MOSEBY HELPED TRANSFORM JAYS’ LOSING CULTURE
When outfielder got to Toronto, team was the laughingstock of American League
Laughing about it now, Lloyd Moseby admits he was “bewildered” when he was picked by the Toronto Blue Jays second overall in the 1978 MLB draft.
Moseby was a kid raised on the mean streets of Oakland, Calif., who grew up idolizing his favourite Athletics players. Canada was Nowhere Land.
“The Oakland A’s had Reggie Jackson, Blue Moon Odom, all these great guys. You could go on and on. That was my dream,” said Moseby via conference call Thursday. “That’s what I grew up dreaming about. So when I got drafted by the Blue Jays, it’s not that I was disappointed, but certainly bewildered.
“But quickly that changed when I went to Medicine Hat, Alta. and met one of the owners, Bill Yuill, who embraced me, and from that point on, I’ve been a Canadian, really,” Moseby said. “I’ve just loved it. I’ve loved Toronto, I’ve loved all the places I’ve had stops in (Canada). I coached in St. Catharines. It’s been an absolute blessing. But at the time, Oh my goodness, it was kind of funny. Yes.”
Known as The Shaker during his playing days, Moseby laughed some more, remembering his first pro season when he went off to play with the old Medicine Hat Blue Jays. He said Yuill picked him up in a helicopter in Calgary.
“I’m staying at the Assiniboia Inn and I look out my window, I hear some noise. There are people with cows and horses going down the street. I’m thinking, ‘ What the hell?’ That was a culture shock without a doubt.
“John McLaren, who was my manager and today is one of my greatest friends in the world, had to settle me down. I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t understand,” Moseby said with a laugh. “John still kids me about that because it was shocking to look out my window and see cows and horses going down (the) street.”
Now, 40 years after being drafted by the Jays, Moseby joins former Montreal Expos superstar Pedro Martinez and Canada’s foremost baseball historian, Bill Humber, in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. Martinez was the Expos’ only Cy Young Award winner while Moseby was the first Toronto outfielder to win a Silver Slugger Award.
Going to Montreal was a culture shock for the Dominican-born Martinez, who was signed as a free agent by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1988. But he knew some Dominican players in La Belle Province when he was traded to the Expos in 1993.
Moseby was a teenager when he was shipped to Canada. When he made it to the big leagues in 1980, the Jays were still trying to find their wings. They finished 67-95 in Moseby’s rookie year with Bobby Mattick at the helm.
“When I got to Toronto, we were awful, there’s just no other way to say it,” said Moseby, who played 10 seasons for the Jays, and was named an American League AllStar in 1986. “We had a lot of Rule 5 guys looking for direction. Fortunately for us, we had a great fan base. But what really stands out was the fight that we had. We had the young guys on the way, we had (Jesse) Barfield in the mix in the minor leagues, we had George Bell, so the seed of growth for me was unbelievable.”
Nevertheless, Moseby figured
The Oakland A’s had Reggie Jackson, Blue Moon Odom, all these great guys. … That was my dream.
it would be a long time before the Jays became respectable. Yet by 1983 they were a winning club, and they captured their first AL East title in 1985.
“There were a lot of great moments before ’85,” he said. “Bobby Cox came over (in 1982) and really changed the whole culture. I saw us go from the laughingstock of the American League to teams that didn’t want to come in and play us. We started believing we were somebodies and not nobodies. We felt that the umpires and a lot people didn’t want us to win, so we had that chip on our shoulders we carried with us.”
Teaming with Barfield and George Bell in what was considered the best outfield in the majors, Moseby possessed a potent combination of power and speed. He posted back-to-back 20-home run, 30-stolen bases seasons in 1986 and 1987. Bell is also in the Canadian Hall of Fame and Moseby can hardly wait for the day when Barfield gets the call.
Moseby said the Jays almost released Barfield early in his career because he couldn’t hit the slider and even contemplated making him a pitcher. He said former Blue Jay Greg “Boomer” Wells (no relation to David “Boomer” Wells) helped Barfield learn how to hit the slider and the Jays changed their mind about making him a thrower.
“I think he will definitely be in (the Hall) one day because he was a tremendous player, he had the Ellis Valentine arm and Ellis was incredible,” Moseby said.