When Bud Poliquin started sportswriting in Syracuse, a touchdown was worth five points and Babe Ruth was pitching for Boston. Well, maybe not quite, but Bud is a Salt City institution, a brilliant wordsmith with no agenda other than urging a decent deal for denizens of Onondaga shores.
Base Paths asked Bud for some thoughts on what might lie ahead for Bison fans should the Blue Jays shift their affiliation to Buffalo.
Toronto has called the shots in Syracuse since 1978 and most of them have been misfires. Therefore, Base Paths could hardly believe the five words Poliquin chose to describe the Syracuse-Toronto connection:
“A match made in heaven.”
That good?
No, Bud said, that bad.
Toronto doesn’t much care how badly Syracuse runs the franchise…
... And Syracuse doesn’t much mind how badly the team plays.
Whew.
But he’s nailed it. The malaise that infests Syracuse Class AAA baseball is hard to describe. Bud has a stab at it with “bad and boring.” It’s the butt of local jokes, even for the Syracuse Post-Standard’s humor columnist, who’s almost as lame as the team. The most exciting thing the club has done recently is change the name, twice, to SkyChiefs, then back to Chiefs.
The Chiefs have made no demands on Toronto (a “side-by-side” relationship, as Bud puts it) and Toronto has made no demands on Syracuse.
“Nobody here will miss them,” Bud writes, although the Mets, supposedly Syracuse-bound, haven’t had much luck with their own Class AAA clubs. The Norfolk team of two years ago was one of the worst motivated Base Paths ever has seen.
The situation’s different from that in Rochester, where the populace seems to take pride in the travails of the Red Wings. Some from the Flower City actually boast of their team’s frequent incompetence. In Syracuse, nobody seems to much care, and attendance seems to run about half of that in Buffalo, even with no major-league sports franchises competing for attention.
For Bison fans, the question will be, will Herd management demand excellence, or at least an acceptable level of effort. Pardon Base Paths while he mixes a few metaphors, but if the Blue Jays nest here, the ball will be in the Herd’s court. And that, Bud, is for you. Thanks.
Cory connects
Lockport catcher Cory Brownsten finished the season in Hampton, Va., with the Peninsula Pilots in the Coastal Plain League, one of the nation’s top collegiate leagues, after getting a friendly “OK” from Webster of the New York State League. Credit Niagara Coach Chris Chernisky with an assist on late-season call-up to a higher level.
Benched
Base Paths has declared next Monday an “open date” and will return Aug. 18 to start wrapping up the season.
Signal back to Base Paths via pollyndoug@hotmail.com
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