After twenty-two long, frustrating seasons, the Toronto Blue Jays have finally punched a ticket to the post-season by winning the American League East Division title, the sixth in franchise history.
The wheels were set in motion
for this playoff run back in the off-season between 2012 and 2013, when Jays’
general manager Alex Anthopoulos pulled off a multi-player deal with the Miami
Marlins. The biggest names to come to Toronto were short stop Jose Reyes and
pitcher Mark Buehrle. About a month later, Anthopoulos acquired 2012 National
League Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey from the New York Mets.
The fans were excited. Season
tickets increased dramatically. Vegas odds makers were making the Jays as the
favourites to win the World Series. So were the baseball media.
But in between the two trades
was the signing of John Gibbons as the manager to replace the
departed John Farrell, who left after two seasons to manage the Boston Red Sox.
It was a signing that had Jays’ fans going, “What the……..?”
Gibbons’ first stint as the Jays’
manager (from 2004 to 2008) wasn’t exactly the stuff of legend. He posted a win/loss record of 305-305.
Why he was being brought back was a mystery. When the 2013 Blue Jays didn’t
live up to the hype and expectations (74-88) there were calls for Gibbons to be
fired and replaced by a “real manager.” After a strong start in 2014, the team
tailed off and finished 83-79. Again, people wanted him fired. Even at the
All-Star break this year, with Toronto hovering around the .500 mark, he was
expected to get the heave-ho at the end of the season.
But now, the Jays have won the
division and will be in the postseason, and….you don’t hear anything about John
Gibbons. But as far as I’m concerned, if you’re going to kick the manager when
the team loses, you have to give him his credit when they win.
I like to compare Gibbons with
another Blue Jays’ manager, Cito Gaston, although Gibbons’ fired-up personality
is different than the laid back approach Cito brought to the dugout. But before
winning back-to-back World Championships in 1992 and 1993, Cito drew a lot of
ire from the media and fans too. He wasn’t the team’s first choice as a manager
when Jimy Williams was fired a month into the 1989 season, but he took the job
and despite success (a division championship in 1989 and 1991) he took a lot of
heat.
The main media personality who
liked to attack Gaston’s capabilities as a manager was the host “Jays Talk,” a call-in show that followed every Jays’ game. The
host’s name was Bob McCown. It seemed that whenever the Blue Jays lost a game,
McCown would gripe about how Gaston left in a pitcher too long, took him out
too early, didn’t send up the right pinch hitter, or whatever. Don’t get me
wrong, I like listening to McCown’s show, even all these years later. I think
he’s the second best media personality in all of Canada, only behind Hockey
Night In Canada’s Don Cherry. But his Cito-bashing, to this day, still puzzles
me.
I find the similar thing going
on today with John Gibbons. When the Jays’ lose, fans and media try to find
things that Gibbons could have done differently to prevent the loss. But when
they win, you never hear anything about it.
I feel he’s handled the season
very well. He’s kept a level head, even in the tough beginning of the season,
right through to the big turnaround and on to the division championship. He’s
made the right moves with a bullpen that is still a bit of a question mark
heading into October and he’s been able to keep all the egos in check in the
clubhouse and in the dugout.
With 554 wins (as of Thursday) he
sits second on Toronto’s all-time list of managerial wins behind Cito. And he
has now become only the third manager in team history to take his players to
the postseason. He deserves a lot of credit for this achievement. It’s time he
got it.
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