Ricciardi Going Down Ugly

You really have to wonder about Ricciardi sometimes. Ok, you should wonder about him often, but his performance regarding Halladay is disgusting.

This is not the first time that Ricciardi has displayed a lack of common sense and arrogance. Last summer he angered many Canadian baseball fans by calling Scott Richmond up from the minors just a few days before he was to be part of Canada’s team at the Olympics. The Jays were not in a pennant race and it would have been a great experience for Richmond to represent his country at the Olympics. It also would have greatly helped Canada’s Olympic chances.

Ricciardi’s defense was that it’s the dream of any kid to be in the majors. That’s true, but also very insensitive to the country that he is a GM in. Ricciardi was not ignorant of the Olympic Games since he had been a member of the US Olympic baseball selection committee and he should have had some sense as to how important Olympic success could have been for Canada. He shrugged his shoulders and gave his arrogant response. Within three weeks of being called up to the majors, and missing the Olympics, Richmond was returned to the minors.

That episode came a couple of months after Ricciardi embarrassed Toronto with his comments about Adam Dunn on a call in show. Instead of offering a classy response to a fan questioning whether the Jays had interest in trading for Dunn, Ricciardi attacked the fan and Dunn by stating that Dunn did not really like baseball and did not have passion to play the game. Interesting comments when you consider the signing of players like Wells and Rios, but I digress. Ricciardi’s comments on a simple call in show embarrassed the organization and made the Jays look like a backwoods small time operation. He ended up apologizing to Dunn, who responded by saying that he didn’t even know who Ricciardi was. At the moment, Dunn is batting .274 with 24 HR and 65 RBI (which is tied for 5th and 10th respectively in the majors).

Now Ricciardi is trying to make Halladay look like the bad guy by inferring that Halladay forced the Jays hand by stating that he was going to explore the free agency market after 2010. This revelation came a week after Ricciardi chose to start all the trade speculation by going public with the comment that he would listen to trade offers for Halladay. Of course a week ago he stated that nothing had changed and that was just business as usual. But now the story is that Halladay started this process and in a sense infers that Halladay is not being loyal to the Jays.

Where is Ricciardi’s grip on reality if he thinks that he has a chance of being believed? Halladay has been a loyal soldier for the Jays for years and has been the ace on a team that has never had a chance at the playoffs without complaining. He is now nearing his final contract and he wants a chance to pitch for a team with a chance to compete. Do the fans find this unreasonable, or Halladay is disloyal? Not in the slightest, but that’s not stopping Ricciardi from trying to cast a shadow over Halladay.

What Ricciardi’s arrogance does not accept is that he has no credibility left in the Toronto market. He basically sold much of that credibility with his famous quote a few years ago when he was caught in a lie. At that time his explanation was that “It’s not a lie, if I know the truth”. Sounds like Clinton doesn’t it? He likely should have been shown the door at that moment, but for some reason Godfrey defended him.

With his comments about Halladay, Ricciardi may well have started a firestorm that will force him out sooner rather than later. Of course in his arrogance, Ricciardi is trying to spin a story that he is not sure whether he even wants to remain with the Jays past his current contract.

Are his comments true, or are they a lie? The sad thing is we don’t care anymore when it comes to Ricciardi. It is time for Beeston to do something about him before this feeling spreads and the fans stop caring about the Jays.