The Red Sox almost boycotted their Japanese tour this week and it has almost generated a new fan.
Before the Blue Jays franchise was hatched in 1977, I was a fan of the Detroit Tigers, mostly because they were the closest team to my home in West Hill, Ont. geographically and also because my favourite player was Scarborough's John Hiller, the Tigers reliever who, once upon a time, held the Major League saves record with 38.
My first Major League game, back in 1976, was between the Tigers and, you guessed it, the Red Sox. On a magical Monday night in June, my parents and I watched Mark 'The Bird' Fidrych shut out the hated Sox in less than two hours. My favourite part of the night was when some leather-lunged fan got so under Boston left fielder Jim Rice's skin that he flipped the fan the bird.
I also remember, vividly, my first trip to Fenway Park, back in 1990, to see the Blue Jays close out the season. I went there with a good friend Geoff Macht, as devout a Red Sox fan as you'll meet (I don't hold it against him). It was lucky he was there because once some over-served lout sitting behind me realized that I was a Jays fan, the abuse began and reached a crescendo when Tom Henke blew a ninth save to some unknown by the name of Jeff Stone. If Geoff hadn't been with me to keep me cool, there's no doubt that fists would have been thrown.
Anyway, back to the reason for this column.
Despite my hatred towards the Sox, I found a new level respect for them last Wednesday when, after hearing that coaches and clubhouse staff were not going receive a reported $40,000 stipend that was promised for their current trip to Japan, they stood as one and told MLB that they weren't going to take the field against the Blue Jays that day, and wouldn't be going to Japan.
Good for them.
This is a sport that is awash in money, with millions of dollars going into the MLB coffers for this foreign excursion and they can pass along the money that was promised? The league just agreed to extend Commissioner 'Bud' Selig's annual salary, a reported $12.5 million, through 2012 despite him turning a blind eye to the rampant illegal drug use in the game for almost a decade. Only the NFL pulls in a bigger annual profit than MLB yet they can't flip some coaches and clubbies a bone to travel halfway around the world on a goodwill tour? Shame, shame, shame.
As it turns out, MLB has yet to promise that they'll make good on their promise. It was the ownership of the Red Sox who stepped up to the plate to right this wrong. I'm sure they'll ultimately get the monies from the Lords of the Game, but it shouldn't have come to that, and certainly not far enough along that the players had to threaten a boycott. For that, the crusty old statsman will forever look at the Red Sox in a more positive light. That is until I hear a bunch of drunken fans bellowing out Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" in the eighth inning at Fenway.
Common sense prevails
While no one wanted to hear that B.J. Ryan's return from 'Tommy John' surgery had suffered a setback, I think that in the bigger picture, this is best for all involved.
Just over 10 months removed from ligament replacement surgery, when past surgeries of this ilk have taken at least 12 months and closer to 18 to heal properly, Ryan's arm did the loudest talking this week by starting to bark and the decision was made to shut him down for the interim. Why anyone would think that Ryan would be a quicker healer than most, especially with his violent, unorthodox delivery, doesn't make sense to me.
So for now, it's back to Jeremy Accardo, and his 30 saves in 35 opportunities from a year ago, in the ninth, Brandon League or Brian Wolfe taking over Casey Janssen's set-up role and the likes of Scott Downs, Brian Tallet, Jason Frasor, John Parrish and/or Armando Benitez to hold down the fort until Ryan is, in my mind, better than 100 percent. If takes until June or even the All-Star break for Ryan to return, so be it.
