An Open Letter to the Buffalo Bisons

Could Buster Bison be warming up the Canadian cross-border shopping crowd soon?

Let me get serious for a moment. The relationship between the NY Mets and their AAA Affiliate Buffalo Bisons has been reportedly strained. On the other side, the Blue Jays are getting tired of all the red eye flights from their affiliate in Las Vegas. Add in the fact that the Pacific Coast League both skews the power numbers of batters and has ruined the confidence of many a pitcher. This has lead to the Jays calling up pitchers directly from AA New Hampshire. This presents a mutually beneficial situation for both the Blue Jays and Bisons organization. With rumors swirling that the Jays and Bisons might actually partner up, I have come up with a few key points that might help seal the deal:

1. Travel time: Toronto and Buffalo are less than 2 hours by car from each other. Any players coming up from or going to the minors would be a hop, skip, and a jump from each respective city- especially when both teams are at home. This would lower travel time and costs for the clubs.

2. Tourism: Since we are so close to each other, any Blue Jays fans could take an easy trip down to Coca Cola Field to check out up and coming prospects or Blue Jays on rehab assignments. This would be a boost to Buffalo, that is still in need of economic development and more Canadian tourism could be just what the doctor ordered. Also, with a stronger link between Buffalo and Toronto, residents of the Queen City might be more inclined to take a trip up to Toronto to see their Major league club and follow their AAA stars when they get called up. The cost of a bus trip to Toronto or to Buffalo for members of each city is fairly inexpensive, so this just sweetens the deal for those who would either can't drive or just don't want to bother.

3. Cross-Promotion, Cross-Promotion, Cross-Promotion: Coca Cola owns the naming rights to Buffalo's home field, Coca Cola provides beverages to the Rogers Centre- no brainer. Also, with a Blue Jays affiliate in Buffalo, you could develop tourism packages that could convince Torontonians to stay awhile and spend more money in the U.S. Area restaurants, hotels, and even malls (Galleria mall anyone?) could get into the action. Baseball/shopping trips? Everybody wins. You could do the same in Toronto offering Bisons fan an opportunity to see the Jays along with some cross border shopping at the Eaton Centre.

4. Because we took some of your Buffalo Bills home games: Giving you a taste of a major league baseball team close to your city is the least we could do right? New York City is much longer haul from Buffalo than Toronto. Besides Dundas Square is almost as good as Times Square right....

Well, that is my case for your fine organization to join ours. I hope you realize the benefit it could be to both our cities.

Thank you,
Steven Pukin
Producer, Sunday Afternoon Baseball

It's Baseball Time and I'm All Jazzed Up

Oh man! I just walked out of the Tokyo Dome woke up at 8am and caught the last several innings of the First Baseball Game of 2012 on mlb.com's game day, and I'm even more excited about baseball than I thought I would be. Here's why:

- This is probably the only time all year 'm going to care about the Mariners and the As. Sometimes I don't know who I'm going to cheer for in a (non-Jays) game until I start watching, and today I immediately started cheering for the Mariners. I actually thought to myself, 'Maybe I'll just cheer for the Mariners all year!' This is a good entry point to baseball this year, otherwise the excitement curve heading into the Jays' opening day next Thursday would be too steep, and I'd flip over on my back like a turtle trying to climb a wall.

If Wins Were Losses and Losses Were Wins: The Blorld Series Part 2

by Dave Barclay

When last we witnessed the saga of the 2011 Blord Series Blayoffs in Part 1, the Minnesota Twins had come all the way back from a 3-0 deficit, losing the last 4 games of the ALCS against the Mariners to advance to the Blorld Series. Meanwhile, in the National League, the heavily favoured 106-loss Houston Astros had easily taken care of the Marlins, and were facing the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS.

NLCS: Astros vs Cubs

The Houston Astros had achieved a team-record 106 losses in the regular season. They were a losing powerhouse, wizards of whiff, lieutenants of being lit up, the high kings of hopelessness. But when you travel down a road leading to baseball sadness and disappointment, that road has to go through the North side of Chicago. The Cubs had squeezed into the playoffs, but they weren't about to be squeezed out, dealing with the Padres in four games and losing themselves a trip to Minute Maid Park for an NL Central confrontation.

MLB FanCave Concession Speech

by Dave Barclay

Hey Everyone,

As you may or may not know, I am officially out of the running to be in the MLB FanCave. I am mildly disappointed, but mostly very happy that I was able to make it to the final 30. This worked out way way way way beyond my most modest expectations and has been a real confidence boost. Here's a bunch of reasons why this really isn't that bad a thing, for me or for you:

1) The 9 people who are going to the MLB FanCave are awesome folks. I've met them all personally and they are some of the sweetest and most spirited fans of baseball you'd every be lucky enough to meet.

2) I'm don't have to worry about random passersby looking at me through the window while I watch baseball games. They will just be the local weirdos I know and love.

3) The 20 people who I met in Arizona who also didn't make it to the cave are also real all-stars, and would have been fantastic Fancavers. When I have a moment of self-pity, I remember that I am in very good company.

4) I can now go back to my original plan for the summer, visiting and rating (out of 6) all of Toronto's TTC stops.

5) I no longer have to abandon my wife, family and friends for life in the mean streets of New York, which I assume has not changed since the time of Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York


6) I still have a mountain of MLB clothing and things that the FanCave folks gave me in Arizona, which I can make a nest out of and not have to leave my house or bathe for several weeks. I have that option.


7) I can use my season's pass to go see live Jays Games.

8) I saw this movie once where someone moved to New York, and he ended up getting really homesick and he climbed the Empire State Building. Then a bunch of planes came and shot him until he fell down. I don't wanna be that guy

9) If you at all enjoyed the humourous content of my campaign, there are lots of options for you to see/hear/read more of it. For example,

- the podcast I do with my good friend Paul Frank, Sunday Afternoon Baseball with Paul and Dave (available on iTunes and here). The podcast will be starting up again in about a week as we release a Best of Season 1 and then we're going to have a live show close to the beginning of the season. Also, during the season we'll try and get some of the FanCave30 onto the 'cast.

- follow me on twitter and facebook for updates on where I'm doing standup,

- and there's also the vaudeville duo I'm in, Parker and Seville.

10) I still get to see the Jays win the World Series this year. Dave for Jays!

Thanks so much to everyone who voted, helped me make videos, came to voting parties, tweeted, posted on facebook, used word of mouth, and just made me feel very special indeed. And also thanks to the folks at MLB, who were great.

Yours,

Dave (for Cave)

Final Essay for MLB Fancave

by Dave Barclay 

During our time in Arizona, all of the FanCave 30 had to write an essay/blog post, with one of the topics being a recap of how the FanCave experience has changed our lives. This is what I wrote (late at night, after a very emotional couple of days)

On Thursday, February 23rd, I went to my hairstylist on College Street in Toronto for a trim. I made the usual small talk and received a very nice haircut, but inside my stomach was churning. For the past two weeks I had been devoting my energies to trying to get into the MLB FanCave, and after voting closed on the 22nd, I put my chances at 50/50 to make it to the Top 30 and win a trip to Arizona for spring training. The odds of me making it to the Top 50 had been so insanely remote in the first place (50 in 22,000, or 1 in 440) that it was really an accomplishment to get as far as I had. At the same time though, I really, really wanted to go to Arizona.

After my trim was done, I left the place and started walking down College. I turned on my phone. I had a tweet from a complete stranger saying “YOU WONNNNN!!!” I ran forward and jumped around with an abandon only partially contained by my typical Canadian reserve. I was heading South.

Since February 8th, the day I was named an MLB FanCave Top 50 Finalist, my life has been substantially different. I still have a wonderful wife and supportive friends and family, but rarely does someone get to see how much support they really have. When I started my campaign, I severely underestimated my competition. I thought to myself “I can beat 20 people at getting internet votes, no problem!” But what I didn’t realize is that the other contestants were forces of nature that had endless reserves of creativity, drive and media contacts. If I had known what I was up against then, I would have immediately given up.

Luckily, I was super naive, and the support started flooding in from friends, family, and complete strangers from across Canada and elsewhere who were hellbent on putting a Jays fan into the cave. They started spreading the message near and far, campaigned on my behalf, and always people were voting, voting, voting, and letting me know they’d been voting 10, 20, 30, 100 times a day and more, until their hands cramped up, all the way up to the climactic final few days when voting parties were held and people were tweeting constantly on my behalf. I wish upon everyone an opportunity some time in their life to see just how much the people around them care for them. It’s probably more than you think.

It’s also pretty rare to have such a tangible goal in front of you and to know that if you really put effort in, you have a decent chance at achieving it. Luck has a lot to do with it, too - I got lucky right off the bat because a) I was the only contestant in the Top 50 that had the name Dave and b) I was trying to get into a Cave. We started chanting “Dave for Cave” during shooting for the entry video and we realized we were onto something. Something that rhymed.

Instead of a cutthroat, bloodthirsty mudslinging fistfight, the campaigns of all the Top 50 melded into a love-in. During the two-week campaigning period, I was traveling through Chicago and was tweeting with Travis Miller, and we realized we were in the same town and both available for lunch. We went on a blind date at Ian’s pizza in Wrigleyville and immediately connected over the shared experience of the first few days of campaigning. It was a taste of what I would come to experience again and again here in Arizona. I meet a Fancave finalist, I think, “Oh my God! It’s fancave celebrity _____!”, and then realize that they are thinking the same thing, and then much connection, warmth and baseball talk follows.

Spring Training in Arizona has truly lived up to the incredible hype I had built up around it. The challenges, free things, and the experience of meeting baseball heroes have been ridiculously great, but the real thrill has been meeting so many great people, both the MLB folks and the other Finalists. It has been worth all the effort and strain to get here, and I’ve been rewarded hundreds of times over. If this is the end, I have no regrets and a feeling of great accomplishment. At the same time, though, I really, really, really want to got to New York City.

Jays Going Down the Old Man River

By Steven Pukin

After an offseason where casual Blue Jays fans were disappointed (see: really pissed off and giving up on the Blue Jays for good) that GM Alex Anthopoulos did not drop a boatload of money on big name free agents like the Angels, Rangers, or even the notoriously spendthrift Marlins. Many were left wondering why the Fielders and Darvishs of the world were not suiting up for the Jays this spring. During the winter meetings, Anthopoulos talked about "payroll parameters" and "boundaries" that he had to work within to put together a competitive club. These choice phrases seem to reinforce the perception that the team's owners, Rogers Communications were just cheap bastards and would never end up spending any money ever.

Day 2 in the Desert For Fancave Top 30

by Dave Barclay

You guys, if you read my post on Day 1 you probably thought, "There's no way this can get better." Well, you were wrong. Day 2 was just as thrilling, surprising and pellmell as the first.

I started at 8am by doing my 60-second pitch for a panel of MLB folks. This is the one thing I missed when my flight was delayed on Tuesday, and MLB was nice enough to let me do my pitch for them a day later (this is also why I'm not in the montage on the MLBFancave site) It involved a lot of graphs and diagrams, and I got almost all of it into 60 seconds. Then I had a longer interview, where I was queried about my comedy influences (I mentioned Monty Python and Steve Martin) and my thoughts on the extra Wild Card (officially against, but excited to see how it plays out).

Top 30 Desert Mermaids Taylor Hensley, Megan Washington,
Kelsey Shea Weinrich and Kyle Thompson up top.

Then Lindsay, Ben and I were taken back to Chase Field for an interview with local morning show legend Yetta Gibson, who we are now friends with. I think I said something about being Canadian.*
After that it was time to go to Salt River Fields, the beautiful spring home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.

Luis Gonzalez, baseball hero.

Here I encountered a brief history of playoff heroes of the early 2000s, first interviewing Aaron Boone, who hit the home run for the Yankees in 2003 that eliminated the Red Sox. We talked about his first career home run (off Kerry Wood), board games, Montreal baseball and the British Royal Family. Then Luis Gonzalez, who got the game winning hit of the 2001 World Series for the Diamondbacks, came and hung out with us. He told us about how to get a hit off Mariano Rivera (look for the cutter) and what it's like being the father of triplets.

Then it was time for our secret mystery challenge, which turned out to be writing and shooting a commercial for mlbshop.com. We created a masterful narrative involving a sandlot pickup game where Eddie Mata delivered an award-worthy performance as the kid who didn't get picked. I had one line ("That kid's not even wearing a hat!") and I gave it all the gravitas I could muster. Oh, I almost forgot, I GOT A JAYS JERSEY FOR FREE AND IT LOOKS AWESOME!!!

In the evening, we went to the swank Lucky Strike bowling alley (or "an experience that also has bowling" as the waitress described it to us). I started off with two straight strikes but it turned out that was just a practice round. In the end the winner was Fun and Togetherness as the bonding between the Fancave 30 deepened. I also got to talk with Anne Occi, who designed the Jays' new look. I told her "Thanks! It's fantastic!"

 All in all, it was a fantastic couple of days. I'm safe at home now and I'll keep you posted on what happens next. Thanks to the MLB FanCave team for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and thanks to you for following along on my fantastic journey.

----

* I got a lot of questions about being Canadian from curious Finalists this week, like "Who is the President of Canada?" and "Do you call normal bacon 'American Bacon?'"