Blue Jays: 20 Years of Futility or Mediocrity?

With the Blue Jays hopes of ending a stretch of 20 years without a playoff berth all but vanished, I would like to take a minute to ask you, the fans, a couple questions.

I completely understand the level of frustration this fan base has with ownership. Rogers is a corporation! The Blue Jays don’t have any one, other than Alex Anthopoulos and Paul Beeston to throw rotten tomatoes at, and as such, there is an over whelming feeling of resentment towards Rogers.

Maybe if we had a central figure with a passion for baseball who cares or takes pride in the success of the sports team. Maybe if we had an owner like Peter Angelos (Baltimore), Hal Steinbrenner (NYY), Stuart Sternberg (TB), or John W. Henry (Boston) things would be better. 

This years American League East winning Baltimore Orioles have had Peter Angelos as an owner since 2002 and hold a 0.476 winning percentage during this span. They have had 7 winning seasons, including this one, since he took over. In the 10 seasons prior to Angelos acquiring the team the O’s held a 0.485 winning percentage and had 5 winning seasons.

The Tampa Bay Rays, the team that the Jays seem to want to model themselves after, have only had one owner in their short existence. They own a 0.461 winning percentage and have had 6 consecutive winning seasons, but did not have a winning season in the 10 years before.

The New York Yankees, the winningest sport franchise,  held a winning percentage of 0.597 in the 10 years before Hal Steinbrenner took over for George Steinbrenner (R.I.P.). Since taking over in 2003, Hal has a 0.574 winning percentage and has yet to have a losing season. With that said, this team appears to be trending downward.

The Boston Red Sox hold a 0.565 winning percentage under John W. Henry. They have 2 losing seasons, including this one, since 2002. The 10 years prior were less fruitful, as they were 809-810….just a hair shy of .500. They had a 54 win season which negatively skewed their winning percentage during this period.

Which brings us to our team, the Toronto Blue Jays. Rogers became the teams only owner in 2004 and were a majority owner (80%) in 2000. So really the team has been run by Rogers for the past 14 years and hold a 0.493 winning percentage. During the Rogers reign the Blue Jays have 6 winning seasons and one .500 season. During the 10 years prior, under Interbrew/Labatt, the team went 0.518 with 7 winnings season, 4 division titles, and 2 World Series.

Do you feel when you get a team with an owner who has a passion for the game, which is why they bought into it, then their efforts to be successful are greater?

Do you feel that Rogers views the Jays merely as an investment?

Lastly, Is playing .500 baseball enough to keep you interested or do you think  a couple 100 loss seasons are required for this franchise?

For me, win or loss, this is my team. I cheer for them when they win and I am there for them when they don’t. I hope that Rogers will continue to give Alex Anthopoulos money to lock up this teams core. I think that the current management is doing a great job developing young talent and believe that they are taking this team in the right direction. At the end of the day, I would rather have reliable ownership that are happy to keep this team in Toronto. I don’t want to go back to the Interbrew day and I definitely don’t want the Jays to become the next Expos.