NOT lose - especially to the Sox.
Those two Bahstahn championships are gaping wounds to the soul of Yankee nation, and only by continuing the newly rediscovered winning tradition, by being the undisputed best team in baseball, can the denizens of the Bronx feel secure.
Accordingly, since the Red Sox have now clearly entered the race for Halladay, the Blue Jays now stand the greatest chance of a legitimate shot at the playoffs they've had in a decade-plus.
"WHAT?"
You heard right. Coupled with my next observation, beating the Big Boys of the AL East is now visible - and on the not-so-distant horizon, too.
With the Big Boys falling all over each other to keep the other guy from getting Doc, we come out of this with multiple players - good, legitimate players, franchise cornerstones to compliment Hill and our young pitchers - and we get a GM that looks like a genius (especially by comparison with the last guy).
Players came here because of Pat Gillick, and they will come here because of Alex Anthopoulous.
That's not unimportant. Nobody was going to come to Toronto while Ricciardi was abusing and upsetting players. He had a perception that he was ruining the club. Would you have signed with the Blue Jays in the last decade? You'd have to have been blind, which, incidentally, is what Halladay, Wells, and others are thinking when they look in the mirror.
The player package that comes in, along with our newfound reputation (just watch - it'll be on the rise in 2010, 2011 and, come 2012, we'll be a respectable destination) will rebuild the happy factor around SkyDome.
The second event: Bud Selig is now a lame duck Commissioner - not that he had both wings about him previously - who is leaving in 2012.
This should be an excuse for an MLB-wide party as it is. King Bud's lack of vision and lack of spine has done its best to ruin our sport over the last decade—coinciding with the fall of the Jays' empire.
With Selig leaving, MLB owners will have no choice but to search for an outside candidate - and they will see the silver lining here, as only an outsider can lend credence back to our sport; a fresh start, unbiased rulings, and a dollop of courage will go a long way towards killing off the steroid scandal and establishing a meaningful salary cap.
Let's face it. The current financial picture shows a "system" that had, and still has, no idea how to level the field. The luxury tax was just that, a tax that didn't possess enough financial teeth to stop a Steinbrenner; they've got so much money that, even if they had to pay double their payroll as a tax, they'd just grumble, build another big boat, and sign the cheque.
With Bud vacating the seat for sure - he says that there are too many things he wants to do before getting old, to which I distinctly heard a snort or two thousand in 2012 - that clears the way and forces MLB's hand into getting a true commissioner with a true Plan (capitalized as it should be).
Baseball doesn't really need saving. Any sport that can survive all the cheating, lying, and general incompetence that have plagued every year for the past decade and a half can't be killed - Expos fans might have something to say there.
What baseball can do is to resume its upward climb into the history books, and this offers MLB the reprive it needs, from itself.
The owners have proven themselves unworthy, and you might think that three years notice is plenty enough to position a new stooge in the Office of the Commissioner, but in reality, it's a no-excuse warning to MLB that they'd better use these three years productively.
With three years notice, if MLB fails to come up with the next Peter Ueberroth, the next Bart Giamatti (I can dream, can't I?) or even just the next Fay Vincent, then the owners will be roasted on a spit - and then the sport will be facing quite the uncertain future.
Much as I hate the NHL's Gary Bettman (doesn't every hockey fan?), he's been good for the sport and able to both stand up to and unify the sport's owners.
David Stern wasn't half-bad as NBA commissioner, though he was more lucky than good and had the best timing, and the NFL has seen some very good years under Paul Tagliabue and now Roger Goodell despite a serious recession.
It's time for us to find the guy or gal that we can charge with rebuilding the continent's most valuable sport of the nation. If the NFL is the heart of America, baseball is both our soul and brain and needs a serious father figure to reassure us all.
(And yes, Canada becomes part of America when discussing things like baseball. There ain't no borders with this one. Want to keep your team, Toronto? Then we're at least North American. "Us vs. Them" is no longer viable.)
Some parts of baseball need to be sent to their room, and some parts need to be patted on the head, put on an allowance, and told, "You'll be all right."
That chance comes in 2012, when we can pat Bud on the fanny and send him to the showers—and, not coincidentally, about the time that a package o'prospects, having arrived from either Boston or New York, will have blossomed - hopefully just in time to convince Aaron Hill, Dustin McGowan, Jesse Litsch, David Purcey, etc., etc. that they should re-sign and stay here in Toronto...
...because there's hope here now.
Baseball fans have to take the long view. Patience is the yarn of the tapestry of this game, isn't it?
Might take a few years, but there's hope here. A salary cap, arriving at the same time as a passel of good young guys?
I'm excited.
You should be too.
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