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Vizquel the manager?
By BOB ELLIOTT, QMI Agency


Omar Vizquel (R) says he'd like to manage when his playing days are done. (REUTERS)


TORONTO - After the Blue Jays wrap up the season against the Minnesota Twins on Oct. 3, Omar Vizquel will take off his uniform a final time, ending his 24-year playing career.

And then what? Will he coach?

“I’d like to, but I’d also like to manage,” Vizquel said Sunday. “I’m not sure whether anyone would give me a team. I’d like to make decisions, run my own team.”

Over the years Vizquel played for managers with different styles ... from Lou Piniella (“I don’t have that personality”) with the Seattle Mariners, to Mike Hargrove with the Cleveland Indians, to John Farrell with the Jays (“you have to be alert, he’ll flash a sign when you least expect it to do the unexpected”).

Aside from Farrell, the two he learned the most from?

“Felipe Alou of the San Francisco Giants and Ozzie Guillen when I was with the Chicago White Sox,” Vizquel said. “I learned a little something from every manager I had.”

Jose Bautista thinks Vizquel should manage.

“He has a wealth of baseball knowledge,” said Bautista. “He won’t be that far removed from the game, he knows how to keep a clubhouse loose and happy. He would make a good manager.

“He shouldn’t coach. He’s a Hall of Famer. If he wants to manage they should let him manage.”




Is the season lost for the Toronto Blue Jays or is there still time to turn things around?
  Plenty of time to get it turned around
  They're quickly running out of time
  It's lost. When do the Argos start?
  It was over before it began


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