JAYS MANAGER MAKES GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION
Montoyo didn’t think this day would come, but certainly looks ready to make most of it
You don’t win any games in your introductory news conference, but you can lose something in the game of public perception.
John Farrell lost on the day he was hired to manage the Blue Jays. He didn’t feel right. He was too corporate and too buttoned down.
John Ferguson Jr. didn’t get through his opening news conference without leaving all kinds of doubt behind that he was the wrong man to manage the Toronto Maple Leafs. Even the easiest of questions seemed to baffle Ferguson.
Juan Carlos Montoyo, better known as Charlie, formerly known as Choo Choo, breezed through his first official day as manager of the Blue Jays. He looked and sounded like he was in charge, came off as easygoing, charming and comfortable, funny and experienced, selfdeprecating and emotional, and ready, after all these years, to become a big-league manager.
He wasn’t certain this day would come. Like the legion of those kicking around minor leagues everywhere in every sport, there is hope. There is always hope.
And when Erik Neander, GM of the Tampa Bay Rays, called him last week to tell him that Toronto wanted to interview him, his response was typical of someone who had managed 18 minorleague seasons, at six different levels, without getting a single big-league call.
“Really,” he said. “You don’t want me anymore? What did I do?”
Neander cut him off quickly. “No, they’re really interested. Ross Atkins wants to talk to you.”
Montoyo spoke with Atkins that day. The next day they spoke again and Montoyo spent seven or eight hours on the phone talking to various members of the Jays’ front office. Then he got the call: Why not come to Toronto and meet everybody?
He met everybody. He went to dinner at Bosk in the fancy Shangri-La Hotel. Then he flew home to Tucson, Ariz., and didn’t wait long before hearing he was going to be offered the job.
And he hasn’t stopped smiling since.
He Facetimed with his parents in Puerto Rico. He told them to sit down as he broke the news. His mother cried. His father danced and went and got his Montoyo 25 jersey. Apparently, he hasn’t taken the jersey off yet.
This is the kind of hiring that resonates around baseball. Minor leaguers celebrate when one of their own gets a chance. And you know what made Montoyo so happy: His wife got to fly first class for the first time in her life.
He said that with a huge smile on his face. She flew in first class with Montoyo, picked out the suit he would wear for the news conference, picked out the tie. Nothing was going to be left for chance on introductory day. His first opportunity to make a first impression.
A first-impression opportunity, too, for Atkins, making his first giant decision as general manager of the Jays. Atkins looked the part, too, on Monday, more confident than usual, more comfortable in his own skin, proud of the decision his group made and the man they were bringing in to manage.
This is big for Atkins with the team close to rock bottom, with fans wondering about the future, starting over again. This is something he has to get right. Atkins first took notice of Montoyo when he was farm director of the Cleveland Indians and Montoyo was managing the Durham Bulls in triple-A. He didn’t know Montoyo, just knew his work.
“This guy was doing a very good job,” he said Monday, filing the information away, not knowing if he would ever come across Montoyo.
They didn’t know each other before last week. Now, one is dependent upon the other. The Blue Jays need just about everything: structure, players, speed, talent, defence, you name it. They need a lot more than a manager. But you have to start somewhere, and Monday was somewhere for the Jays.
Among the many congratulatory calls both Atkins and Montoyo received, one seemed different from the rest. Don Zimmer’s widow called Montoyo. Zimmer and Montoyo had worked together in Tampa. She couldn’t be happier he got the job.
“Up in heaven,” she told Montoyo, “he’d be so proud of you.”
There’s a long list of those who are proud: Tom Gamboa, now 70, who managed him in the minor leagues and still uses the same signs from way back then; Tom Foley, the former Montreal infielder who hired him in Tampa; Tony Muser, the former big-league player and manager, now 71. There is a lot of celebration around this hiring. Baseball people, all of them.
It’s funny how things work out. When it became apparent late in the season that the Blue Jays job was open, Montoyo played a practical joke on two of the Rays’ coaches. He put notices on their lockers, indicating the Blue Jays were interested in them. No one put a notice on his locker.
“And I wind up the one getting the job,” he said with a laugh.
Now the waiting and wondering is over. Montoyo has the job he never believed was possible. A proud Puerto Rican manager hired the day after a proud Puerto Rican, Alex Cora, led the Boston Red Sox to a World Series title.
It means a lot to him, coming from a small town, coming from a poor country to a place and a team in which great Puerto Ricans Robbie Alomar and Carlos Delgado once starred.
Now it’s his team, his time. His chance to be a baseball somebody.