Let us put aside for a second the likelihood of the assertion by unknown members of the Chicago White Sox bullpen that the Blue Jays have planted a man in a white shirt on the grassy knoll in right-centre field.

Because it’s silly beyond all ability to express in human language.

A proper refutation requires mimes, pie fights and the ghost of Peter Sellers.

You can stats this up all you like. Here’s the one that matters. The Jays are 28-27 at home. They’re 30-30 on the road. Apparently, if they’re cheating, they can’t cheat right.

Here’s something else to consider.

Between the ’10 and ’11 seasons, the Jays shuffled their coaching staff. They brought in John Farrell and Don Wakamatsu, both men with long histories in the game. How would that job interview have gone?

“John, we like your credentials. So, how are you with breaking some of the most basic moral tenets of the game? Are you okay with that?”

It’s not hard to imagine. It’s impossible.

Baseball is, if nothing else, a closed society governed by rigid and sometimes inscrutable rules of conduct. You break those rules, and you’re out. Unless you’re Babe Ruth, you’re finished with your colleagues in the fraternity. Ask Pete Rose.

Chicanery this cynical went out of fashion with 1919 White Sox – not that we’re implying anything about the White Sox. Much.

But let’s not reduce ourselves to ad hominem attacks.

Let us instead thank Toronto’s accusers, as well as the outlet for their animus, ESPN: The Magazine.

Thank you. Sincerely. You have done baseball in Toronto an incalculable service.

The greatest enemy the game faces in this town is apathy.

A home run king wasn’t enough to undo that. A burgeoning genius in the GM’s office hasn’t been able to lure the fans back in big numbers. We’ve all thought for some time that nothing short of winning could lure fans back to baseball.

We could’ve told that you anger binds people together much tighter than love. We couldn’t have imagined that an outsider could light that fire. ESPN just did.

What middling baseball couldn’t do, widespread civic outrage just might.

Played right, this phony controversy could be a tipping point for baseball in Toronto.

Alex Anthopoulos provided the roadmap today. As best I can tell, Anthopoulos is never angry. He’s so even-keeled he might consider ship’s captain as a moonlighting gig.

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And today, he was, by his own modest standards, pissed.

“This whole thing is stupid,” is how he kicked things off, fairly panting with emotion. “Let’s find four players on some other team claiming they saw the guy on the white shirt and they saw the UFO flying across the sky … I can guarantee you there must be one disgruntled Blue Jay out there to have spoken to. And to not have been able to do it, shocks me.”

Once again, and for the first time in two decades, it’s us against them.

This is the upside-down World Series flag flap rebroadcast in neon.

What is it about the Blue Jays that makes them so unpalatable to the baseball establishment? Why did Yankees manager Joe Girardi choose to go on record with this nonsense, making him the other guy talking about alien abductions and bright lights in the sky? What have the Jays done to upset people?

Could it be fear? No, that’s not it. This team isn’t frightening anyone. Yet.

It’s no secret around baseball that Toronto fans are some of the most disliked by opposing teams – they really do get on top of people out there in right and left field. Could that be it? Maybe.

Here’s what it looks like – Americans picking on the easiest target, the guys up north.

Is it true? Probably not. Will that story play in this town? Like kids at recess.

What we have right now is a sense of righteous indignation.

Properly manipulated by the club, it can be turned into popular and peaceful revolt that could position the game of baseball at the heart of this city once again.

The White Sox supplied the gas. ESPN brought the matches. Now it’s up to Toronto fans to light a fire.