Yu Darvish or How Yu Make me Jealous!

It has been a quiet few days in the land of Toronto FC, which is probably just what the team needs right about now, but it means the club has taken an even bigger back seat in the Toronto sports scene than normal. The Toronto Raptors have been freed from their lockout and have begun preseason, the Toronto Maple Leafs are almost a playoff contender these days, and the Toronto Blue Jays seem to be going after every single big name out there. Tonight the twitter world, sports tv and basically anything else that talks about sports in this city has its attention squarely focused on the impending news of whether the Blue Jays will win the Yu Darvish sweepstake.

It seems that the Jays are primed to spend over 50 million just to get the rights to negotiate with this Japanese player. When you think about what 50 million dollars could get you in the MLS it is far more then one pitcher. It would actually be enough to get you the rights to an expansion club, could buy you several of Toronto FC's state of the art training facility, heck you could even build BMO Field for just a little bit more than that amount.

Now I know that MLS is a salary cap league and comes with all kinds of restrictions but could you imagine what it would be like for Toronto FC fans if our beloved Reds were able to spend that kind of money on players. We could have our very own Fernando Torres to make our bench look even prettier then it already does. For 50 million dollars TFC would be able to build the best club in the MLS with ease but that is not really what makes me jealous.

What makes me jealous is that the Blue Jays have been getting non-stop attention from the media because of this. That is great for our baseball brethren but it is a painful reminder that soccer is no where near the number one game in town. I can only dream of a day where Toronto FC building towards a signing makes the whole sports media world come to a basic standstill and actually overshadows a Leafs game! When I think back to how much attention that the signings of Torsten Frings and Danny Koevermans got this summer it completely pales in comparison to what is going on with this Yu Darvish sweepstake right now. Toronto FC signed the two biggest names in the clubs history and it was barely a blip on most people's radar.

So that is why tonight Yu is making me jealous. I hope that one day Toronto FC can get anywhere near the kind of attention the Jays are getting right now but at least the good news is that the general trend in Toronto sports seems to be upwards right now. For more on Yu Darvish and if he does end up with the Jays check out Bluebird Banter our Jays brothers on SB Nation.

In the end it turns out that 51 million dollars was all it took to land the rights to Yu Darvish and the team that won them just so happens to be the Texas Rangers who now have 30 days to try and sign him. No luck for the Blue Jays tonight, bit sad even for me who is not a serious Jays fan.