Lamentations in the T-Dot Part 2 - by Apollo

I quite dislike the term "T-Dot" to begin with. It's such a Canadian thing to come up with nicknames for everything. T-Dot, VanCity, the Peg. Is it really so hard to pronounce three syllables? And don't even get me started on hockey names. Dougie, Eddie, Iggy, Ribs...is there some reason why fans and media can't just use the actual names given to these people from birth? Moving on...

I am merely a Toronto resident, having been fortunate enough to be born in Montreal. Therefore, I've somewhat enjoyed the lack of success of Toronto sports teams. I don't dislike Toronto, but having been raised outside the city, I never caught on to the sports scene with the same fervour as wongoz. Sure, I followed the Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993 and I watched the Argos during the Rocket Ismail days, but really the happiest times for me were the Harold Ballard era Maple Leafs. A particular 10-3 drubbing by the Montreal Canadiens back in the 80's brings particular joy. Now that I have unfortunately followed the Raptors since their inception in the mid-90's, I've been more involved in the Toronto sports scene than I care to admit. For better or for worse, Toronto pro sports and Toronto fans evoke strong emotions - mainly love or hate.

Like the Republican Party, the New York Yankees, and Jennifer Lopez, Toronto sports teams are beloved by their legions of faithful fans, but despised by everyone else. To the rest of the country, a Toronto pro team is the first born child who was spoiled from birth and then whines when the rest of the family gets a few crumbs to eat. People love to hate Toronto, mainly because of the Leafs, and mainly out of petty jealousy, which Toronto arrogantly does nothing to stop. Many cringe at Toronto's proclamations as being the centre of the universe and hate that Toronto somehow considers itself special, different from the rest of the world. Grudgingly, regardless of the fates of its pro teams, Toronto sports fans are indeed unique.

Toronto is one of the few cities in the entire world to enjoy teams in all the major sports leagues (except the NFL - which has no non-American franchises anyway - and if it did, you better believe Toronto would be one of them). Toronto even boasts a pro lacrosse team, and minor league hockey and soccer franchises. Torontonians (another term I dislike) are spoiled by the plethora of options available to them for their sporting and entertainment pleasure. With that comes a sense of entitlement, a feeling that because we are Toronto, we somehow are destined to enjoy success in everything we touch. Losing is for the rest of the world, for Ottawa and Montreal and Boston. We're Toronto. Free agents will of course want to come play for us, we'll settle for nothing but the best coaches and general managers and facilities that money can buy. Canada's three major sports networks and three biggest newspapers always lead with Toronto sports coverage. Success is our right.

And why not? Thanks to corporate ownership that is non-existent anywhere else in the country, if not the world, Toronto has proven they have the resources to compete with anyone. The Jays, Leafs, Raptors and Argos have all enjoyed success to varying degrees both financially and athletically. Which is why being a Toronto fan is so frustrating. We can spend as much money as any New York or Los Angeles based team, and yet have no major championships in the past decade to show for it (sorry to say that the Grey Cups of the 90's don't really count since only Doug Flutie can remember them).

What happened to the winning? We now find ourselves in an era where winning at all costs no longer applies in Toronto. The corporate owners spend just enough to ensure the flow of revenues continue, but not enough to inspire serious championship aspirations. And Toronto fans, starved for any sort of victory, continue to pour money into the corporate pockets in hopes of one day stumbling upon a championship. And so the Jays rebuild, the Raptors reload, the Leafs recycle, and somehow the fans return again and again. Free agent after free agent bypass Toronto in favour of such metropolitan hot spots like Seattle, Chicago, Orlando, and Detroit, cities that while appealing in their own way, pale in comparison to Toronto for quality of life. When the time comes to hire new coaches or managers, we now settle for the young first time executives who have potential and work ethic as opposed to the people actually acknowledged as the brightest and best in their sports. And through it all, fans keep paying and showing up. Sure, the Jays lost fans after the baseball lockout, but so did every other major league franchise. The Argos are the Argos and will never be the Dallas Cowboys, but the promise of a new stadium has spurred renewed fan interest and smaller debt loads. Meanwhile, the Leafs and Raptors continue to parade out disappointing and inferior teams who generate some of the top attendance figures and revenues in their sports.

What do Toronto sports fans have to look forward to? Nothing. And yet that suits us just fine. We'll spend hours debating who the Leafs' backup goalie or third line centre should be. Entire emails will be devoted to which unknown Raptor draft pick or Jays minor leaguer could actually develop into a serviceable player. Vince Carter's wedding registry is considered news here. We would of course be happier seeing our pro teams under proper and intelligent management, with Phil Jackson or Larry Brown roaming the sidelines, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, and all the top free agents flocking to play here. But we'll be faithful without any of that, and unfortunately, the owners know it.

In an era where attention spans are short and the faces on a pro roster change seemingly on a monthly basis, the continued loyalty of Toronto sports fans is unique, not good or bad but certainly inexplicable. This isn't a European city where everyone supports the soccer team that their grandfathers used to watch, win or lose. This isn't Buffalo or Cleveland where fans consider their teams to be an extension of themselves and live and die with them accordingly. This is a city where fans support four teams or more, all at once, and expect all of those teams to win, despite overwhelming evidence that there is very little chance any of them will win anything anytime soon. Fans cheer victories and cry over defeats, and despite all the pain of suffering through another season without winning, get ready to do it all over again. It's almost cute in a way, this blind devotion, where fans will rant and yell and scream but never stop supporting their teams. It almost makes you hope that a Toronto team will win something someday soon, until you realize just how much more insufferable Toronto would become if that happened.