Blue Jays skipper true baseball survivor
DUNEDIN— Paul Beeston made it a habit during homestands late last season, knowing his time as Blue Jays president was slipping away, to come downstairs and hang out in his manager’s office for a while, shoot the breeze.
One time, he said to John Gibbons: “I don’t know how this happened but you’re the only one around here who’s got a contract for next year.”
Gibbons recalls his response: “You were the idiot who agreed to that deal. Your idea, not mine.”
They both laughed. But there was poignancy to the conversation and doubtless some bewilderment.
Improbably, in utter unlikelihood, Gibbons is the last man standing of the triumvirate which orchestrated Toronto’s giddy joyride to the American League Championship Series. Beeston, first Blue Jay hire back in the fledgling days, stubbed out his stogie and retired, treated disgracefully by ownership in the parting of ways. GM Alex Anthopoulos, “reluctantly and regrettably” resigned, anticipating a loss of managerial autonomy under Mark Shapiro.
That leaves Gibbons, isolated and somewhat abandoned.
“The guys who brought you here, the guys you were close to, are gone. And I survived. What is it that they say about war — survivor guilt? Not that you can compare this to that. But these guys brought me back. I’m still here and they’re not. You feel a little guilty.”
We’re in his office behind the spring training clubhouse.
“That does bother you a bit. But you don’t walk away from good well-paying major league jobs.’’ Pause. “Well, Alex did.”
A.A. is an anomaly. J.G. is left holding the bag, admittedly with all its gaudy contents. The off-season was rife with speculation Gibbons would not be Shapiro’s skipper when camp rolled ’round, though Beeston’s successor has been nothing but laudatory; professed zero intention, at his initial press conference, of looking for a replacement, which would have been natural — new guy wants his guy.
Still, there’s former Cleveland manager Eric Wedge in the wings, recruited by his ex-boss Shapiro as player development advisor, just enough of an amorphous title to keep the rumour vane spinning as in-house insurance should the Jays falter out of the gate.
“The wedge between us, you mean?” Gibbons grins.
“I understand how the game works. That’s baseball. In reality, when you get new guys in to run the show, the top guys should be able to have the guys in place they want, to make it work for them because they were brought in to do something. I’ve seen that many times.”
He’s not the Gibbons of first time ’round managing the Jays, however. Less anxious, more confident, if maybe just as philosophical about life and baseball. So he won’t be looking over his shoulder.
This past week it was revealed that the roll-over codicil in Gibbons’ contract — it has kicked in every Jan. 1, providing for an additional year option — has been ditched in exchange for what he describes as a “small salary bump.”
The adjustment had been discussed last season between Gibbons and Anthopoulos. “He said, ‘we’ll get rid of that.’ I don’t know if Alex had anything more in store than what it is now. But that happened and it’s fine. I look at it this way: It gives me a little leverage if things are good. If not, it gives them flexibility too.”
Not that flexibility is ever germane for a firing. And certainly not that I’m making any prognostications about Gibbons’ ultimate fate (He’s under contract through 2017.) Except, in sports, just about everybody gets fired eventually. Just like for athletes: What have you done for me lately? Lately — leading the team to the post-season for the first time in 22 years — can turn into a long time ago if the Jays stop winning.
Gibbons harkens back to how the axe fell last time, wielded by thenGM J.P. Ricciardi.
“To be honest, I didn’t see it coming. We were struggling. Things were snowballing, I was conscious of that. I remember we were on a plane to Pittsburgh, I had my two boys with me — they were young then. My wife and daughter were driving down to meet us there. I get to the hotel and there’s a message from J.P. ‘I’m coming into town, I’ve got to meet with you.’
“Well, that doesn’t normally happen. So that’s when I knew.”
At that meeting, along with Ricciardi, were Anthopoulos and Tony LaCava, now vice-president of baseball operations. “I understood,” says Gibbons. “I felt more disappointed that they’d given me this opportunity and it didn’t work out the way we all wanted.
“It does hit you between the eyes. But it wasn’t a life-changer.”
Thereafter, he spent three years as a bench coach with the Royals, then gladly took a job managing Double-A in hometown San Antonio. “I loved it. I hadn’t been home for 30 years. I’d get up in the morning, sometime mow my lawn, hop in the pool, go to the park, come home and sleep in my own bed.”
The travel was minor-league but “not miserable.” Gibbons’ mother owned a condo in Corpus Christi, where he stayed when his squad came through town.
“Fish in the morning, go to the park at night. It was really nice.”
But Gibbons had kept in touch with Anthopoulos and, come the day, was surprised to be invited by as manager when all he’d been expecting was making a gig on the coaching staff. “He dropped it on me. Couldn’t turn it down, right? I was a little apprehensive, to be honest. I wasn’t always a very popular guy in Toronto. I thought Alex was going to take a lot of heat for doing it. And I didn’t think Beeston would even sign off on it but he did.”
The first time he was often overwhelmed, could get tetchy, felt slights. “Dealing with the scrutiny, it’s always more than you expect. But from the baseball end of it, I always thought I was a pretty good baseball guy, had good instincts about the game and how you do things.’’
This time, frankly it would be difficult to find a more relaxed laidback manager in baseball, comfortable in his own skin.
And there’s this: With 555 career wins, Gibbons ranks 117th lifetime among managers. Another 105 would move him into the top-100 all-time, and who would have predicted that?
“That’s pretty cool,” he says, when made aware of the numbers.
Jays were 93-69 last season, finishing first in the AL East. Last AL team to win 100-plus games were the Yankees, with 103 in 2009.
The odds of Gibbons reaching top 100 this season are minuscule — but perhaps no more implausible than twice being name Jays manager. “You never know,” he smiles. “I’ll have to hang around a little bit more.”