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Mohamed took the same learn-everything-possible approach to baseball, a sport about which he knew very little. But Rogers Communications’ purchase of the Blue Jays coincided with Mohamed’s arrival at the company as president and chief operating officer of Rogers Wireless in 2000.

Paul Beeston, the team’s president of baseball operations, said his boss “has thrown himself into” acquiring as much knowledge as he can about the game.

“We can actually talk about players now that are not just the star players. He understands what the game is all about,” said Beeston. “That shouldn’t be surprising, because he’s a cerebral person and it’s a cerebral game in a lot of ways. He picks up the nuances very, very quickly.”

“He’s very supportive of the ball club. As you’d expect from anyone who gets to the CEO level of a company like that, he was born to win. It’s competition with him.”

Mohamed addresses the Jays players at the start and end of each season. Beeston believes it’s important that the players see that Rogers isn’t a faceless organization that simply cuts the cheques.

And, according to Beeston, though Mohamed has a self-effacing, calm demeanour his passion for the game is readily apparent to the players.

“I’ve never worked with anyone who is so gentle in a tough way,” said Beeston. “He can make the tough decisions and he’s no pushover. His goal is to win. His goal is not to finish second. Don’t be misled into thinking that this guy, because of the way he carries himself, doesn’t want to be standing at the top of the podium and wearing the gold medal. That’s what he wants to do.”

Beeston said Mohamed’s desire to bring a championship to Toronto — and his business acumen — is evident in the advice he’s offered general manager Alex Anthopoulos.

“He’s been instrumental in making sure we get deals done,” said Beeston, citing the speed with which he signed off on Jose Bautista’s $65 million contract.

“He’s been instrumental in making sure we get deals done,” said Beeston, citing the speed with which he signed off on Jose Bautista’s $65 million contract.

UssjTrunks wrote:

“He’s been instrumental in making sure we get deals done,” said Beeston, citing the speed with which he signed off on Jose Bautista’s $65 million contract.

Who wouldn't sign off on that in a heartbeat?

“I’ve never worked with anyone who is so gentle in a tough way,” said Beeston.

UssjTrunks wrote:

“He’s been instrumental in making sure we get deals done,” said Beeston, citing the speed with which he signed off on Jose Bautista’s $65 million contract.

Who wouldn't sign off on that in a heartbeat?

UssjTrunks wrote:

“He’s been instrumental in making sure we get deals done,” said Beeston, citing the speed with which he signed off on Jose Bautista’s $65 million contract.

Who wouldn't sign off on that in a heartbeat?

Schadenfreude wrote:

UssjTrunks wrote:

“He’s been instrumental in making sure we get deals done,” said Beeston, citing the speed with which he signed off on Jose Bautista’s $65 million contract.

Who wouldn't sign off on that in a heartbeat?

Go back a year and plenty of people wouldn't. It was a very large contract given to a guy in his late 20s who'd had exactly one good year...it wasn't a surefire good thing.

dagger wrote:Sorry I disagree. Five minutes after we knew the details of that deal, most people were satisfied that it was a reasonable gamble. Before the deal was signed, there were fears we would be locking into a lot more, but a deal starting at $8 million (basically his median arbitration price), then going up to $14 million was seen by most of us as something we would have done. And for ownership, there were two downsides - possibly having to pay him more than that as a free agent, or losing him altogether and losing a lot more fans with it. Given that the second year is only 175% of his median arbitration price, I don't think it has that hard a sell to ownership.

There should have been an option in the smokin poll of 3 years, 25 million. That's all Bautista deserves once he lost his arbitration case