Saturday morning, Cito Gaston will hop in his car, drive 20 minutes from his home in Eastlake Woodlands to the Bobby Mattick Complex in Dunedin, and the countdown will begin.
Just another first day of Blue Jays spring training in Florida? Not quite. For Gaston, it is his last first day of spring training.
Gaston has known, ever since he answered that “come on back” phone call from J.P. Ricciardi two years ago in June, that the game, his game, was already in extra innings. At the age of 65, and with 10 years between managerial gigs, he had long since resigned himself to retirement.
He came back to the Blue Jays dugout on his own terms and that’s how he will leave the field when this season is over.
At the chaotic end of last season that wasn’t entirely clear, after a story broke from an online news service prior to the team’s final series in Baltimore that a major player insurrection against Gaston was in the works.
By the end of that weekend, a couple of things were clear. First, while there were some legitimate mild concerns voiced by players such as Vernon Wells, Aaron Hill and Rod Barajas, the sum total fell far short of a revolt and were representative of a need for better communication.
Second, Gaston felt that the flames had been fanned from outside the locker room, perhaps by someone no longer with the organization.
Still, the very whiff of controversy was enough to pique the interest of new general manager Alex Anthopoulos.
Concerned about what might have been a serious schism within the organization, Anthopoulos, as his first order of business after succeeding Ricciardi, conducted an exhaustive fact-finding mission by interviewing the entire team, both players and coaches.
“It was in-depth — many, many hours of interviews — and, as a result, I feel like we’ve been able to address the concerns that everyone had,” Anthopoulos said.
‘Suckered’
“From my perspective it’s in the past. We now have a clear plan and everyone understands what direction we’re going in.”
More than five months later, with a revised coaching staff that may better reflect the communication needs of the players, and a team philosophy that is dedicated to an organizational rebuilding program from the ground up, Gaston still believes he can be effective in setting the course for the first year of that plan on the field.
“I think it has blown over,” Gaston said. “I think some of our guys got suckered into it. Players are going to stick up for each other. There may have been some individual dissatisfaction but I don’t think that reflected the feeling of the whole team.
“When Gillick and Beeston were here before, the one thing I remember is if we had some bad people around, we got rid of them, didn’t keep them around. I think maybe that if there were some people here who were troublemakers, that they’re not here anymore.
“I expect that will help us get back to an attitude of ‘Let’s go out and play ball and not try to run the team ourselves.’ ”
Among the departed and those who may have had issues were the veteran trio of Barajas, Scott Rolen and B.J. Ryan.
With his two-year contract expiring at the end of this season, Gaston and the Jays agreed on a five-year advisor’s role after his term is done in October.
This spring and this entire season presents a rather unusual scenario for a baseball lifer but he is hardly alone.
See, there are undoubtedly a handful of other big-league managers working their final training camps this spring.
“When people ask me about knowing this is my last year this is the way I look at it: I’m excited about the direction we’re taking,” Gaston said.
“We’re laying the groundwork for the next few years. We’ve hired a lot more scouts. We’re going to build our farm system by every means available.
“Sometimes, most times, the moves we make are not going to have an immediate impact but it’s all part of building to the point where we have the chance to compete on an even footing.
“I’ve been a part of this organization for a long time and I’ll still be a part of it for the next five years and I think it’s going to be an exciting time.”
Gaston, now working for a general manager half his age, finds the new regime refreshing.
‘Never stops’
“Alex never stops working,” he said. “I get calls from him every day but Sunday. He called me from his honeymoon. His mind never stops. He never stops thinking about how to make us better.”
From Gaston’s point of view, player dissatisfaction has been overstated but he is willing to listen to anyone with a legitimate complaint.
“My door is always open,” he said. “Once again I will tell that to these guys in spring training. If there’s something you don’t like that’s going on, come in and tell me. I’ll listen.
“You can never make everybody happy. You’re not going to get everybody to like you. Do you think everybody in their clubhouses likes (Tony) La Russa? Or (Lou) Piniella?”
It promises to be a wide open camp and Gaston is prepared for any kind of a result.
Maybe even the occasional win.
ken.fidlin@sunmedia.ca
