Jays ready for liftoff? They're optimistic in Toronto

TORONTO -- The Maple Leafs are headed for the same place the Bruins are for the hockey postseason -- the golf course. The Raptors and the Celtics won’t be playing any extra games this year, either. But, like Boston, Toronto fans do have another sport they can get excited about this time of year: Curling.

And this year, for the first time in a long time, Toronto is also psyched about baseball. Perennial also-rans in the gotta-spend-big-to-be-a-contender American League East, the Blue Jays broke the bank this offseason, strengthening their starting rotation with A.J. Burnett, their bullpen with B.J. Ryan, and their offense with Troy Glaus, Lyle Overbay, and Bengie Molina. A lot of Maple Leaf wavers are jumping back on a Jays bandwagon that hasn’t been rolling for more than a decade.

“There’s a lot of excitement this year,” says fan-from-day-one (1977) Sean Hunt, carrying a bag full of Blue Jays merchandise at the second game of the season last week. “They spent a lot of money and that gives you a lot of hope. This is the first year in a long time we have a legitimate shot at it. At least the wild card. If they don’t make the playoffs this year, a lot of people will be disappointed.”

Lynn Willows has had season tickets since pro ball came to Toronto. She was at the ‘77 home opener, in the snow, when the White Sox catcher put his shin guards under his feet, used two bats for poles, and skied around before the game. Ah, baseball in Canada.

“There’s a buzz, an anticipation they’ll do well this year. More people are talking baseball than last year,” Lynn says.

She is at the ball park with her two sisters and their 80-year-old mother Verna, who wore her fur coat to the ‘77 opener. We’re inside the covered former SkyDome, now the Rogers Centre (that’s Canadian for ‘center’), where the pregame temperature is 20 degrees Celsius (that’s Canadian for 68 degrees Fahrenheit). Verna is beaming. “They got an up and coming team now, if they can keep ‘em healthy. We’re definitely going to the playoffs.”

The road to this exuberance actually began before this offseason’s roster moves. In 2005, Canadian zillionaire and team owner Ted Rogers bought the building and started fixing it up (including putting his name outside in lights). Blue Jays president Paul Godfrey, the former Toronto mayor who had a lot to do with getting baseball here in the first place, says, “He realized you can’t buy the building and not fix the team.”

So Godfrey says Rogers gave him and GM J.P Ricciardi $210 million to spend over the next three years fixing the product on the field, which, since their consecutive world championships in 1992 and ‘93, hasn’t finished better than third and only played better than .500 four times (they were 80-82 last season).

They started in November with a $47 million, five-year deal for Orioles closer Ryan. (All monetary figures in this story are in American dollars. For Canadian equivalence, multiply by 165.) “At that point, fans said ‘You’re only going through the motions,” Godfrey says. But a week later they landed one of the most sought-after players in this year’s free agent class, Burnett, at $55 million for five years. “When we signed Burnett,” Godfrey says, “it was like ‘Hey, you guys are serious!’”

They Jays also traded second baseman Orlando Hudson for third baseman/proven power hitter Troy Glaus (he comes with a three year, $33 million contract), signed first baseman Lyle Overbay (one year, $2.5 million), and then, with days left before spring training, snagged former Angels catcher Bengie Molina (one year $4.5 million).

“When we got Molina it just blew the doors off,” Godfrey says.

Suddenly a $50 million annual payroll is up to $75 million, ace pitcher Roy Halladay has another ace, and a closer, and more bats to back him up, and Maple Leaf wavers everywhere are forgetting all about their tanking hockey team. And don’t forget that the spending has just begun. Rogers gave his management team even more cash to use in ‘07 and ’08. Not exactly payroll tax territory, but not the Marlins, either.

The Jays press people like to boast that Rogers is just doing his civic Canadian thing, bringing hope and pride back to baseball North of the Border. But Rogers didn’t get rich by accident. You spend money to make money. Rogers is already seeing a return on his payroll investment. Torontonians are putting their Loonies (yes, one of their coins has a loon on it. Another has a polar bear.) where their hopes are. The Jays have sold 1.2 million advance tickets, 250,000 more than at this time last year. They’ve sold 10,000 season tickets, 3,300 more than last year, and group sales are up 47 percent compared with the start of last season.

Patrick Elster, vice president for ticket sales and service, says “When we called people before, it used to be ‘call me back after hockey season’. Now when we call they want to talk to us.”

So now when you mention the Blue Jays, the word you hear a lot is “buzz”. “The buzz is reminiscent of ‘91 when we got [Joe] Carter and [Roberto] Alomar and really got rolling toward our World Series wins,” Godfrey says.

Long-time Toronto Globe and Mail sports writer Larry Millson says “There’s an excitement, a buzz. There’s a little more hunger for it. It’s been a long time since the championships.”

Long-time Jays clubhouse man Keith Kjarsgaard says “We all feel tremendously upbeat ... the whole city. It’s all they talk about. The feeling is altogether different now.”

And 16-year-old Travis Druett, born in the seasons of Dave Stieb and Garth Iorg, says “All the additions. They’re gonna win it all this year. Fer sure.”

The more realistic fans admit the middle infield defense is a question mark (shortstop Russ Adams had two of the teams four errors in their 2-1 opening homestand vs. Minnesota), Burnett’s health is a question mark (Tommy John surgery in ’04 and he’s missing his first two starts because of elbow pain), and, oh yeah, there are still those teams in Boston and New York.

But for the first time in long time, the ghost of Joe Carter is in the house, spring North of the Border means more than the resumption of the Newfoundland seal hunt, and “wait until next year” is giving way to “this year might be the year.”