For Montoyo, it’s about the bright side
This was never Charlie Montoyo’s dream job. That one he gave up on years ago when big-league baseball gave up on him.
He desperately wanted to be a major league player and he was that, the record shows, for all of 22 days in September of 1993. He got on the field for the Montreal Expos for four games and five at bats. His career batting average — and you can look this up, if you don’t believe it — is a remarkable .400. His career OPS: 1.000.
And then it was over. Just like that.
Three more seasons of minor league baseball. And a lifetime since of managing and coaching in the minors, coaching with Tampa Bay, now a rookie coming to the end of his first season as a big league manager with the Blue Jays. This is an amazing job, he’ll tell you, in an amazing city, and with a tremendous opportunity.
But it was never his dream. Montoyo never sat home and wondered when the phone would ring. Never thought much about big league clubs hiring him. He was more consumed, as he needed to be with his family and with the health of his son Alex and making sure, in his words, “that I had insurance.”
When you’ve lived Montoya’s life, and have gone through surgery after surgery with his son and physical difficulty after physical difficulty, a baseball loss, well, another nine innings, that’s just another day. You care because it matters and because it’s your job but you’re not consumed the way sport can consume those, especially those who don’t win a lot.
You know what mattered to Charlie Montoyo this baseball season? Not losing 100 games, not being a baseball doormat competing in September when the schedule indicated there wouldn’t be much reason to compete.
“When I saw the schedule, I went ‘Oh my God.’ It’s going to be pretty tough at the end, going to be a big test. It’s great to see how we’ve competed (against the best teams in baseball) ... We went 8-11 against the Yankees. We’re coming, these kids are close.”
Montoyo will turn 54 years old partway through the baseball playoffs. His buddy, Brian Snitker, will turn 64. They were born on the same day, saw each other over the years slugging it out in the minor leagues, never figuring anyone would notice them. Snitker wound up as manager of the Atlanta Braves, almost by accident. Montoyo wound up as manager of the Blue Jays when choices like David Bell and Rocco Baldelli went elsewhere.
Snitker has managed two big league seasons, has finished first twice in Atlanta. When he clinched the National League East the other day, Montoyo and Snitker talked on the phone, caught up with each other. A long conversation.
There’s a small fraternity of baseball lifers as big league managers, especially in today’s world of fancy stats. The old schoolers aren’t anybody’s choice anymore. Same with Mike Shildt in St. Louis. He’s going to the playoffs too after kicking around for years in places like Johnson City and Springfield and Memphis. He and Montoyo are tight the way Montoyo and Shildt are tight. His friends are going to the playoffs. He’s heading home to Arizona watch the playoffs on TV.
He didn’t get the team Snitker got to manage in Atlanta. Montoyo didn’t get the team Shildt got in St. Louis. He was given a bunch of kids and bunch of nobody pitchers when the names were traded away and somehow through all of it, Montoyo has stayed true to himself. Growing every day. Fighting to stay positive.
“It’s not easy when you lose a lot to stay positive,” he said. “From my experience on the field, I know it can be worse.”
But he’s proud of the job he’s done, proud of what his coaches have accomplished in this scrambly season.
“The culture we’re setting here is beautiful to watch,” said Montoyo. “They keep playing hard, keep pulling for each other. I wish there was a camera in here all the time so you could hear what (the players) say and how they pull for each other. It’s been great.”
It’s a small thing, not losing 100 games with a team that probably should have lost 100 games. It’s a number in a game that’s all about numbers, like hitting .299 isn’t hitting .300. That matters to baseball people. It matters to his son, Alex. Montoyo probably never has to think about losing 100 again. It’s been one step at a time in his first year as a big league manager.
“I didn’t wait my whole life for a job like this one,” said Montoyo. “The moment my kid was like that, that was my job in life, we had to have insurance for my kid. To tell you the truth, then this (job) came up and I’m going to take it. It wasn’t my dream. As a player, that was to get to the big leagues.
“Being with the Rays for a long time, I was loyal and good, being there. Then this came up. It’s a great job, Toronto’s beautiful. This is one of the best jobs in baseball. I’m very lucky to have it…I’m grateful for everything I’ve got.”