TORONTO � Brett Lawrie wanted to make it clear before his major league debut Friday with the Toronto Blue Jays: "I'm no savior."
By Doug Kapustin, Special for USA TODAY
Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie, a native of Canada, makes his home debut at Rogers Centre on Tuesday.
By Doug Kapustin, Special for USA TODAY
Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie, a native of Canada, makes his home debut at Rogers Centre on Tuesday.
That might not be the message Blue Jays fans send Tuesday when the 21-year-old Canadian plays his first game in Toronto.
"With Lawrie, we hit the mother lode," team President Paul Beeston says.
Lawrie, a third baseman who went 5-for-11 with a home run in his first three games, is not only a highly touted prospect born in the great white north. He also symbolizes a plan spearheaded by Beeston to leverage an entire nation and build the Blue Jays into a baseball superpower that can compete with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees on the field and in contract negotiations.
"Obviously, being back in Canada is going to be pretty cool," says Lawrie, who was born and raised on the other side of the country in Langley, British Columbia, a suburb southeast of Vancouver. "I know I've got a lot of people behind me. Everyone wants to see me up there."
And coming from three time zones west of Toronto hardly is a problem. In fact, it fits perfectly into what Beeston calls "the grand plan."
Canadian-born major leaguers
Player, years
Denis Boucher, 1991-94
Rich Butler, 1997-99
Rob Butler, 1993-94; 1997, 1999
Rob Ducey, 1987-94; 1997-2001
Shawn Hill, 2004; 2006-10
Paul Hodgson, 1980
Vince Horsman, 1991-95
Corey Koskie, 1998-06
Brett Lawrie, 2011
Dave McKay, 1975-82
Simon Pond, 2004
Scott Richmond, 2008-09, 2011
Steve Sinclair, 1998-99
Paul Spoljaric, 1994; 1996-2000
Mark Teahen, 2005-11
Source: Toronto Blue Jays
The Rogers factor
When Lawrie arrived in Baltimore on Friday, he was met by his parents, who made the trip from British Columbia, and older sister Danielle. Mom Cheryl was wearing his Canada jersey from the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Danielle, a Canadian Olympian and two-time NCAA softball player of the year at Washington, came in from Florida, where she's playing professionally.
Danielle also is a Canadian celebrity, and she even spent an inning on the national telecast on Rogers Sportsnet.
The network is part of Rogers Communications, the mega-company that bought the Blue Jays in 2000 and owns the national TV and radio networks that carry most of their games. It's one of Canada's largest phone, wireless and Internet providers and owns the Rogers Centre, where the Blue Jays play.
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"Rogers' presence is significant," says Beeston, brought back in 2009 to the position he held from 1989 to 1997, the franchise's most successful years. "All we have to do is give them the product. It's an exciting time. But the product has to be good on the field."
Lawrie is another significant piece of that, along with home run leader Jose Bautista and a collection of young players being assembled by general manager Alex Anthopoulos.
The Blue Jays (58-56, 1� games out of third place) are trying to avoid a fourth consecutive fourth-place finish and pass the Tampa Bay Rays, a low-revenue team that hung with the Red Sox and Yankees for three seasons but has faded this year. But even if Toronto can truly compete in the division, can it do so for more than a few years?
"The only business model that works for the Blue Jays is to be Canada's team," says Jim Bloom, former marketing director for the Blue Jays and Oakland Athletics. "There are still baseball fans in Montreal (a city the Expos left in 2004). There are still baseball fans in other parts of the country. It does have to be marketed that way."
And that's where the Rogers connection can play a large role, with the Blue Jays taking a page from the Red Sox in using their TV network to expand the reach of the team. The Red Sox co-founded NESN (New England Sports Network) in 1984 and have grown in nearly every sense since.
The Blue Jays had an opening-day payroll of $62 million this season, dwarfed by the Red Sox ($161 million) and Yankees ($202 million). But Beeston told fans at a state-of-the-franchise event in January that they should be able to spend as much as $150 million fielding a team in the near future.
He says it's about growing on many platforms, and he jokes, "I don't want the 29 other owners reading this."
Beeston's plan also includes the little things, such as adding a bright red maple leaf logo to the right sleeve of the Blue Jays uniforms in 2009, and hints another uniform change aimed at national pride could come next year.
Although Toronto is the fourth-largest city in the major leagues, Bloom estimates the full Canadian market is roughly equivalent for the Blue Jays to a team having all of California, as opposed to the five teams that share it.
"Everything feeds on itself," Bloom says. "They have to give national sponsors a reason to buy. The challenge is, can they bring in 25,000 per game? That's 2 million for the year. I always maintained 2.25 million was what they needed. ? They need to have this metric, that there are this many in the stadium, this many watching on TV."
Toronto drew more than 4 million fans a season for three consecutive years, including its back-to-back World Series wins in 1992 and 1993. A streak of 14 seasons of more than 2.25 million was broken in 1999, and the only seasons above that figure since were 2006 to 2008. The Blue Jays are on pace to draw fewer than 1.9 million this year.
Reaching out to Canada
The national marketing plan, which was emphasized during those World Series years, is the only way back to prolonged success, Beeston says.
In the 1990s, the Blue Jays played exhibition games as far afield as Vancouver and the Maritime Provinces and had farm teams in Medicine Hat, Alberta; and St. Catharines, Ontario.
Now the Blue Jays are again drawing from a model used by the Expos, who were Canada's team from 1969 until the Blue Jays arrived in the country's commercial and media center in 1977.
Pitcher Scott Richmond, who has spent parts of three seasons with the Blue Jays and has been Lawrie's teammate this season at Class AAA Las Vegas, also grew up in British Columbia.
"If you love baseball, they're on TV every day," Richmond says. "And when they come to Seattle, that game down there is like a home game for us. It's just amazing. They come all the way from Saskatchewan to hang out."
And increasingly the Blue Jays are coming to the fans, too.
Last winter, the team caravan of selected players visited outposts such as Vancouver and Calgary.
"They got to hockey games, signed in malls, were willing to deal with the weather ? and appeared to enjoy it," Beeston says. "They must have. They want to do it again next year."
One of them was rookie catcher J.P. Arencibia, who grew up in Florida. "You don't have the concept until you get out there firsthand," Arencibia says. "That puts it in perspective ? you are playing for a nation."
The Blue Jays also are putting on a series of instructional camps for kids in seven provinces this summer, and they've included former players such as Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar, Lloyd Moseby, Ed Sprague and Duane Ward.
"Canada's like my second home," says Ward, a New Mexico native and the franchise's single-season saves leader, who helped organize the camps.
"The reality is, once they get in here, the community embraces them," Beeston says of players. "We're a unique lot. Fly over our country and do well, we'll claim you."
But they can't wait to embrace one of their own.
Lawrie is the 17th Canadian to play for the Blue Jays, but the most notable of the bunch until now have been reliever Paul Quantrill or maybe a brief two-year dose of outfielder Matt Stairs.
Lawrie is outgoing, and he wears more than the maple leaf on his sleeve.
"His style of play is not only energetic and powerful, but it's something you feel when he steps in the box," manager John Farrell says. "You feel like that engine is revving."
But Beeston says not to expect an instant turnaround for the Blue Jays.
"Nothing comes quick," he says. "It's a fast fall to the bottom, a long climb to the top. Having been there before allows me to have patience."
But he eventually can't help himself: "I'm pumped."
Contributing: Seth Livingstone from Dunedin, Fla.
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