Blue Jays 3B Brett Lawrie is set to play his first MLB game in Toronto today, and the 21-year-old Canadian "symbolizes a plan spearheaded by" team President & CEO Paul Beeston to "leverage an entire nation and build the Blue Jays into a baseball superpower," according to Paul White of USA TODAY. Beeston believes that a "national marketing plan, which was emphasized during" the team's back-to-back World Series championships in '92 and '93, is "the only way back to prolonged success." Beeston previously served as team president from '89-97, during the "franchise's most successful years," and was brought back to that role in '09. Beeston's national marketing plan "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 he "hints another uniform change aimed at national pride could come next year." Former Blue Jays Dir of Consumer Marketing Jim Bloom said, "The only business model that works for the Blue Jays is to be Canada's team. ... There are still baseball fans in other parts of the country. It does have to be marketed that way." In the '90's, 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." The team increasingly is "coming to the fans," and last winter, a team caravan of selected players "visited outposts such as Vancouver and Calgary." White notes the Blue Jays connection to their owner Rogers Communications, which also owns Rogers Centre and the national TV and radio networks that carry most of the team's games, "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." Beeston acknowledged, "Rogers' presence is significant. All we have to do is give them the product" (USA TODAY, 8/9).
