Pro tip: When considering hot stories breaking on social media it’s always best to apply the 48-Hour Rule. This states that, in times of internet fury, it’s advisable to believe nothing emerging from the Web for 48 hours. Examples are plentiful, but two words capture the wisdom of the 48-Hour Rule. Jussie Smollett.

Oh, that the loyal fans of the Cleveland North Blue Jays observed this simple advice last Friday. A well-place baseball reporter said that free-agent prize Shohei Ohtani was winging his way to Toronto on a private jet to announce at 6 PM local time that, yes, Toronto would be the new home of then Japanese Babe Ruth.

This news was captured and embellished by the gullible and the gormless in Blue Jays Nation. Stories of media preparations in Japan for the announcement were sent forth. The baseball chattering class immediately began handicapping the Jays’ chance in 2024. Betting sites prepared to narrow the odds on a Blue Jays trip to the World Series.

As we know now, the private jet awaited by breathless media contained not Ohtani but Canadian TV star/ entrepreneur Robert Herjavec. Ohtani was instead in his home in southern California. The Blue Jays were, alas, not getting the Japanese Babe Ruth. They were getting another phantom handshake from fate. And a Shark Tank dude.

But hey, they’ll get Ohtani in the flesh in April when the L.A. Dodgers— who were always the prohibitive favourites to sign Ohtani— come to play at Rogers Centre. To his credit, the originator of this deep fake, Sportsnet source Jon Paul Morosi, has offered a full apology for his gaffe. It won’t excuse the mistake.

BOB NIGHTENGALE: Sunday Notebook ... Shohei Ohtani free agency hysteria brought out the worst in MLB media. We can do better. @Angels @Dodgers @BlueJays Nor will his contrition mollify Jays fans who add the Ohtani Miss to a litany of recent results (the latest the firing of harmless play-by-play radio announce Ben Wagner). @elliottbaseball

The car crash playoff that finished last season was supposed to be washed clean by an Ohtani signing. Even if it cost the GDP of PEI. Now , having seen prime offseason targets Ohtani and Juan Soto go elsewhere, Jays fans are left to contemplate a reprise of 2023’s Voyage of the Damned. The team is still beholden to Vladdy Guerrero’s whims and whiffs.

According to the Blue Jays water carriers, 2023 was meant to be different from the 2022 Barrio Boys. As we wrote in October, “For all the Rogers-generated hype, the Jays wound up winning three fewer games and barely squeezed into the postseason. (Which they celebrated like it was V-E Day) Where, once again, the Jays succumbed to stupidity, sloth and John Schneider’s curious pitching changes. Faced with another two-game submission, Toronto saw declining superstar Guerrero picked off second in a crucial late-inning situation.

But what had everyone in Jays Land really seething was Schneider’s decision to pull an unhittable José Berrios after 41 pitches— so he could flip the righty/ lefty batting order of the Twins. (Anyone who played Stratomatic in the old days knew this was daft.) Predictably the move backfired with Minnesota grabbing a lead they’d never surrender in the two-game sweep.

Schneider’s pitching decision was the thing Jays fans focused on when they asked, “Again?” In particular, the notion that the curious flip was made in the management suit, not the manger’s office, took hold. After all, GM Ross Atkins and president Mark Shapiro had never tired in telling fans how clever their analytics were, how they marched ahead of the crowd. It boggled the mind that Schneider, who’s never managed in the majors before, could have made his call in a bubble.

The suspicions were not allayed by the inept presser from GM Ross Atkins after the season in which most people thought Schneider was ready for the chop to protect the suits in the suites. First, Atkins threw his manager under the proverbial public transportation over the Berrios yanking decision.

“I found out about it when you did," Atkins told reporters. "When (Yusei) Kikuchi was getting warm in the first inning, it was very clear that we had a strategy to potentially deploy. John Schneider made the decision to deploy that… There was not an influence from the office that factored into that, other than maybe it was an organizational strategy communicated to players…

“The guy makes Kamala Harris sound lucid. But in a massive tell, Atkins then said Schneider would be invited back as manager, a baffling decision sure to enflame the fan base. "This is extremely painful for me," Atkins said. Think how Jays fans felt.

So ineffective was this combative presser that it was deemed essential that president Mark Shapiro, Rogers’ corporate-speak meister, be brought from the bullpen to smooth the potholes left by Atkins. Reiterating that the Berrios’ decision was indeed made by Schneider and his coaches, he then announced that Atkins was coming back in 2024.

“I understand the frustration, it’s palpable for me and for the other leaders in the organization,” Shapiro began. “It’s not acceptable for us to have fallen short of expectations.. When we fall short of expectations, the responsibility and accountability clearly lies with me. We’ve got work to do. It’s going to be a painstaking process.”

Will you, Mark? Okay, let’s help the painstaking process. The man Schneider and Atkins were hired to improve upon— Canadian Alex Anthopoulos— has made the Atlanta Braves a dominant team. Since AA moved to Atlanta they’ve won 90, 97, 38 (Covid year), 88, 101, 104 games. They’ve won a World Series and two other playoff series.

They’ve developed young everyday superstars who don’t get picked off second base. They have built a pitching staff largely from within, not splashy FA signings. They have swagger without cockiness. They are set for years to come.

The Jays? They’ve won 73, 67, 32 (Covid), 91, 92, 89. They’ve won zero postseason games while missing the playoffs in three seasons. The players they traded are starring for other teams in this postseason. They are again employing an inexperienced company guy as manager.”

And now they have whiffed on Ohtani. But, hey, that nifty new seating at Rogers Place for 2024 is sure to allay the ire of fans fooled by Shapiro and Atkins.

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Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx

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