Granderson may go, but his influence won’t
It was expected that Curtis Granderson, in a season that did not turn out the way Blue Jays management hoped, would have relocated to a contending team by now, his tenure in Toronto over before his first season was up. The team is in sell mode and the 37-year-old Granderson is a versatile bench piece with the ability to hit right-handers. But no, here he remains with a team that on many nights looks disinterested and on some nights already defeated.
The classy outfielder has a future in baseball in whatever role he wants, with the players’ association, with Major League Baseball, in broadcasting or in a team’s front office. He says the Jays have not given up. The players he sees every day still care.
“I learned a long time ago, you’re never going to make everyone happy,” Granderson said. “I’ve been on teams that are in first place by a lot of games, lose a series and they want everybody fired and traded. So no matter where you happen to be, people are going to be upset if you don’t win every game.
“Regardless, we’re professionals. We prepare all off-season long for the opportunity to come out and be our best in as many of the 162 games as possible, barring injuries, barring off-days, etc. But in terms of mentally taking days off, out- side of the physical demands and just your life off the field, which could affect some of that stuff, you still come in ready to play. You get your stuff ready to roll and go out there so you can perform your best.”
As for Granderson’s thoughts on beleaguered manager John Gibbons, he had some interesting observations. The deep-thinking Chicago native has played for six different major-league managers in his 15-year career. Gibbons, he said, is one that trusts the players to be professional and be prepared.
“(His approach is) ‘You guys go out there and play. I’m going to steer the ship. If things get a little off-course, I’ll bring you guys back in. I don’t need to yell at you guys. I don’t need to control you guys. Focus on right now and we’ve got to go out there and play.’ The idea of folding it up and going in, that’s not the case. He wants to make sure that we continue to do all those different things.”
As a successful African-American baseball player, Granderson is well aware of the dwindling percentage of Black players in the majors. It is a concern. With Mookie Betts a front-runner for the American League MVP award and with the Red Sox just leaving town, he was presented with the fact that, in the past 13 seasons, only four African-Americans have won league MVPs, while in the previous 13 years (19922004) there had been 11. He is a glass half-full guy.
“It’s especially interesting when you look at the percent- age of African-Americans and that many guys are winning (MVP),” he said.
“The guys that tend to be there are typically top prospects, are typically top players in the game. There’s a lot of guys that are all-star type players, or potentially all-star guys, so the talent is available and it’s there. It’s just that the numbers are low.”
In his short time at spring training, Granderson had a positive effect on many of the Jays’ African-American prospects, a list that included Anthony Alford, Dwight Smith Jr., Jonathan Davis and Roemon Fields. He and Alford have had preliminary discussions on running some baseball camps together next winter in Alford’s home state of Mississippi.
Granderson does not believe it is an impossible task to encourage and increase the participation of young Black athletes in baseball.
But he believes MLB has not done enough to promote that fact. He thought MLB had a chance to encourage young players in the African-American community with the Upton brothers, B.J. and Justin, both outfielders, who went second and first overall in the June drafts of 2002 and 2005. They became teammates in Atlanta in 2013-14. It was an ad campaign waiting to happen in a city with a large minority population.
“I mean you have two broth- ers, both top picks, both end up playing with the Braves in a very diverse city,” Granderson said. “This was a marketing dream and it never was pushed out there.
“So we hear conversations about the numbers are down, the numbers are down, but then when opportunities present themselves like these two draft picks, like B.J. and Justin … I mean there should have been commercials all over the place, at least in the Atlanta market. When I played there against them — and I didn’t have the TV on every day, so I can’t say I saw everything — I didn’t see any (promotion).”
Even though Granderson will not be here when the Jays’ ship turns around and sails into contending waters, he recalls some of his own dark days with the Tigers.
In his call-up year in 2004, Detroit won just 72 games. They won 71 the following year before quickly turning things around and earning a spot in the 2006 World Series.
“You go back and look at the last couple of World Series. You got the Astros last year. The previous year you got Cubs and Indians. The (Giants) have been the most consistent of the past 10 years. Outside of that, the other 29 teams have had opportunities to get themselves into the mix. Get out the gate hot and play hot at the end. Those are the two things.”
Even if Granderson is gone by the end of August, or at the end of the Jays’ season, he has had a positive impact on the organization in that short time.