J.P. Ricciardi often whines how the Toronto Blue Jays can't compete with the likes of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees with this rambling quote:“Let me make this clear: It doesn’t matter if J.P. Ricciardi is the GM, or Joe Blow is the GM. Two years from now, five years from now, seven years from now, the reality that we face in Toronto is the division is not going to change. The Red Sox and Yankees are not going away. If the Yankees want to, they can take their payroll to $300 million.
The biggest thing that people forget is that when Toronto won the World Series, they had the highest payroll in baseball. There’s a direct equivalent to that. If we’re going to play in the big man’s division, and we’re not going to spend that money, it’s going to be really hard for us to compete with those teams.
I get this feeling that people are dying for me to lose my job, they think my world is going to come crashing down. I’m not built like that.
We’ve done the best job we can do under the circumstances in the situation we’ve been given. At the end of the day, if that’s not good enough, that’s not good enough. But until those two factors change, the next guy sitting in this role, whether that’s five years from now or 10 years from now, is going to be faced with the same problem: How do you get by the Red Sox and the Yankees?”
In response, the year "2008" chimed in and uttered the phrase "Tampa Bay Rays". As Steve Simmons notes, it isn't like they're tearing it up against anyone else either, 4-14 against Tampa Bay, for example. If he stays, it sounds like his boss will be none other than a returning Pat Gillick, said to be in as President, if you believe Bob Nightengale of USA Today. One thing you'd never hear from Gillick is that the Jays can't compete. He wouldn't infer it even and give his players a built in excuse from on high.
Toronto FC defender Nick Garcia is the most inept defender these eyes have seen on a guy alleged to be a defender. So amateur. Garcia's repeated mistakes let the Chicago Fire always remain in the game, not to mention his own goal, and the Fire tied the game with 22 minutes to go and held TFC to a 2-2 tie, which for TFC was about as good as a loss. How that guy collects a paycheque without a gun and a mask is beyond me.
Prepare yourselves for the Seattle Seahawks third jersey, to be unveiled today. Pretty disgusting, really.
RM reader GBV passes on the Sports Illustrated Cheerleader of the Week, and it is a fine Canadian edition from University of Western Ontario. Definitely worth a click through. And if that don't work for you, there is always Barbie Blank to check out, aka Kelly Kelly of the WWE.
If I hear another thing about Florida Gator's QB Tim Tebow, good, bad or indifferent, I'm going to snap. The world doesn't need to know if Tebow has a runny nose. That said, he did land in the hospital after a crushing hit yesterday in Florida's 41-7 win over Kentucky.
Is it possible that CC Sabathia is a $161 million bargain for the Yankees? He 2 hit the Boston Red Sox over seven innings in another quality start to get his league leading 19th win as the Bombers won 3-0 to reduce their magic number to clinch the AL East to 1. Sabathia has been everything the Yankees could've asked for: an innings chewing winner who is beating the best repeatedly.
The St. Louis Cardinals punched their playoff ticket as NL Central champions yesterday, and the LA Dodgers assured manager Joe Torre of another coattail ride, err, trip to the playoffs.
Oh yeah, another NFL Sunday is upon us and there are a couple teams desperately needing wins, few moreso than the Tennessee Titans, 0-2 as they visit the 2-0 New York Jets. It was the Jets that last year knocked off the then-unbeaten Titans. Prediction? Payback at +3 and an outright win. Liking the Detroit Lions at +6.5 at home hosting the Washington Redskins, and think that could be the Lions end of their losing streak. As for tonight, trying to reverse a disgusting 1-5, -424 open for the Prime Time Picks after last year's 60% effort, and we're playing the Cards at -2.
Two Edmonton Eskimos got into an altercation at practice this week. Happens all the time, right? Well, yeah, except the guy who gets the worst of it generally doesn't leave the field and come back with a shovel to resume the fight. No, really, true story.
Finally today, get rich with Ric Flair. Woooooooooooooooooo!
2 comments:
If J.P. wants to make a solid point in his defense, shouldn't he point out how he's competing with the Yankees and Red Sox by way of successful youth development and spending money wisely? The Yanks and Red Sox spend a lot of money, but they spend a lot of money stupidly at times, too. Shouldn't he just attempt to spend his own money more wisely before whining about what other clubs spend?
Yes, I understand he may not be a draw for top-end free agents but at the very least put yourself in a situation where people want to come to the ballpark and can be hopeful for something...
I have as much sympathy for that guy as I do for Jose Calderon, futily clapping towards the cieling when the guy he was supposed to be guarding blows right by him on a direct-line drive. I suppose some people have sympathy for the plucky little guy when he's clapping his heart out, but me, I just mock him for not doing the right thing up front and not putting himself in that kind of situation.
Maybe the memory is a little foggy but wasn't the big reason JP sold the Jays that he was the man was that he said he could do it low budget? Now he flip flops and sings another tune? Love the "it doesn't matter if I'm GM or Joe Blow..." line, if I were his boss, I'd say "great, then let's get Joe Blow in here if he thinks he can make a difference at least". Total loser, and that nonsense has permeated that organization.
Wonder if he blames the Yanks and Sox for the Rios/Wells/Ryan contracts that tied his hands in many ways and is practically forcing them to move Halladay?
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