FORMER JAYS TV ANALYST PUTS FOCUS ON THE FUTURE
Apologetic Zaun back with big dreams after ‘humbling’ fall from grace at Sportsnet
It’s been almost 14 months since Gregg Zaun was fired by Rogers Sportsnet, and one gets the impression he’d still rather not be noticed or approached.
When the former Blue Jays catcher arrived at a Toronto coffee shop, he took off his winter vest, grabbed a coffee, sat down and started chatting, all the while wearing a pair of dark sunglasses.
After a few minutes, the 16-year major-league veteran pulled off the glasses, smiled and said: “Dude, I apologize for these. They’re prescription and I need them to see, and I forgot my regular glasses at home.” Turns out, he’s OK.
Not great. It would be ridiculous to expect him to be.
But he’s in a pretty good place, and for nearly two hours, Zaun talked about his life, his regrets, his future plans, his love for his family and boxing. And when pushed a little bit, he talked about the afternoon of Nov. 30, 2017, when he was fired by Sportsnet for “inappropriate behaviour and comments” after it was reported that several women complained to the powers that be at the network.
The precise nature of the allegations was never officially detailed, other than there was no accusation of physical and/or sexual assaults.
Zaun issued an apology, then essentially went underground, though he’s been busy doing podcasts and blogs and conducting youth baseball clinics. And he’s been up almost every morning training as a boxer, fighting for the first time in an actual exhibition match last month at a union hall in Toronto against former CFL player Tristan Black to raise money for a children’s charity.
So, yeah, Zaun seems to be OK for a guy whose life was turned completely upside down.
He has regrets. There’s also some anger and frustration. There are some things Zaun wants to say, but won’t.
He won’t go into detail when asked for his version of what went down while he was working at Sportsnet. (He was host of Blue Jays Central with Jamie Campbell). Zaun agreed to an interview because people ask him all the time how he’s doing, and he figures maybe the time is right.
But one thing he makes clear: He doesn’t expect — or want — sympathy, nor is he agreeing to be interviewed as some kind of exercise in self-defence, though he does want people to know that he believes he’s a good person; flawed, especially in his choice of words sometimes, but essentially a good person, and someone who never meant to cause anyone harm.
And, he said, if he did hurt anyone — and obviously he did — he’s sorry.
“Yeah, (my) world changed all of a sudden. And you know what? It’s not a bad thing,” said Zaun. “I’ve got a wife who I love to pieces and I have a four-year-old daughter who I want to see grow up in a world where she doesn’t have to put up with all that crap.”
And by “crap” he means feeling uncomfortable in a work environment because of her gender.
The 47-year-old former catcher, who retired from pro ball in 2011, said his family has stuck by his side, as have most of his friends. That, he said, has been the one blessing that’s come out of the affair.
“I’m not a choirboy, never have been, never will be,” said Zaun, who landed in hot water previously with some ill-advised observations he posted on Twitter about women in a Toronto bar. (He said that was a misunderstanding).
“But the one thing I can tell you is, I know who I am as a person. I know what happened and I know what didn’t happen, and I can honestly say that this has been a huge, huge learning experience for me. Humbling, for sure. But the one thing is, I know who my friends are, and that’s one of the things that you can’t put a price on.”
Zaun is reluctant to talk about the days immediately following his dismissal. And he doesn’t want to give the impression he’s some kind of victim, although, again, there are things he would like to say in his defence, but believes there’s no point.
He does insist, however, that “never in a million years” would he purposely try to make someone feel uncomfortable (although that’s what he was accused of doing).
“That’s not who I am,” Zaun said. “And people who know me the best, they know that’s the truth.”
For the record, a number of former colleagues expressed a desire to say something on Zaun’s behalf, but for “professional” reasons declined. Zaun said he completely understands that, adding that he dearly misses his former workmates at the network.
“There were three really dark months followed by three notso-dark months. It gets a little easier as I go along,” Zaun told Postmedia.
“I’m a fighter, literally and figuratively. I had to figure out what was next. And it took me a long time to find my stride. I was basically just throwing things against the wall, figuring out what I was going to do. There were days when I wanted to crawl into a dark hole and never come out. But I have a family to support, and I just couldn’t let it be the end of me. I just kind of started focusing on work, trying to figure out what was next.”
What’s next is a project that has Zaun psyched. With the backing of a group of potential investors, Zaun is trying get a state-of-the-art baseball facility built in the Greater Toronto Area. Working with youth ball players in Canada has become a passion for the Glendale, Calif., native, who toiled behind the plate for the Blue Jays from 2004-08.
“We want to do something very special,” he said.
“We want to build some fullsize baseball fields and then bubble it during the winter time and run all of our indoor training out of there. My goal in the nottoo-distant future is to take over some (Canadian Premier Baseball League) teams and run the elite program. Hopefully, we can find a team that will let us take over, and then I’ll coach all the coaches. That way, these kids will finally get what they’re paying for: professional-level coaching.
“My vision is to have this bubble rocking and rolling 24 hours a day. And I’m not just talking about Toronto. I’m talking Gregg Zaun baseball academy franchises nationwide.”
The 1997 World Series champion (with the Florida Marlins) has already conducted a number of clinics with youth players around the GTA. He said he feels blessed that so many parents, kids and youth baseball officials have given him the benefit of the doubt and welcomed him into the fold. Zaun said he has loved every second spent teaching kids the fundamentals of baseball.
“It’s funny,” he said with a laugh. “I bet you if you polled some of the Jays players and asked them if they thought Gregg Zaun would be a positive energy type of coach, they’d probably (scoff ) and say, ‘No chance.’ But if you see the way I teach, it’s all that. I keep it very positive with the kids.”
Working with kids, boxing, family and friends: they have all given Zaun a reason to get up in the morning.
“It’s provided me with something to look forward to,” he said. “I couldn’t just sit around and drink myself to death feeling sorry for myself.”