TORONTO – So that’s another Toronto sports narrative buried. Can’t win the American League East? Been there; done that. Can’t get by a best-of-seven first-round playoff series? Check. Put those together with a first pick overall that not even the Toronto Maple Leafs can screw up …
OK, so we’re not talking “City of Champions” stuff. And although it might seem as if there are precious few tire fires out there, there is still a faint whiff of kerosene – and not just because R.A. Dickey gets the ball for the Toronto Blue Jays Monday night against the Texas Rangers. You can blame DeMar DeRozan of the Toronto Raptors for that, specifically his quantity/not quality approach to shooting in the series win over the Indiana Pacers.
Former Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell was on NBA TV Monday morning talking up DeRozan’s game, seeing in the number of shots heaved up a player who had shown “fearlessness” and essentially saying those shots would fall in the next series now that the Game 7 stuff had been consigned to the waste bin. And perhaps there is an element of truth to that … except DeRozan, while hardly an old man, isn’t exactly some callow rookie, either. I mean, this has been the longest learning curve in the history of Toronto sports … It’s easy to see these playoffs as a referendum on DeRozan as a possible max player this off-season, although the sense here is that decision will be based as much on the availability of a replacement and the NBA economic system’s reaction to silly TV money as it will be on DeRozan’s post-season. I’ve gone from being solidly in the “sign him” camp to the “let’s think hard about this” camp. I’m ready to go back, though. So there is one more narrative left to bury after all … and only DeRozan himself can do it.
THE SLIPPERY SLOPE
Time to get every major league ballplayer a copy of Marvin Miller’s A Whole Different Ballgame or John Helyar’s The Lords of the Realm. That’s because they are unwittingly in the process of gelding their union, not to mention executive director Tony Clark, who is in the process of negotiating his first collective agreement with ownership.
One of the hallmarks of the Major League Baseball Players Association under Donald Fehr and Michael Weiner, who followed Miller as heads of the union, was an ability to manage internal debate and present a largely united public front, in stark contrast to some of the lunatics on ownership’s side, such as Jerry Reinsdorf. It’s true that neither of those individuals had to deal with the lack of sober second-thought options provided nowadays by Twitter; and it’s true that made discipline easier to enforce. Also true is the fact that as the game has become younger, more players are earning tidy sums at a younger age, or at least have the security of multi-year deals at a younger age. They’re getting theirs, largely, and that creates a more conservative mindset.
Still, many of us who covered the labour disputes of the past – especially those of us who were lucky enough to be schooled by Miller and Fehr – were surprised and, frankly, disappointed last week when players such as Justin Verlander took to Twitter to vent against what has been painted as an uptick in failed drug tests. Hey, I have no problem with players wanting performance-enhancing substances out of the game; I’m beginning to believe, in fact, that I will need to revisit my cynical notion that all sports is rife with PED use; that all that’s happened is the stuff and its use is so advanced, it has eclipsed current testing procedures.
But here’s the thing: in opening the door publicly to stricter penalties, the players are undercutting their leadership. In just a matter of days, the discussion shifted to whether, in light of Dee Gordon’s failed drug test just months after he’d signed a five-year, $50-million contract, teams shouldn’t have the power to rip up such contracts. This should be the third rail for baseball players; the guaranteed contract must be sacrosanct, moreso even than avoiding a salary cap. They might want to pull their noses out of their iPads and iPhones, put away the Red Bull and research what happens when the balance of power skews dramatically to ownership.
QUIBBLES AND BITS
• Now that they have secured the first pick overall – and, by extension, Auston Matthews – if I’m the Toronto Maple Leafs I’m going to push the pedal down a little bit on my rebuild. I don’t buy the argument that getting Matthews means you pass on taking a run at Steven Stamkos, unless you believe all the centres you have are better than Stamkos right now or going to be better than him in two years. Signing Stamkos only increases your trade options to address other pressing needs. Likewise, with all these draft picks collected over the past two years, I’d think deeply about going after a restricted free agent this summer. Hey, Brendan Shanahan and Co. have enough capital with the Leafs’ fan base and media that they can afford to continue with a deliberate approach. But trust me: ownership sure wouldn’t mind if the braintrust knocked a couple of years off this rebuild. They’re perfectly positioned to do so.
• It’s the type of April that leaves fans hankering for changes, and if you’re of that mindset you might want to circle May 16 on your calendar. Toronto Blue Jays president and chief executive officer Mark Shapiro told Stephen Brunt and myself on Thursday that he generally eschews drawing conclusions about his team until the 40-game mark. You’d have to think that this includes any radical overhaul of the bullpen, whether or not that means moving Aaron Sanchez back into the relief corps ahead of time.
• Monday we are all Chelsea FC fans: a victory for Chelsea over Tottenham this afternoon (Sportsnet, 2:30 p.m. ET) would secure the Barclay’s Premiership title for Leicester City with two matches left to play. This isn’t a David vs. Goliath story, folks: it’s not even David vs. Goliaths, given the number of bigger, better-financed teams who will be found embarrassingly wanting when the Foxes claim the title, because Leicester has been leading the league for months. This is, to my way of thinking, the biggest and most improbable sports story of my lifetime. If you haven’t glommed onto it, well, shame on you. You’re really missing something. No, check that: you’ve missed something.
THE ENDGAME
Dugout-clearing brawl anyone? Let’s face it: when the Texas Rangers visit the Rogers Centre for a four-game series starting Monday night, all eyes will be on the Rangers pitching in a search for retaliation against the Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista. This is the first time the teams have met since Bautista’s bat-flip home run helped win Game 5 of the American League Division Series and the Dallas Morning News’ Evan Grant asked Rangers manager Jeff Banister for his thoughts ahead of the game. “I’ve seen T-shirts and commercials that glorified the bat-flip,” Banister. “But the bat-flip didn’t lose us the game. Do I think it’s the grandest moment in baseball history? Absolutely not. But would we feel any better if he laid the bat down and just run the bases?” The Jays, bless them, are on Thursday giving away T-shirts commemorating the Game 5 on-field celebration to the first 15,000 customers.
Jeff Blair is host of the Jeff Blair Show from 9-11 a.m. ET and Baseball Central from 11-Noon ET on Sportsnet 590/The Fan.