It almost looked like a reception line at a wedding — minus the bride and the groom.
Just one baseball guy, dressed in the old style uniform of the New York Mets, coming home. His old baseball home. Sitting in the other dugout this day.
And everyone lined up shake hands with John Gibbons, the former Blue Jays manager and part sage. One at a time. Saying hello. Welcome him back to Toronto. Him making you laugh. You making him laugh.
Gibby being Gibby for the media one more time.
It is kind of remarkable, after all these years, after two stints as manager of the Jays, after playing old school to the new school front office of Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins — the new school currently losing — how popular Gibbons has become around Toronto and certainly with those who have covered the club all these years.
Cito Gaston won two World Series but he lacked the funny, folksy way of Gibbons. He wouldn’t draw this kind of crowd three hours before first pitch. Most Jays managers have come and gone — so many of them forgettable. Gibbons wound up with 11 seasons here in Toronto one fewer than Gaston’s. 12. There were two trips to the American League Championship Series for Gibbons — the only two trips since the World Series years the Jays have taken. “We came close,” said Gibbons. 62. on Monday. “As I’ve said before — that won’t be on my tombstone.”
Something more clever than that should be there. Managing in baseball is a difficult job, a thankless job, a tiring and exhilarating job. But managing Gibbons-style, when he was with the Jays, now as the Mets bench coach, is about finding a smile, having a laugh, telling a story, getting your work done, playing ball then doing it all again tomorrow.
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Who has been like him in the history of Toronto sports? Answer: Not many. Leo Cahill was unforgettable from his stints coaching the Argos and most don’t remember him anymore. You won’t meet better people than Dwane Casey from his years with the Raptors. No Leaf coach — not the irascible Pat Burns, not the rather-brilliant communicator Pat Quinn — was anything like Gibbons was in his 11 Blue Jays seasons.
He is here now with the Mets, in the only great playoff race in baseball, scratching and clawing for the last playoff spot in the National League. He was in playoffs in 2015 and 2016 before Shapiro and Atkins got smarter than him.
The Jays haven’t been in the playoffs since.
He is here with the Mets, with his “new wife” the photographer making her first trip to Toronto, credentialed to shoot baseball shots while here, ready to play tour guide tomorrow: Gibbons lived a few steps from the Rogers Centre in his time here. He loves that part of downtown.
Because of TIFF the Mets lost their usual downtown hotel and had to suffer the indignities of staying in a Yorkville Hotel instead. He figured he might get recognized walking around during TIFF. “Maybe they’ll think I’m Robert Redford or a young Jack Nicholson.”
Or maybe they’ll just remember the two best years the Blue Jays have had in the past three decades.
Like a lot of people — and a lot of Blue Jays players — he hasn’t completely gotten over not getting to the World Series in 2015 and by extension not winning it.
“Such a good team,” said Gibbons. “Good group of guys, big personalities that you don’t see a lot anymore in baseball. We didn’t win it all.”
He didn’t completely finish the sentence. He knows they should have.
Now instead of having Josh Donaldson as his Most Valuable Player, or Jose Bautista as the slugger du jour, he has Francisco Lindor, his pick for National League Most Valuable Player and Pete Alonso as the resident slugger. And he has the back of manager Carlos Mendoza, who in turn has the back of Gibbons, whom he chose as bench coach even thought the two barely knew each other.
“I couldn’t work for a better guy than Mendy,” Gibbons. I didn’t know him coming in. I think I met him in ’18 when he was with the Yankees. If he asks you something, pinch running, defence, when he asks me, I give him my opinion. That’s all. I can’t praise him enough for what he’s done here. First year guy managing in New York. That’s not easy.
“Two or three times we could have disappeared. He stayed steady. That’s what’s impressed me the most. We’re in this thing. I think he should be the Manager of the Year in the National League. You think of where this team came from last year and where it is now. That’s impressive.”
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It’s also impressive to Gibbons that his old spring training catcher, John Schneider, is now managing the Jays. For now. The two have remained friends from their Blue Jays days. Gibbons is not to so much a mentor to Schneider as he is someone who will be there and listen when need be.
“I’m a big Schneids fan,” said Gibbons. He’s a good baseball man and I feel his pain when he takes some heat.
“We’ve always been good friends. I’m rooting for him.”
He said that just after looking around the newly refurbished Rogers Centre, the stadium being this year’s Rookie of the Year. They spent a lot of money on this, he admired. Probably should have spent a little more of it on players in this season missing Gibbons wit, charm and personality.
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