One Nation, Two Teams: Repositioning the Toronto Blue Jays Among the Threat of a New Entrant

While many teams face difficult decisions regarding their branding, this case emphasizes how external factors can dictate marketing strategies. The Montreal Expos returning to Major League Baseball poses many threats and opportunities for the Toronto Blue Jays. As a result, the Blue Jays must reconsider their use of national identity in their branding—and whether it is appropriate to transition from being Canada’s only team to now sharing the market with the Expos. Nevertheless, the Expos’ return to Major League Baseball provides the Blue Jays with an opportunity to explore new marketing strategies. Case participants are tasked with repositioning the Blue Jays’ marketing strategy in response to the Expos’ return.

Responses of Blue Jays (Cyanocitta Cristata) to Raptors that Differ in Predatory Threat

Some species of birds use their vocalisations to communicate predator presence and the level of threat they pose, including two species of corvids (Corvidae), American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) and Siberian Jays (Perisoreus infaustus). Our objective was to determine if Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata), another corvid, also use specific calls or vary the characteristics of certain calls to convey information about the level of threat posed by aerial predators. During the non-breeding seasons of 2014 and 2015, we recorded and analysed the vocal responses of Blue Jays to study skins of six species of raptors that varied in size and the level of threat they pose to Blue Jays. Experiments were conducted at seven locations in Madison County, Kentucky. The mean number of Blue Jays present during trials was 2.6, and Blue Jays uttered five different vocalisations during trials, with ditonal and monotonal jeers given most frequently. The rate at which Blue Jays uttered ditonal jeers differed among trials, with rates highest during trials with an Eastern Screech-Owl (Megascops asio) and a Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus). However, the characteristics of ditonal and monotonal jeers (duration, low frequency, high frequency, and peak frequency) did not differ among trials. These results suggest that Blue Jays may either perceive Eastern Screech-Owls and Sharp-shinned Hawks as the greatest threats or, alternatively, as potential, but less threatening predators, and, therefore, they were willing to take greater risks when mobbing them. In contrast, Blue Jays mobbed the other raptors, i.e. American Kestrels (Falco sparverius), Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), and Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus), with much less intensity, likely because they posed less of a threat or, in the case of Cooper's Hawks (Accipiter cooperii) that are known predators of Blue Jays, perhaps because mobbing with greater intensity, e.g. approaching more closely, posed too great a risk. Blue Jays in our study used the same calls with the same characteristics when responding to potential predators, only calling rates differed. However, such variation in calling rates when mobbing would likely provide useful information about the presence of, and possibly the threat posed by, potential predators for conspecifics and, perhaps, heterospecifics.

From Birmingham to Chicago

This chapter focuses on the advent of gospel quartet singing in Chicago around the late 1920s, when Norman McQueen, Charles Bridges, and other quartet trainers migrated to Chicago from the South. McQueen, Bridges, and others introduced to Chicago a style of part singing that was earthier and more vocally percussive than what jubilee quartets were used to singing. Thanks to the quartet sound, gospel music became extremely popular nationally. This chapter documents the history of jubilee quartets in Chicago, beginning with the Standard Quartette followed by the Sunset Four, and proceeds with a discussion of the contributions of McQueen, Bridges, the Soul Stirrers, the Famous Blue Jays of Birmingham, and other gospel quartets to the growth of the Chicago quartet movement. Finally, it looks at some Chicago-based female quartets such as the Four Harmony Queens, the Crooning Sisters, the GoldenTone Female Quartet, the Four Loving Sisters, and the Jubilee Four Female Quartet.