Family strife prepares Farrell
As son goes from patient to pitcher, Jays boss inspired by tests of fatherhood
The Star sat down with Blue Jays manager John Farrell in his office at spring training in Dunedin.
After a rookie managerial season of highs and lows on the field, John and his wife Sue spent last October and November in Boston as their 20-year-old son Luke underwent successful radiation treatment at a clinic to reduce a nonmalignant tumour at the base of his skull.
It was Luke’s second time in treatment the past two years. The family returned home after Thanksgiving down south and Luke returned to school at Northwestern University in Chicago in December. He is now taking his regular turn on the mound as a left-handed pitcher.
The Farrells’ eldest son, Jeremy, is a minor-league third baseman with the Pirates, while a third son, Shane, was drafted by the Jays last June, but has been forced by injury to give up his aspirations as a pro.
After a difficult winter, John Farrell is back for his second season with his second family. Richard Griffin: You may not be aware, but you are now the longestserving head coach or manager of any team in Toronto major pro sports. It’s hard to believe. In addition, there are only 15 major league managers with a longer tenure than you. What does that tell you about your profession? John Farrell: A lot of turnover? That there has to be an alignment of understanding of where the organization is, of the stage where the organization is at, whether it’s growing, whether it’s rebuilding, whether it’s expectation is to not only be in contention, but will probably be measured by how deep into the post-season a given team achieves. RG: There’s often a honeymoon period for GMS, managers, coaches. Have you experienced that? Do you feel pressure to win sooner rather than later here? JF: I think any competitor probably has greater expectations of themselves than what others internally may have for you, for the team, and certainly whatever the public perception or expectation might be. I always look at things in somewhat of a five-year cycle, where the first year you come in and you learn what is here. The second year, you begin to make changes that you collectively feel need to be made to continue to make progress. Then years three, four five, you’re continuing to build on it and with that continuity even in this pro sports world, where continuity is a relative term, when you get into that third, fourth, fifth and hopefully longer, so rises the expectation and that’s what you’re eventually judged upon. RG: Has it become harder to be a husband and father, starting in Cleveland in the front office, to pitching coach in Boston, to where you are now? JF: I think the toughest balance that anyone in professional sports has is between home life and a profession. This can be all-consuming and if you let it control you, other areas will suffer. It takes an understanding spouse, an understanding wife that is in it with you. Fortunately, we have a family that has lived in the game long enough that even though the time apart from our sons is a large amount of time, they’re all pursuing their own dream and their own path. But fortunately through technology, we’re able to keep up to date and in contact frequently, whether that’s through phone, email, text, watching their games on video, there’s a way that you can manage the time apart.
RG: You obviously are a very proud father of three sons. Jeremy has been to Dunedin a couple of times with the Pirates. You’ve been able to visit with him in Bradenton. Can you give me a thumbnail sketch on each of your three sons? JF: Jeremy’s very driven, very focused. He might work to the point of diminishing returns and overwork at times. He’s very clear on what his professional goal is, and that’s to become a major-league player. In what role, we’ll see. He will not rest at anything to exhaust all means to try and realize his potential and that is hopefully one day to wear a major-league uniform. Shane? He’s suffered the most physical ailments and has ended his playing career because of some things that are completely out of his control. And I think the thing that you’re aware the most and that you bleed the most for them is when they have an injury. He wants to remain in the game, whether the scouting path or some other role, I think he will be successful within the game, just the way he deals with people. And then Luke, who’s had his own challenges physically. He’s the one that’s probably taught us the most, through his resiliency, through his will to fight and overcome some things that were within his control. Not to rank one or the other, but to see him back on the mound after what he’s been through, that’s probably been the most joy of anything that’s happened to our entire family, to see him come back from that and get back on the mound. RG: Does that two months of adversity in October-november make three sons, a father and mother come closer together? JF: Yeah, and actually through the first procedure they had. When you’re able to just be in a room and hear their conversations that gets exchanged — it went from that brother rivalry and competition to one of true concern and support. I think it’s taught them that even if they might think of themselves as being invincible, things can change on a phone call and they’re in a little bit of a battle. But all three have taken whatever challenges have been thrown at them and they’ve embraced them and they’ve worked their tails off to try to overcome them.
“If you treat them and respect them as men and as individuals, I think you get that in return.” BLUE JAYS MANAGER JOHN FARRELL ON HOW RAISING THREE SONS IS SIMILAR TO MANAGING BASEBALL PLAYERS
RG: At the end of last season in Chicago, you talked about different things that you had learned about yourself in your first year as manager. Some of them philosophical, some of them in terms of dealing with 25 individuals. Did you think about it more over the winter and did you come to spring training with any subtle changes in your philosophy of dealing with 25 different personalities? JF: I would go back to our internal meeting at the opening of spring training. Communicating a vision of what I think we can be and what we should become and more importantly, how we go about it. Every team is going to create its own identity at various times, or it will evolve at some point in time during the year. I would like to think that we could arrive at that identity much sooner and I think that’s by outlining expectations and what’s important to us, things that we value as an organization, the coaching staff and myself and not to be reluctant to trust those, just to put it out there. RG: This clubhouse seems far more confident. Is that something that you have passed on to them or something that you have just observed? JF: I don’t know if I can answer whether I have passed that on. They can answer that, what they feel, perceive, hear and have grown into. We’ve talked and I know talk can be very cheap, I’m the first to acknowledge that. But I think when you see real tangible players that have very good major-league talent that are capable of achieving an awful lot within a framework of being themselves — and that’s the one thing we trumpet is that there’s a defined framework here, but we want them to be themselves. We don’t want them to necessarily totally conform to the point where they’re someone else, because then their abilities won’t come out. There’s a lot of character in this group. RG: There’s no ban on social media, there’s no ban on beer in the clubhouse, there’s no treating these guys like they’re kids. Does being a father help in that regard? JF: Whether it’s three daughters or three sons, I think parenting as we all know teaches us a lot of handling adversity and how we deal with each one of them differently. Some, — even my own kids — some need a pat on the back, some need a kick in the butt. I think there are a lot of similarities there. We are a family at home and this is our family here. We want them to be able to express themselves at home. We want them to express themselves here. If you treat them and respect them as men and as individuals, I think you get that in return.