Goodman noticed the asset devaluation. He thought the Yankees could be worth a fortune. CBS clearly was willing to sell. Goodman pitched the idea to Torstar’s board of directors. More than once, he said. They even crunched numbers at one point before deciding this kind of investment was outside the realm of their area of expertise.
Years later, after Steinbrenner had bought the club — for $8.8 million — and it was back into, and winning, World Series, Goodman shook his head one day between innings at Ramsden Park and said to his catcher, “It could have been us.”
When asked what he meant, he said, “I tried to get Torstar to buy them 10 years ago.”
Wow. I wonder what that would have meant for baseball in Toronto (or even Montreal; IIRC, this was pre-Expos). The major paper owning a team from another city. Obviously, the Yankees wouldn't have moved to Toronto (or would they? They were a bunch of suck at the time, and iconic NY teams have moved before), but I wonder if this would have had an effect on Toronto getting the Jays in the decade afterwards.
Really interesting, whatever-the-case.