 |
The sure-to-be fired J.P. Ricciardi is adamant the Blue Jays can't ever compete in the American League East because of the high-spending New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.
And with that kind of attitude, the door can't hit him on the way out soon enough.
The Blue Jays problems in the Ricciardi era, this season and most seasons, have had little to do with the big spenders and more to do with their own selections, trades and signings. This season, for example, the Jays have a 4-14 record against the Tampa Bay Rays in their own division. How does that have anything to do with the Bosox and Yanks?
How does the fact they had a losing record against Tampa last year, but played .500 ball against the Yanks and Red Sox, factor in to their place in the standings?
In this lost summer of Toronto baseball, the Jays have losing records against such heavyweights as the Florida Marlins and the Washington Nationals and overall a record under .500 against the rest of baseball that isn't New York and Boston.
Ricciardi came to Toronto claiming to have all the answers and will leave indicating he has almost none.
This and that
A former NHL general manager watched Nazem Kadri play the other night and proclaimed him ready to play on the Leafs. "He's their best forward," the well-known executive said. "Who's better?" Two things about Kadri: 1) The Leafs haven't drafted a player with his kind of offensive vision and natural instincts since Vincent Damphousse, 23 years ago; 2) That said, I'd still send him back to junior hockey for another year of development, but not before playing him in a couple of regular-season games as a bonus for having this sound a training camp ... While Kadri should go back to junior, Viktor Stalberg has earned a job with the Leafs. Whether he gets one will be indicative of how willing they are to keep their word and bury big-league contracts in the minors ... Sidney Crosby isn't saying this for the record but those around him will tell you he's pleased that he won't be named captain for Team Canada at the Winter Olympics. He'd rather be just another player in Vancouver. The betting here is Scott Niedermayer will be named the captain.
Hear and there
Pat Quinn had figured out in training camp why he was hired. This isn't a very good Edmonton Oilers team ... Those who say Wayne Gretzky didn't live up to his contractual status in Phoenix have proven to be incorrect: Gretzky, it turns out, didn't have a signed contract with the Coyotes ... As if the NHL needed more headaches, along comes the American satellite company, DirecTV, dropping Versus from its lineup. Unless that is fixed by this week, 14 million homes will be cut off from the NHL's most prolific U.S. broadcaster ... One reason to avoid Versus this year: The very capable Christine Simpson, sister of Craig and Dave, has been dropped by the network ... Can we just put Montreal in the Grey Cup now and wait to see which Western team it opposes? ... Did you see where the former Roughriders GM, John Herrera, now working as one of Al Davis' henchmen in Oakland, embarrassed himself and the Raiders again, which isn't easy, by trying to ban former quarterback, Rich Gannon, from the building this weekend.
Scene and heard
Can't anyone not named Pinball Clemons coach the Argos? In this decade, Pinball is 68-55-1 coaching the team, with one Grey Cup. Everybody else -- John Huard, Gary Etcheverry, Rich Stubler, Don Matthews and Bart Andrus -- is 12-36-1, not counting last night's result ... Reasons to wonder about the Florida Panthers: Bryan McCabe has been named team captain and apparently he was the only choice ... Boxing may be on the way out but it's not completely dead when Floyd Mayweather can come out of retirement to fight Juan Manuel Marquez and last Saturday's bout and does $52 million US in pay-per-view business ... Between sentences, Judge Redfield T. Baum is contemplating his final decision in Phoenix ... Shouldn't Vernon Wells and Alex Rios have put up the kind of numbers Aaron Hill and Adam Lind managed with the Blue Jays? ... And what an underwritten story Hill has been, coming back from concussion, career in doubt, and having just a sensational season with the not-so sensational Jays ... Mix and match: If you'd take the Ottawa Senators forwards and the Maple Leafs defence, you'd have a pretty good Ontario hockey team ... Toronto football season: The Argos are lousy, York is lousy and U of T is lousy.
And another thing
Mike Babcock is coaching Team Canada. Steve Yzerman is the general manager. But quietly, the Red Wings will tell you they hope that Nicklas Lidstrom will decide to not play in the Olympics in February. They'd really like their captain to take the two weeks off ... Lidstrom, by the way, has been named NHL player of the decade, a perfect choice by The Sporting News ... Clearly, EA Sports is not in the taxi business. How else to explain why Chicago's Patrick Kane was not yanked from the cover of their NHL '09 video game ... The building up to World Cup 2010 in South Africa is going so badly in the lack-of-interest department that national organizers are now urging people to wear soccer jerseys to work once a week, to build up interest in the otherwise huge event ... You could buy more than 30 lower bowl tickets in Phoenix for what it'll cost you to see the Leafs on opening night ... As of yesterday, the incomparable Albert Pujols was first in the majors in home runs, first in runs scored, third in RBI and fourth in batting average. ... The season hasn't even begun and John Tortorella is already scrapping with the New York writers ... Smart signing by San Jose, bringing in the improving Manny Malhotra ... Wouldn't you like to see him someone like Ron Gardenhire managing the Blue Jays? ... Happy birthday to Terry Greer (52), Mirko Frycer (50), Mike Schmidt (60), Meat Loaf (62), Randy Bachman (66) and Jay Bouwmeester (26) ... And hey, whatever became of Ross Lonsberry?
STEVE.SIMMONS@SUNMEDIA.CA