Bautista vs Carter (Vince, not Joe)

[kavan]

I think Vince just because it was on such a larger scale more hype he wont the Dunk Off an Bautista blew the Derby. I think the HR Derby would of made him Iconic but we donthave enough fan support to flourish the talents of Jose.

[LLJ]

There have been many "great" performance at the derby. I don't really think many people care.

The dunk context is unique in that it is an obvious display of pure athleticism and artistry. HR derby is just a guy hitting long balls for several minutes.

[MGD24]

People saying Vince are living in a bubble...they aren't thinking about the whole Toronto sports scene. Now yes Vince was big....but I think he had a bigger name in NBA circles than in Toronto.

Jose, and baseball in Toronto, reachs a bigger audience than the Raptors ever had. I know I'll probably get flamed for this because 3/4 of you spend all your time on the Raptors board and are engrossed in that but I feel Jose is bigger than Vince in terms of popularity and just the common person knowing their name.

Both (very unfortunately) probably don't compare to the popularity of some of the Leafs (again I say unfortunately but that's the way Toronto sports is...unless you are Joe Carter)

[satyr9]

People saying Vince are living in a bubble...they aren't thinking about the whole Toronto sports scene. Now yes Vince was big....but I think he had a bigger name in NBA circles than in Toronto.

Jose, and baseball in Toronto, reachs a bigger audience than the Raptors ever had. I know I'll probably get flamed for this because 3/4 of you spend all your time on the Raptors board and are engrossed in that but I feel Jose is bigger than Vince in terms of popularity and just the common person knowing their name.

Both (very unfortunately) probably don't compare to the popularity of some of the Leafs (again I say unfortunately but that's the way Toronto sports is...unless you are Joe Carter)

I spend way more time on this board than the Raps one and have been a bigger baseball fan than a basketball fan my whole life and I think you're crazy. There is simply no chance, IMO, that Bautista is even close to the celebrity Carter was in his heyday, in Toronto or anywhere. I have friends who don't care one whit about sports. For example, they didn't know who LeBron was when he went to Miami (that one shocked me even though I know them). The know the name Chris Bosh and that he was a Raptor 'cause it was local but that was it. They probably know the same about Bautista now and probably that he hits homeruns, but I guarantee they all knew a shitton more about Carter back in the early 2000's.

Part of it is about exposure on non-sports channels IMO and part of it was probably about it being something new (we've had baseball celebrities in T.O. before so it's easier to tune out his billboards and stuff 'cause it's been there before). Carter was everywhere and was a little paradigm altering for the city. Bautista is probably roughly as popular as Carter among casual sports fans (the non-message board posting kind), but there's a very large portion of Toronto that includes absolute non-sports fans and in that group Bautista is light years behind Carter's popularity (that's probably the wrong word, but recognition and awareness).

All just IMO, but I find it pretty hard to believe people really think Bautista has reached the same level of stardom as Carter. I guess that speaks to the different kinds of people we all spend time with.

[MGD24]

ya gotta say I completely disagree with you but everyone has their own opinions.

I would like to see a survey of just random people on the street...sports knowledge or none at all....and see what name was more well known (at the height of their popularity in the city).

I can see a lot of people....even back in 1999 and 2000....who would not know who Carter was at all!

I know this could never happen but that's my opinion

[satyr9]

Yeah, there's no right or wrong on this 'cause it's all opinion (even if I'm positive I'm right ). Mostly, I think it's interesting that we can have such a divergent sense of the man on the street.

[MGD24]

Mostly, I think it's interesting that we can have such a divergent sense of the man on the street.

I will agree with you on that!

[Skin Blues]

I've never even clicked the link to the Raptors board on here, but I know for sure Carter was a bigger name 10+ years ago than Bautista is now. In high school I made a website called www.air-vince.com with a bunch of poorly made GIFs of his dunks. Sports nerds... gotta love us.

[evilRyu]

I've never even clicked the link to the Raptors board on here

so there are non-Raptor fans on this board? now that's pretty cool.

[J Dilla]

The question you have to ask is, has Bautista made an impact for Baseball in Canada compared to how Carter did for Basketball? Vince was known all over the world, specially after that Dunk contest and his dunk over Frederic Weis. Bautista choked in the ASG.

Toronto is losing its baseball fans. Has Bautista brought them back? Is he winning them games (not possible for 1 man to do in Baseball). Nobody cares about it till the team starts winning. With Vince we won, made it to the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.

Its been way over a decade since the Jays went to the postseason, so it will be something new for baseball fans here to see, just like how the Raptors went to the playoffs. If Bautista can be a part of that, he could reach Vince's impact and potentially be bigger than Vince.