To most Canadian sports fans, October means the start of the NHL season. Hockey steals the spotlight, while the MLB playoffs get little attention.
When post-season baseball began earlier this month, six Canadian players were in the line-up – an impressive feat, since only a handful of MLB players hail from our country.
But as Matt Stairs, Russell Martin and Jason Bay contributed to their teams’ successes, Canadians looked the other way.
The lack of love shown towards baseball isn’t anything new; it’s been going on for years.The problem began when the Montreal Expos and the Toronto Blue Jays spiraled downwards in the mid-1990s.
The Expos suffered from their 1994 players’ strike, which lost them most of their fans and kept them in financial trouble for almost a decade. The team finally moved to Washington in 2004, where it had better success.
The Jays, on the other hand, never regained their winning ways.
After earning back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993, the team had Canadians in a baseball frenzy. The Jays were selling out the SkyDome and seizing headlines all over the country.
But inconsistency on the field and in the Jays’ front office has pushed the team out of playoff contention.
Individual players like Bay and Martin deserve more recognition, but only an entire team can gain back lost ground. Still, with one good season, the Jays could redeem themselves and recapture the nation’s attention.
But baseball fans shouldn’t have to wait for the Jays. Young stars like Justin Morneau and Navan’s Erik Bedard offer plenty of excitement and skill, and will continue to have success in the majors – they just need more media exposure.
Baseball playoffs never get enough media attention. Canadian newspapers don’t avoid the playoffs completely, but they’re never front page news.
When Fredericton’s Matt Stairs hit a game-winning home run in the National League Championship Series, most papers ran the story on page three or four.
Television coverage is also scarce. Rogers Sportsnet is the only Canadian station that carries the playoffs, and while the network now airs the majority of games, it gives baseball the shove when games conflict with the NHL schedule.
If the World Series goes to seven games this October, Western Canada will see the Vancouver Canucks game instead.
Canada’s indifference towards playoff baseball could also be linked to the madness surrounding the start of the NHL season. Canadian sports fans look forward to the hockey season like kids waiting for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.
Fans are busy reading up on pre-season predictions and joining online hockey pools; they leave baseball to the Americans.
But there’s almost too much hype at the start of hockey season. (Almost.) The way teams perform at the outset rarely predicts their place at the finish.
Last season, the Senators won 16 of their first 20 games. End result? Swept out of the playoffs in the first round – and by the Pittsburgh Penguins, who won only eight of their first 20 games.
It also takes NHL players a couple of months to warm up to their best hockey and offer fans the full excitement.
Meanwhile, the MLB playoffs are smack in the middle of high-level competition. Walk-off home-runs, late inning comebacks – the intensity heats up as the season is closing.
For those who like the rough stuff, there’s even a bit of that. In the Phillies–Dodgers series, the benches emptied after Hiroki Kuroda intentionally threw a pitch over Shane Victorino’s head.
The playoffs offer something for everyone.
Besides, we can’t wait for the Jays to get back to the World Series. If they’re anything like the Maple Leafs, we’ll be waiting a long time.