by Jon Paul Morosi

They did it again the next year.

And the year after that.

"That was the honeymoon for the SkyDome," said Tom Valcke, president/CEO of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. "Let's face it: A spaceship dropped in Toronto."

Of course, the dome alone didn't attract all those people. Joe Carter, Paul Molitor, John Olerud, Roberto Alomar and Devon White would have drawn a crowd in Medicine Hat.

In 1992 and 1993, the Jays completed a rare Triple Crown of baseball and business might: They led the American League in attendance, maintained the majors' highest payroll and won the World Series.

"The stars lined up in the perfect way," said Paul Godfrey, the former team president. "The team had never won an AL championship or World Series, and it looked like they were on the verge of doing it. The stadium was new. People were in awe of the world's first meaningful retractable roof. There was the novelty factor.

"The hockey team was in the doldrums. There was no pro basketball team, no pro soccer team. But here was this competitive baseball team in a new stadium.

"It was the flavor of the decade."

But this is a different time. The Jays have not appeared in a postseason game since Joe Carter/Mitch Williams in 1993. Through Monday, their average attendance (22,832) ranked fourth from the bottom in the AL — and was less than half the zenith 16 years ago (50,098).

The team's $80 million payroll, as set by the publicly traded Rogers Communications Inc., ranks in the middle of the major leagues, far behind the rival Yankees and Red Sox.

"It's the New York-Boston thing," Valcke said. "If you look at reasons why people (fans) stay away, that might be the most common reason you get: 'They spend twice as much as us, so we'll never beat them.' It's a typical Canadian attitude toward the U.S. I don't agree with it. But there's that complex."

"You always hear what it was in the '90s," said Aaron Hill, an All-Star candidate at second base. "Why can't we get it back? There's no reason. Put together a nice stretch of wins and get those fans back. It would be something. It would be pretty intimidating for the other team to come here with 50,000 fans in the stands."

The Jays brought back Cito Gaston, the manager from the glory years. They brought back Paul Beeston, a popular club executive during the Labatt stewardship, to replace Godfrey. But they haven't brought back all the fans.

Not since the days of Joe Carter in 1993 have the Blue Jays made the playoffs. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)

"Every night I walked out of this dugout, I expected to see those people here," Gaston said this week. "We continued to have those guys right up until the strike of '94. After that, I don't think it's ever been really filled, day in and day out.

"I run into a lot of people who said they didn't come back because of the strike. I try to tell them, 'Listen, our players had no conflict with our ownership. It's that they had nobody to play against.' Everybody was pretty happy here."

The fans in Canada were happy then, too. The Jays were drawing 49,287 fans each night when the games stopped. The Montreal Expos had the best record in baseball and lost what turned out to be their last, best chance of winning a World Series.

Valcke, the Hall of Fame president, could tell that the increasing player salaries had been testing conventional Canadian sensibilities even before the strike. So a walkout by millionaires was particularly off-putting to many in the country.

"There was resentment," Valcke said. "How can baseball shut down? It was harder for us to understand than the Americans."

The Blue Jays have been a paradoxical team since the strike, one that has won regularly without winning big. Their fast start to this season — they were in first place as recently as May 23 — created "a buzz on the streets," Godfrey said. But they are back in fourth place now.

Only four AL teams finished with a winning record in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Three of them — New York, Los Angeles and Boston — made the playoffs twice in that span. In attendance, they rank first, second and third, respectively, in the AL.

And then there is Toronto.

The Jays aren't going to outspend the Yankees or Red Sox. But in order to make the playoffs, they must finish ahead of at least one of them. When play began Tuesday, they had one fewer victory than the leaders of the AL Central and AL West. Sounds great, right? Well, they play in the AL East.

"It's a tough division — nothing new," general manager J.P. Ricciardi said. "There's a reason why the Red Sox and Yankees have done so well. They've got a lot of resources, a lot of money. They're run by good guys. They take advantage of those resources.

"It doesn't make the playing field level — it doesn't mean it's an excuse. Wishing we were in another division? No, because I'd love to make the playoffs in this division. I think it means more."

Originally, the Jays were on track to have a payroll of $105 million this year. Then the recession and weakened Canadian dollar prompted ownership to cut costs, including layoffs in the front office last December.

"They're unlike any other team in baseball, because of the currency issue," said Kurt Badenhausen, a Forbes Magazine associate editor who researches baseball franchise values. "That can create huge swings."

The Jays brought back Cito Gaston, their manager from the glory years. (Al Messerschmidt / Getty Images)

In general, the Jays are in very good financial standing. Rogers owns the stadium, renamed Rogers Centre, and gains additional revenue from controlling the cable rights to Jays games. According to Badenhausen, the Jays are one of only three teams without debt arising from loans against the team's value.

The Rogers group runs the team like the subsidiary it is, and that is well within their right. Under those parameters, though, it's difficult to compete with the freer-spending Yankees and Red Sox, who had the aggressiveness to make $180 million and $170 million offers, respectively, to Mark Teixeira during the off-season.

"The Red Sox and Yankees, their ownership, their sole being is baseball," Ricciardi said. "Everything from that business standpoint is about the team. That's a big thing to go up against.

"We're really fortunate that we have great owners. This ownership group has kept the team in Toronto. This ownership group has been really great to us. But we have a budget. We know the rules going in."

The Jays had seen an increase in attendance every year, beginning in 2003. At present, though, the average puts them on a pace to finish near the 1.8 million they drew in 2003. For a bottom-line-oriented franchise, that's not a good sign.

In the SkyDome's infancy, Jays tickets were perceived as exclusive and in-demand. That is no longer the case. For several years, the team has pre-sold an $81 season ticket — one Canadian dollar per game — for upper deck seats. (During this week's series against Tampa Bay, that tier of the stadium has been mostly empty.)

A little less than two hours before Tuesday's game, one man stood a few blocks away from Rogers Centre and touted that he was selling tickets "cheaper than the box office." Suffice it to say, that scene would not occur outside the Kenmore "T" Stop before a 7:10 p.m. first pitch at Fenway.

We all know that hockey is Canada's pastime. The Jays didn't change that in the '90s. They aren't going to change that anytime soon. And if you think people here are ready for a diversion now that Sid has hoisted the Cup ... Well, during a pitching change in the eighth inning on Monday night, the massive center field scoreboard provided the latest Jay Bouwmeester news, complete with remarks from the defenseman's agent.

"No matter what you say," Gaston acknowledged, "this is a hockey town."

Yet interest in baseball, more broadly defined, remains strong across Canada. Thanks in large part to a 15-9 April record, the team's television ratings are up roughly 15 percent since last year. (Last year, the average viewership was near 321,300 per game.) The TV audience includes fans outside Ontario, many of whom aren't able to watch their team in person very often — if at all.

Meanwhile, the number of Canadian stars in the big leagues is at an all-time high. Most every general manager in baseball would love to have Jason Bay, Justin Morneau and Joey Votto in the middle of his lineup, with Russell Martin catching a rotation of Erik Bedard, Ryan Dempster, Rich Harden, Jeff Francis and Scott Richmond.

Add in some steady left-handed hitters, Matt Stairs and Mark Teahen.

"The Canadian big leaguers we have, they're not just average players," said Richmond, who started for the Jays on Tuesday. "They're catalysts. That sparks interest in the baseball community in Canada."

This year's World Baseball Classic, which included a round at Rogers Centre, generated tremendous enthusiasm among Canadian sports fans. And there are more impact players on the way.

Greg Hamilton, the head coach and director of Canada's national teams, watched Tuesday's game at Rogers Centre with the currently-touring Junior National Team. Their next stop: a round of exhibitions in Cuba.

"There's a lot of talent coming," Hamilton said.

As Valcke pointed out, many current Canadian big leaguers were young, impressionable baseball fans when the Jays were drawing crowds and raising banners. A discerning 12-year-old Canadian might reach two important conclusions about baseball today: With a lot of hard work, I could become the next Justin Morneau. And with just a little bit of money, I can get a nice seat for a Blue Jays game.