Pistol linked, in another thread, to an online article by Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci, who spent some time in the Blue Jays’ training camp this spring and has written about it for SI. Better him than Garth Brooks, I say. Suiting up for a big-league team is the secret dream of virtually everyone who writes about baseball, and Verducci clearly had a blast doing that in Dunedin. The article is a lively read, and promises an equally lively feature piece in SI. But it also scores a very positive hit for the Blue Jays organization in other ways.

Basically, this is terrific free PR. Assuming that it was Verducci who dialed up the team and asked permission to suit up, whoever gave the OK deserves a free lunch at the Texas Armadillo Café. You quite literally couldn’t pay someone to write as many glowing things about your organization and your players as Verducci did here, yet all it took was a spare uniform, an extra pair of cleats and an all-access pass.

Verducci paints exactly the kind of picture that Ricciardi and Co. would have wanted him to paint: a last-place team, yes, but a “fresh” outfit that’s also “cool” and “finding its identity” — and did he mention the $210 million payroll infusion? Yes, he did. He calls the Jays a team of “empty stadium” players, and while I’m sure the folks in Ticket Sales wished he’d chosen another turn of phrase, it exemplifies the Fighting Jays of whom Ricciardi spoke glowingly just a couple of seasons ago. “Toronto has an outstanding staff,” he says, and while I’m sure most big-league ballclubs (that Verducci hasn’t suited up for) also have outstanding staffs, it’s still a real chin-up for the coaches. “I could not have picked a better team,” Verducci says, and smiles must be breaking out all up and down Blue Jay Way.

You might object: “How will this do anything for ticket sales? Sports Illustrated is directed at a US audience. Maybe if he’d written this for the Toronto Star, things would be different.” (Like the Star would have published this, even at gunpoint.) But marketing these days, especially among younger fans, is viral, and it’s through online promotional pieces like Verducci’s and posts like the one I’m creating here that buzz gets generated. Word gets around, especially when any American news outlet shows interest in a local product. I’ll bet Sportsnet ends up carrying a short feature on Verducci’s escapade, if it hasn’t already.

That leads into another facet of the article: it’s filled with the kinds of little touches that appeal to Canadians. As mentioned, there’s a sportswriter from the leading American sports magazine lauding the organization. There are also the references to the “professional,” “classy”, ego-free nature of the clubhouse — and Canadians love that. We cling passionately to our cherished myths about aw-shucks team-first athletes who are kind to strangers and rescue kittens from trees (aside to Bob Goodenow: you need to do more kitten-rescuing). Halladay and Wells are “quiet” and “hard-working” leaders? The Q-ratings are through the roof, baby.

Altogether, this is a real triumph for the marketing department. A springtime without any more Baseball North commercials will make it even better.

Aside from the promotional angle, there’s a lot to like in Verducci’s piece. Insights like the stuff about Halladay pitching to Wells are terrific, the kind you can’t get from daily media reports. Comparisons to Bruce Bochy are, I think, quite a compliment to John Gibbons, who could surprise a lot of people this year. I might even go and do something I haven’t done in years — buy an issue of Sports Illustrated. Verducci’s done a great job of promoting my favourite team, so I suppose the least I can do is reward him.