First and Second

Cito Gaston has them playing good ball out of the gate. After thirty-four games, the Toronto Blue Jay record is 22-12, best in the AL. This mark is deserving as much as anything can be for league manager. Cito has earned his mark.

I remember '92 and '93 when the Jays took the stage during baseball's Fall Classic. They were one of my teams when I was little and followed the game. It had nothing to do with winning. Toronto was an expansion team in 1977, and in the late 70s, they were bad, very bad, cellar dwelling in the AL East. Still, there is something about blue jays, the birds. There is something about that shade of blue like the color of sky. There was something to me being young and seeing those jays on a baseball cap.

So when Toronto won their first series in 1992, I followed it a little. I can't say for sure against whom they played. I figure that it was Atlanta, since the 90s was the Braves' decade even if they only won one title. The Jays backed the championship with another in '93. I remember the Phillies' Mitch Williams and Joe Carter, the RBI man in the middle of Toronto's lineup. I remember Carter launching one for a dramatic walk-off homerun.

Cito managed those winning teams, though the team floundered quickly after the championships and he was fired. The label was that Gaston was too much of a players' coach--too soft, too easy, too disinterested. Yes, he was and is a players' coach. He lets players go out and win a championship and two titles is as many as a more reputable coach like Tony La Russo has ever won. That's also one more than Lou Pinella or Bobby Cox, but that didn't stop gneral managers from overlooking Gaston for a long time.

Yet he returned to baseball as a hitting instructor, and when Toronto offered him a chance to manage again last year, he took it. He had the desire to see the players hit the field and play. He knows the game. When asked about the Blue Jays' early success, Cito replied "They’re winning because of their talent, not their manager."

Indeed.