HOW ABOUT YOUR OWN BASEBALL CITY?

That Paul Godfrey, he just has a silver foot in his mouth (hat tip to Molly Ivins). Witness his quote about Toronto hosting games for the 2009 World Baseball Classic:

"You'd like to think that you'll be able to attract fans from some of those baseball cities in the northern U.S. ... I mean, you see a city like Detroit and with Magglio Ordonez likely to be with the Venezuelans, that would be a draw."

Like The Tao of Stieb (welcome back; nice find) says, "Jeebus Cripes on Segway, Godfrey! Can you stop fixating on bringing fans from outside of Toronto to the city, and start thinking about your own fan base?!"

The WBC games in Toronto could be like the 1994 world basketball championship all over again. Remember Greek-Canadians pouring into the streets to celebrate after Greece beat Canada and every xenophobe gnashing their teeth about people celebrating after Canada lost.

They missed the point -- the fact that can happen is what makes this country great. (And did this make any of the xenophobes devote their energy to Canada Basketball? Evidently not.)

(Apologies for not having linked to any of the weekend stories about the 2009 WBC; it had been reported in the States a couple weeks ago and yours truly heard about games being played here a few weeks before that, so it just seemed too obvious.)

Related:
Global showcase coming to Toronto (Jeff Blair, globesports.com)