Blue Jays manager John Gibbons Unplugged: Griffin

The recently re-hired Blue Jays' manager, John Gibbons, sometimes misunderstood but never misleading, had just returned to his family home in south Texas after fulfilling key off-season obligations to his new/old employer. It was a bright and sunny mid-January mid-morning in San Antonio, following the bone-chilling experience of a winter weekend in Edmonton on the Jays' winter tour.

The Star had flown in from Toronto the night before to meet with the 50-year-old former MLB catcher, the unexpectedly-reprised Jays' skipper, to find out what may have changed for him in the past four-plus years since he was fired mid-season in 2008, what had remained the same, since that mixed-bag experience as manager the first time around.

Following a walking tour of the downtown, remembering the Alamo and the Riverwalk, we stopped in for lunch at a place called The Esquire Tavern, billing itself as the oldest drinking establishment in San Antonio, with the longest solid wood bar in town. It was dark, quiet, the beer was cold. They had me at "Hello."

San Antonio is also home to former Jays' skipper Cito Gaston, former Jays' DH Cliff Johnson, late Jays' super-scout Al LaMacchia, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, former Mets catcher Jerry Grote, actor Tommy Lee Jones, four active U.S. military bases and the NBA powerhouse Spurs. It seems a perfect match for Gibbons, low-key, friendly and seemingly underappreciated.

Following is the totality of that Gibbons unplugged interview, offering a relaxed, reflective, realistic look at his life and career.The headings here are merely for purposes of navigation, although the full read is well worth it. 

1-GIBBONS FAMILY SAN ANTONIO CONNECTION

2-SURPRISE FIRST-ROUND DRAFT PICK BY THE METS

3-DISAPPOINTING PLAYING CAREER LEADS TO CAREER IN COACHING

4- “NOT MY JOHN GIBBONS”: DAVEY JOHNSON

5-FAMOUS CONFLICTS WITH JAYS PLAYERS

6-FIRED FOR THE FIRST TIME; STAYS BUSY BETWEEN JAYS STINTS

7-QUE SERA SERA CAREER -- BLOND AMBITION

8-DEVELOPING KEY RELATIONSHIPS FOR THE FUTURE WITH METS

9-GIBBY'S DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIP WITH ALEX

10-HANDLING A DIVERSE BLUE JAYS CLUBHOUSE

11-COULD HAVE BEEN A LONGHORN WITH CLEMENS 

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1-GIBBONS FAMILY SAN ANTONIO CONNECTION

RICHARD GRIFFIN: You're from a military family. Is that the reason your birthplace is in Great Falls (MT)? There's a major NORAD military base there. I flew in when Tim Johnson was named Jays' manager in '97. And there are military bases in San Antonio too. Is that why your dad (Bill Gibbons, a Boston native) moved here?

JOHN GIBBONS: My sister and I were born in Great Falls. My father was stationed out there for two years, 1962. We bounced around when we were really young. Then he got stationed here in San Antonio when I was in the fourth grade. I've been here ever since. He had an assignment that was 13 years, which is unheard of in the military. I ended up spending my whole school years here. He finished it up in Bolling Air Force Base in D.C., then retired. San Antonio is one of the bigger military towns.

RG: What was his top rank?

JG: He retired a full-bird colonel. Thirty years.

RG: You said your mom's still here. Did your parents move back here after he retired, or did they always make San Antonio home?

JG: When they finished up in D.C. he came back here and retired here. You get everything you need with the (military) bases here.

RG: And by then you had already been drafted (by the Mets) and moved ahead with your career.

JG: Yeah, by then I was out playing ball and would come back in the winter.

RG: Did you ever think of moving the family anywhere else or is it that you just loved this area?

JG: This is home. I've been here for so long. My wife (Julie MacFarlane) grew up in El Paso, Texas. She went to high school right outside here, so it's kind of a natural fit for us. It's a good town. We've enjoyed it.

RG: What about your kids?

JG: My daughter's my oldest one. She's 20. There's Jordan. Middle son, Troy, 18. And then Kyle, my little one, 13.

RG: The relationship with your dad, when he was sick, it seemed that – and I know father-son relationships are close – but it seemed to affect you tremendously at the time.

JG: In 2006 he found out that he was sick. Everybody goes through it. It's part of life. You get older, everybody's touched by it. Just being away. You know, the end's coming and you're not there. That adds...that takes it's toll on you. You don't know if you're going to see him again. I was able that one year to sneak home for a couple of days (during the season). The team went to Kansas City and (GM J.P.) Ricciardi told me, 'Go ahead, take a couple of days,' so I met the team back in Kansas City. He hung on 'til I got home then he died in January, 2007.

RG: Your mom has come to grips with it and she's doing fine now?

JG: Yeah, she's fine. She's a very independent woman. Life goes on. It gets us all sooner or later. One thing is nobody gets out alive. She's always been into horses her whole life and so that's kind of her thing. She's still riding, actually, at 74.

 

2-SURPRISE FIRST-ROUND DRAFT PICK BY THE METS

 

RG: That 1980 draft the Mets had three choices in the first and four among the first 35...

JG: The Mets hit it (in the draft) the year following (laughs). They had some pretty good drafts. (Darryl) Strawberry (first overall) turned out to be a pretty good player. He may have had other issues. Billy Beane (No. 23 overall), he struggled like I did and turned it into something else (as GM of the A's).

RG: That first minor-league spring training (in '81) with the Mets...was J.P. at that training camp, or was he signed after that?

JG: No, J.P. would have been there because I played with him in '81 in Shelby, North Carolina.

RG: So it would have been you and Billy and Straw and all those young guys in that signing class. What was your thought about your future being a hotshot draft pick and all that, at that point?

JG: You're on top of the world. You think you're guaranteed to be a major-leaguer, but that's not the reality. I've always been a humble individual I think, for the most part. I never really got carried away with myself. But you could see it.

Coming out of high school, I was pretty good. I got drafted high. But you look at a guy like Strawberry, I mean there's something different about it. Everything's easy. Myself, I had to work for things. Even Beane. He was a very talented kid, but mentally it just got away from him. You think the sky's the limit. You don't think it's going to be easy, but here it is, a dream come true, now do something with it.

I actually moved up through the system on a good pace. Then in 1984, going into spring training (the Mets) threw the catching job up for grabs. I came into camp, there was myself, Ron Hodges, Mike Fitzgerald, Ronn Reynolds and Junior Ortiz. Those were the five guys that were there.

I had had a good year in Double-A in '83. Davey Johnson was the (Mets) new manager and he'd seen me play. He liked what I did, apparently. I had a good spring training, they gave me the job and then two days before we broke camp, I took an elbow in the cheek on a play at the plate. Joe Lefebvre was with the Phillies at the time. It was kind of a cheap shot. There was a throw coming up the line. He was trying to score from third. The ball was kind of drifting into him. He threw an elbow at me and cracked the cheekbone. So I started the year on the DL, a couple of weeks, maybe.

But when I started playing again I wasn't hitting anything. I think I was 0-for-15 (actually 0-for-12) and then we played you guys (the Expos) at Shea Stadium (on April 17, 1984), the Mets home opener. (Gary) Carter hit a grand slam (off Ron Darling). It was Bryn Smith or Charlie Lea, whoever started (it was Smith), I got my first hit. They say that after the first one they come in bunches. Well, that wasn't the case (laughs). It was kind of downhill from there. Then I injured my elbow, partially torn ligament. That winter they traded for Carter, sending Hubie (Brooks) and those guys. That was kind of it. Floyd (Youmans) had as good an arm as any of them. He had as good an arm as Gooden did. The (Mets) drafted some boneheads...talented though (laughs). Herm (Winningham) had a nice career.

RG: What was your initial reaction when they traded for Carter? Could you see writing on the wall?

JG: I thought, you know, I'm done here. I can remember Steve Schreyver was the farm director at the time, he called me after the trade and said, 'Listen, don't let this influence you.' (laughs). I said OK. This guy's the best catcher in the game. He's still a young man. I knew then that my chances of playing here...there might be a shot at a backup job. So I went to the next couple of spring trainings and there was really no shot at backing up.

They wanted me playing every day. In '84 I was 21, so I was still a young guy. They wanted me playing. Then the game started getting tougher on me. Finally, Ed Hearn and Barry Lyons. (The Mets) went through a few backups that did a pretty good job for them. Well I got called up a couple of Septembers. That was it.

I was there in '86, I got called up in August. Carter was playing first base and dove and dislocated his thumb. I got called up from Triple-A and Ed Hearn and I were the catchers. I was there two months and stayed with them through the playoffs catching in the bullpen. I wasn't on the active roster.

The following year, I got called up just in September, in '87. I couldn't sniff an inning. Not even a blowout backup game. Throw me a bone, catch me an inning. I think we were in St. Louis end of the season, I thought this is it. I've gotta go somewhere else. I've gotta figure out whether I've got a career or not. So I told the GM, Frank Cashen, that it's time.

They brought me to camp in '88 with the Mets and eventually at the end of the spring they traded me for (infielder) Craig Shipley, to the Dodgers. I went to Triple-A with the Dodgers in Albuquerque and split time with Gil Reyes. That was kind of it, then bounced around a couple of years in Triple-A. Basically what I was doing was hanging on.

RG: So, what was the whole experience like in the '86 World Series? Pretty exciting for a 24-year-old guy, even though you weren't on the active roster, you were part of it.

JG: The first (playoff) series was in Houston and my job was to warm up the pitchers. In Houston (at the Astrodome) you're on the field warming up and that place was rocking. It was such a great, classic series. You want to be part of the action, but in a lot of ways it was intimidating at the time too. We ended up squeaking that out somehow. Then, of course, in the World Series against the Red Sox I can remember in Game 6 just as all hell broke loose (with Bill Buckner's error), Gooden was warming up right after we started to get something going, just in case. I can remember, they had the police with all the horses in the bullpen. Gooden was throwing to me and every time the ball would hit the glove, you'd have the horses getting jumpy (laughs). Oh, hell man, then the miracle happened. That series was sort of the highlight of my career. Didn't get to perform in it, but I played a very, very small part on some pretty good teams.

RG: That was a time in baseball where many of the off the field temptations seemed bigger than ever and grabbed some guys' careers by the throat. Did you sort of have to push those temptations aside. There was all sorts of things going on in the early '80s. (The Star's baseball writer Mark Zwolinski) talks about his couple of years in the Mets farm system being unusual and exciting...

JG: Yeah, I didn't know he was (in the Mets system) until you told me that at the winter meetings.

RG: Yeah, Dr. (Ron) Taylor scouted him for the Mets.

JG: Is that right? I'll be damned. He never mentioned a word about that.

RG: He never does.

JG: Yeah, (as far as the partying) I was a nobody and in a lot of ways I'm a loner. I keep to myself. It wasn't like I had earned anything to be in the middle of that team. I was a part of it, but I wasn't an integral part of it. So, I just kind of kept to myself, did my own thing. Back then, in the olden days, you had to earn your stripes. Nowadays everybody just kind of hits it from Day 1, even if you're not. So I kind of kept to myself. On the outside, you witness a lot of crazy stuff. That was a wild bunch.

 

3-DISAPPOINTING PLAYING CAREER LEADS TO CAREER IN COACHING

 

RG: The experience of not going on to establish the career that people expected obviously doesn't mean that you weren't paying attention, because you did manage in the Mets farm system afterwards and you've managed twice now for the Jays. Did you realize at the time, that you were in fact paying attention to details, to guys like Davey Johnson, maybe for a future role. You have mentioned Johnson as a major influence as a manager. Did you consciously pay attention to detail or was it just something that you absorbed?

JG: I'm one of those guys. As a catcher you've got to pay attention day-to-day. But consciously, I don't think I was sitting there going, I want to manage in the big leagues, I've got to pay attention to what this guy's doing. No, but you can tell who's got it, who doesn't. The thing I got most from Davey is Davey's a very confident guy, I'm sure you know that. The players picked up on that. That helped those guys getting to the task.

He believed in it and that's kind of what rubbed off on me. He's very smart, always on the ball. He let you do your thing. He didn't talk very often directly to a player. He very often came through a coach, especially for the young guys. But there was something about him, this guy's on the ball. That was kind of it. But I don't really remember noticing, saying 'God, that's what I want to be.' I thought I wanted to get into coaching, but it could have been high school, it could have been college, it could have been professional. But, at that time it was sort of open.

RG: But those attributes that Davey has, of never letting your players see you react, never showing your players when you're behind, staying on an even keel when times are tough in a game...

JG: Yeah, that's him.

RG: Communicating with players, not necessarily face-to-face. I mean you're going to have to do a lot of that with the number of Latin players this year to get the proper message across.

That's something you said Davey already did. Being in charge, letting guys play the game, just get out of the way, you've said that's one of your attributes. Are you just putting guys out there letting them play the game? Is it your goal to just not get in the way?

JG: I think so. The biggest mistake people make in this game is they try to control too many things. As a manager you have your job. You have to run the pitching staff, the bullpen and all that. There's got to be some structure there. You call the shifts, but, eventually, guys that are control freaks, it catches up with them. The players are the show. When you bring in the type of players we've got this year, guys that have been successful, there's a reason they're successful. You've got to let them do their thing.

RG: Is it easier to manage that way, let them play, easier when you have a very talented team compared to a very mediocre team? Just observing Cito (Gaston), those '92-'93 teams are relatively like the team you have this year. But then later on, in the mid-to-late-'90s, Cito, the same manager, was given younger teams that didn't already know how to play. He wasn't able to perform the same magic with those groups. Do you agree that with a team that's talented and self-motivated it's easier for the description you've given.

JG: Everybody wants to manage a team they don't have to coach so much. It makes things easier.

RG: Hey skip, stay out da way.

JG: Yeah. It's the old 'push-button' club. I don't mind people saying that, we've got a push-button club. That's great. As long as you're winning.

RG: Was it different the first time (with the Jays), because those weren't push-button clubs.

JG: I wouldn't say that. We had some very talented guys. I don't want to say something was missing, but there just wasn't enough with us to get over the hump. Whatever the expectations were, we went into a couple of years expecting a lot, whether that was legit or not. Sometimes you think you're better than you are.

There were some times we achieved our level. There were times we underachieved too. We hung in there, but to be honest with you, I don't know if there was enough to get over the hump. We had the Yankees and Red Sox, the way they were built. That's not an excuse, taking the easy way out on my part, but that's the way it was.

 

4- “NOT MY JOHN GIBBONS”: DAVEY JOHNSON

 

RG: I don't know if you've ever heard the story. When you got named to replace Carlos Tosca, it was an Olympic year. It was Athens, the end of '04. Davey Johnson was an adviser for Team Netherlands.

JG: Yeah, I remember reading that.

RG: The news came out over there that you had taken over. His reaction was, 'Not my John Gibbons!!??'

JG: (laughs, laughs again) He said that. (laughs again)

RG: Do you find it humourous that Davey would say that spontaneously?

JG: Yeah.

RG: Like you said, you weren't necessarily sitting next to him in the (Mets) dugout...

JG: I rarely got on the field and when I would do anything it would be down there warming up in the pen. And let's face it, you don't get recognized in this business until you've accomplished something. If you're successful as a player, it carries some weight, it buys you some time. If you haven't accomplished anything, you get the shot but then if you don't do anything great, everybody and their brother in the baseball world is going, 'How did this guy get that job?' You know how it is.

So, I mean it doesn't surprise me (with Davey). I had some good people on the way that gave me some opportunities, you know. Let's be realistic. The odds of coming back here a second time, you gotta have a charmed life in some ways. But that is kind of funny.

 

5-FAMOUS CONFLICTS WITH JAYS PLAYERS

 

RG: The other thing that I wanted to know, if you found surprising, was when Brendan Kennedy called Shea Hillenbrand after you got the job, he was totally complimentary and wished you the best and thought you were a great person, a people manager and stuff like that. Does that surprise you?

JG: It shocked me 'cuz I read it, but the point is that Shea and I had a pretty good relationship from the get-go, when he first showed up. I had great respect for him. I knew he had some problems (with the Red Sox) in the past. But with us early on, everything was fine. He was a big part at first. He played very well for us. Then the thing with playing time (in the field at third and first) when we got Troy Glaus and Lyle Overbay. I mean that soured him. But you know there's nothing you can do about it. That's the way it was set up. Those guys were our position players. Things happened and things came to a head. I hadn't run into him since, but to read that it kind of shocked me a little. I didn't know how he was going to react. He didn't have to say it, but it was pretty nice.

RG: You also weren't big on Hillenbrand's 'country-club' comment (at spring training '06) when he said there was too much of a country club atmosphere.

JG: You know, every spring training I've been at, whether it's the Mets or the minor leagues, you get to a certain level, a certain point in the game and – I don't want to say it's a country club, but baseball is a relaxed, get-after-it type game. It's not football where you're beating people down, rah-rah type. Country club? I don't really understand what that means. The manager's not sitting there screaming and yelling, 'Go run a lap, you missed a ball.'

RG: I agree. I remember as late as '72, guys would show up to spring training totally out of shape. They needed spring training for that. These days, they come up and the first day they're throwing 90 miles-an-hour in the pen. So, like, now you have them do their work and then they go home.

JG: You know what I've always believed, too. I tell the players I've been with whether it's managing in the minors or the big leagues, 'Hey, if you've got a beef, got a problem, come see me. Let's hash this thing out. You know you may be right.'

The back-biting and the bullshit, that get's you nowhere. (The player) might be right. Even sometimes as coaches, you get blinded to some things. You're doing the same things over and over. Somebody might have something to say. You know what, we're a little lax, we need to push this, push that. I have no problem with that, but take your shots elsewhere. You come and see me first.

RG: At what point during the (Ted Lilly) pitching change did you decide that you were going to go down the tunnel.

JG: It was kind of just a reaction thing. I got to the mound, Ted wouldn't give me the ball. He was barking. We were barking a little bit back and forth. He gave the ball and then we kind of bumped on the way off. So I was walking off the mound and I just looked into the dugout – there's stairs going up to the clubhouse – and he's just standing there and he was going back and forth like a shooting range with a duck, or something. That's what I remember. I just walked there.

RG: So you saw him as you were coming off the field.

JG: Yeah. It wasn't like pre-meditated on the mound saying, 'I'm going to get that sucker,' you know. It was like I walked down (the tunnel) and he said something to me first and I said something to him. We were grabbing each other and that was that.

 

6-FIRED FOR THE FIRST TIME; STAYS BUSY BETWEEN JAYS STINTS

 

RG: When J.P. decided to replace you with Cito -- and at one point much earlier, J.P. had said when he gave you the extension, if you weren't managing the Jays, there'd be seven or eight teams lining up to hire you -- do you think that reputation as a hothead made it seem, in your mind, that you were going to be a one-and-done kind of manager. Like you talked about earlier, guys that get one chance then gone.

JG: I figured that's not going to help me. When you get fired and you're seen as carrying some baggage now, regardless of how it got there, it's going to be tough.

I've never been one of those guys. I love this profession. I love managing, but I wasn't obsessed that I've got to manage. I'm content. I always believe that if your reputation is good out there and the right thing opens up, somebody will give you a shot.

I'm never one to pursue things to promote myself. I'm not good at that. But, yeah, your first shot, you're nobody, no name, if you get to the post-season that carries a lot of weight. It can carry you for the rest of your career. That didn't happen, so (in your own mind) there may not be another shot. Then I got the bench job (with the Royals) and I was very, very happy with that.

RG: How did the bench job come about? Were you interested in a managing job in the time after you left the Jays? Did you ever apply for anything after you left the Jays?

JG: I was fired in June ('08) and at the beginning of September I started calling different teams. I talked to a couple of GMs directly and then I left some messages. But I basically said, 'You know if you have any openings on the staff, I'd like to throw my name in there. I'm not looking for anybody's job, but if something comes up, what have you.'

Trey Hillman was managing the Royals. His bench coach was Dave Owen. He didn't really have much coaching experience. So they were looking to change it. I knew Trey. It's like DeMarlo Hale. We all managed together coming up through the minor leagues. Fellow Texan, that ain't all bad. He called and said, 'Listen, we're going to put our bench coach over at third base, why don't you come in for an interview.' It was kind of a natural fit. We knew each other. He went through a tough year and he probably wanted somebody that he knew. So, they called and I met with Trey and Dayton Moore at the airport in Austin (TX). We sat down for an hour and that was when he called me and said do you want the job? Knowing him in the past, that's big. That put it over and, I'll tell you, I had a blast doing it (for three years).

RG: Do you think that Royals job kept you in the public eye enough that when Alex was looking again...do you think it was important that you had that major-league bench coach stint?

JG: Yeah. Just being out of the major-leagues for one year is probably pushing the limit. I could go back and I'm managing here in San Antonio for a second year, you know that. But maybe, you might not be able to sell yourself next year, you know what I mean. You've got to be around (the major leagues). If it's the other way you get lost in it.

RG: San Antonio could have been like coming home for good. When Felipe Alou was passed over when the Expos hired Buck Rodgers (in '85), at that point, Felipe said, OK, I'm still in the organization but you're obviously not interested in me as a (major-league) manager, so have me manage in the Florida State League. I live in West Palm. Have me manage West Palm. I'll be at home. When you said at your (Blue Jays) press conference that San Antonio was your dream job, was that in your thinking, that I might as well manage at home if I'm going to do anything.

JG: Yeah. You know, what happened...you know how you drag, you bat things around when you're young, not a whole lot of stability. They won't say it, but they get tired of that too. As you get a little older at this point last year, my middle son's going off to college next year. I'm not going to have much time left with him. When I got cut loose at Kansas City, if this job was open and I heard it was, I thought I'd love to do that, go home for a year, maybe two. I had my 10 years (service time) in, so the pension was set. Things were good. I pursued that.

If that hadn't happened, I had talked to Toronto about a fulltime scouting job. I talked to other teams about scouting, roving type jobs, so I was perfectly content with that. I didn't give much thought that this may be it for me. I better not do this, but I understood that that was possibly the case.

 

7-QUE SERA SERA CAREER -- BLOND AMBITION

 

RG: I'd like to do a small exercise with you. I have a list here of John Gibbons post-playing career jobs that you have had. If you could respond whether you applied for each one or not.

JG: OK. I can do that.

RG: Jays bullpen catcher.

JG: No.

RG: Jays first base coach.

JG: No.

RG: Jays manager – first time.

JG: No.

RG: The contract extension with J.P.

JG: No.

RG: You didn't demand an extension?

JG: No (laughs).

RG: Royals' bench coach.

JG: Yes.

RG: San Antonio manager.

JG: Yes, I had a couple of people call (the Padres).

RG: This time around as Jays manager.

JG: No.

RG: That's pretty good. That's a pretty good record of landing on your feet.

JG: Yeah. You know that (Jays) bullpen catching job. When (J.P.) got the (Jays' GM) job, he was helping make calls for me because I'd walked away from the Mets and the Triple-A team because I wanted to get closer to home with my family. I would have taken an A-ball job, anything.

RG: So you just didn't go back to the Mets (after '01). You didn't want to be there anymore.

JG: Yeah, I'd been with the Mets as Triple-A manager for three years. (Bobby) Valentine was managing at that time. Every year they were going through at least one coach, maybe two. I didn't get one of the jobs and, I mean, that's the way it goes. He wanted one of his people. But usually a Triple-A manager slides in there after a few years. That didn't happen.

So, I applied again that following year after the 2001 season. I think Valentine was looking for a third-base coach. They called and said, we don't need an interview. We interviewed the year before. Then I didn't get it, so I told them, you know what, I'm going to move on. It's time. It's no big deal. (Mets beat writer) Marty Noble called me and wrote an article and (GM) Steve Phillips called me the day after it came out and said 'I think we definitely need to part ways.' I told him, 'Well I told you that' (laughs).

Billy Beane was out in Oakland and he always told me when I was in the Mets system as a coach, to keep in touch. He said if you ever want to come over and are looking for a job, just let me know. So I thought that was my ace in the hole. But around this time (when I quit), I hadn't even checked with him. He told me and I didn't think he was bullshitting me.

They were having some success at the time. I can remember with J.P. (an assistant at the time to Beane with the A's), they were in New York playing the Yankees in the playoffs and I walked up and said, 'Do you guys have anything over there?' And he goes, 'No, we don't' (JG laughs). I thought, well, OK. So J.P. started making some calls around the game for me. Nothing broke.

Let's see, I had two weeks left on my contract with the Mets. I had been living in New Mexico for a couple of years and had just moved back to San Antonio. I had three kids and just bought a new house and had two weeks left on my job. So, yeah, I needed to find something.

One day I called Beane and he told me, 'Hey, I'll call you back. J.P.'s having a press conference (in Toronto).' That's when (Ricciardi) got (the Toronto) job out of the blue. My thought was, you know he's been trying to help me find a job, he should at least have something over here for me. I don't know what it is but I need something. So, he called me back and he said, 'Hey, listen, we've got the third base coaching job here and the bullpen catcher.' I don't even remember if he said bullpen catcher right away. He said, 'I'm bringing in Carlos Tosca up here.' They had a connection from the Yankees. He said come on up and interview. I said alright.

So I went up there and met with him and Buck Martinez. At the end of the interview they say, 'Well we have the bullpen catching job. Do you have any interest there?' I said, 'No I can't do that.' I'm going a little better than that. Right then I realized, well, they've already settled on this (as the best offer). There goes my coaching interview. So I get home and I'm thinking, damn, you know I need a joB. I've got 10 days left. So, I called him back.”

RG: Basically at the time you would have qualified as a minority hire in that you're an idiot for quitting your Mets job before you had another one lined up.

JG: (laughs) Exactly. So I call him back and I say, hey, you know what, the more I think about it, it makes sense. I've spent my whole life as a bullpen catcher and now I'm going to do it again. So, he gave me that job. I go to spring training – I haven't squatted in 10 years – the first day my knee breaks down. So now I'm the only bullpen catcher in the big leagues that can't catch. I remember Greg Myers was there. He was ragging me too. Tom Wilson and those guys.

Honest to God, I'd be down in the bullpen catching, once the season starts and it's, man, we've got 10 guys (warming) up every game. We're getting beat down pretty good. Nobody can get anybody out and my knee's killing me. I'm catching on one knee. I thought, I might not be able to make it to June. I can't do this. Maybe I should get into scouting. I may have to go to J.P. and say something. Then June came around. He ended up firing Buck and putting in Tosca to manage. I took over at first base. That's how it all started. It was a relief physically and professionally.

RG: The good thing is you didn't have to go to one knee too often coaching first base.

JG: Yeah.

 

8-DEVELOPING KEY RELATIONSHIPS FOR THE FUTURE WITH METS

 

RG: When all you guys were coming up as prospects through the Mets organization, there's all sorts of random stories about who was playing with who in the New York-Penn League.

JG: That was Beane and J.P.

RG: Beane and J.P. and then...

JG: 1980

RG: Were you and J.P. on the same team at one point?

JG: In '81, Shelby, North Carolina.

RG: But it wasn't New York-Penn?

JG: No, that was a short-season draft year. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but J.P. eventually ended up with the Yankees. I think that's how he connected with Tosca. But then, I didn't hear from him or see him for years. I was roving (instructor) around '90 with the Mets as a catching guy. I'm in the Boston airport, I'm walking through Logan and I come to the gate and J.P.'s sitting there. He's going down to scout some player in Richmond, Virginia, I'm going to Norfolk. We sat next to each other on the plane, got to talking and I want to say we kept in touch a little bit after that.

But I hadn't seen him in a while and when he became Beane's righthand man we talked a few times. Then he actually came when I was managing the Mets' Triple-A team, he came to town to watch a couple of players. (The A's) were making the trade for (Jason) Isringhausen for Billy Taylor. So he came to watch (outfielder) Terence Long who was on my team. We got together and it was like old times.

 

9-GIBBY'S DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIP WITH ALEX

 

RG: Alex told me when he was an assistant GM that he'd go down...and I even remember him on trips that he went on -- he would hang around the coaches room and this and that. Obviously, he was paying attention too, but are you surprised at how adamant he is at how strong he is in publicly backing you and your player evaluation ability and the (personnel) suggestions you've made that he knows about and how he says they've always been bang-on? Did you realize that talent evaluation was one of your strengths?

JG: You never know. I've always believed that you tell it like you see it. You don't ride the fence and give the easy answers. That mainly stays within the organization stuff that I've mentioned. When he's asking about outside guys, I don't see that as much. It's a crapshoot anyways, but you just do what you can and hope you're right on. You don't stick your neck out for guys unless you believe they can do something. It's easy to (go with the crowd) when everybody else is against something. If you back (a player), he better do it or he may never get another shot. Who knows if you're going to be right. I thought I could evaluate decently, but you're lucky if you're right half the time anyway.

RG: Did you think, in hindsight, after you got the manager's) job in November, that Alex knew something ahead of time. It's kind of unusual for a GM to ask someone to fly up just for an advance scout job or a bench coach job without having a manager in place yet. In hindsight, did you think maybe he had an idea about you as manager?

JG: No, he's so tightlipped nobody knows. What I thought was happening was he committed to a veteran manager, a guy with some experience and I thought, well you know he's not matching up with a guy, whoever he's looking at. It's not working, so he might have to go back to one of the young (candidates), the inexperienced guys. This might be my chance to, you know, I wouldn't have minded, I wouldn't have had any problem being a coach.

RG: A bench coach.

JG: Yeah. You like to be in positions where you can call your own shots and of course the money's good, but I'm not so stuck on myself that you've got to be the guy.

 

10-HANDLING A DIVERSE BLUE JAYS CLUBHOUSE

 

RG: Again, this question comes down to, completely going back to your youth growing up, but it seems that there's not one prejudgmental bone in your body in terms of dealing with a diversity of players, dealing with Latin kids, African-Americans. I mean you grew up in the deep south in the '60s and '70s where that (tolerance) wasn't always the case, societally. Who do you credit for your even-handed vision of race and of handling the people that you are around?

JG: Some of my best friends have always been minorities. There's a big Mexican community down here. We're all the same. We're all equal. We just look different. But you know my mom and dad, I don't remember them saying anything, but they managed to keep their kids level-headed and appreciative of what they have, that they're no different than that other guy.

RG: Does athletics play a part in acceptance?

JG: No doubt. It's kind of the way we were brought up, with my friends.

 

11-COULD HAVE BEEN A LONGHORN WITH CLEMENS 

 

RG: Was your high school experience good for you in terms of developing who you are today, or was it a tough time in your life? Did you have college options.

JG: Yeah, I was going to go to the University of Texas to play. I actually would have been up there with Roger Clemens. I talked to Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., Stanford, those kind of places. When (Longhorns head coach) Cliff Gustafson called, he never saw me play but he had scouts who told him, hey we've got this kid down here. He offered me a scholarship. I was going to be there. But I wanted to get into pro ball. Something was drawing me. Then, when I had a chance to be a first-round pick. That helped.

RG: When you came back home after your first pro year, was it hard when you came back and you're hanging around with the same kids that you went to high school with to stay level-headed with all that pro money. How much of a bonus did you get?

JG: Fifty-five (thousand). Straw was picked No. 1 and he got $230,000 I think. Beane, who was picked right in front of me, got $130,000. (Pitcher) Jay Tibbs, who was picked (first by the Mets in Round 2 got like $90,000. I signed in three days. Those guys all signed in the middle of June, July or something. I couldn't believe it. I asked them and they all got the same first offer – 45 grand.

After the scout drafted me to the Mets – he came to the Blue Jays later, his name was Jim Hughes – so I don't know, if he got fired for signing me or got a big promotion from the Blue Jays (laughs).

The Blue Jays had come around and gave me a private tryout at my high school. (Fellow San Antonio native Jays scout) Al LaMacchia would have been there, but they brought some other guy. They came here and gave me a tryout, then they went to Austin, same thing for Kelly Gruber. There were four or five guys they were looking at. It was kind of that group they were looking at and the settled on (shortstop) Garry Harris.

RG: (laughs) It shows you the imprecise nature of scouting.

JG: Yeah, you're right.

RG: Thanks John and good luck.

 

 

PED Blockbuster in Miami New Times implicates Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera and others: Griffin

One of the many Blue Jays' prized off-season signings, Melky Cabrera is in the headlines again, but for all the wrong reasons. His name was one of a half-dozen major-leaguers linked to a recently-closed anti-aging clinic in a story in the Miami New Times. Fact is that Melky already has served a 50-game suspension last August for a failed PED test while with the Giants. Tuesday's revelations linking him to the Florida clinic are simply details.

There is no doubting that major-league baseball will continue to take body shots for years and years to come, as head-shaking, often sensational facts from a sad and embarassing period in the history of the National Pastime continue to emerge. The perception mess from the Steroid Era is slowly being cleaned up syringe by syringe, cheater by cheater. No, there will likely never be a landscape totally clear of this garbage, but the fact that the majority of players in the union are fighting the cheaters is a good sign. And they are.

On Tuesday MLB took another breathtaking blow to the solar plexus as New Times based in south Florida released a blockbuster story, which tragic hero once again is Alex Rodriguez.

Apparently, for four years, from 2009-12, Biogenesis, a modest anti-aging clinic in Coral Gables, FL, had been helping normal citizens feel young (wink, wink). Get a legitimate prescription from a legitimate doctor and Biogenesis could supply the feel-goods. It was all legal, as long as the doctor had physically examined the patient. And that had been the catch a few years ago for all those other, online, anti-aging clinics that had been caught handing out prescriptions, sight unseen. They were breaking the law.

On the surface, Biogenesis was a legitimate business enterprise, but, at the same time as it was helping normal folks improve their lives, the clinic's owner, a 49-year-old hustler named Anthony Bosch, whose father is a well-respected physician in Miami, had allegedly been working with a an elite, more secretive client list, keeping personal, handwritten records and allegedly supplying performance enhancing drugs, steroids and human growth hormone to prominent athletes, including many well known MLB stars. Not good.

Biogenesis and its owner, Bosch, as a person of interest, had been well-known to major-league baseball and its Department of Investigations, an important new arm of the commissioner that came into existence as a recommendation of the Mitchell Report back in 2007. Bosch's father, Dr. Pedro Publio Bosch, had been part of an earlier investigation of former Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez, several years ago. Manny was suspended, twice.

It seems the younger Bosch was never a great businessman. He was forced to close his Biogenesis clinic in December. Unfortunately, he has had this annoying, habit, well-documented by New Times, through the years, with wives, creditors and business associates, of not paying his bills. So it came to be that a disgruntled employee had taken a box of Biogenesis records with him in lieu of salary, walked into New Times offices and dropped the evidence on the desk. Writer Tim Elfrink took it from there.

A startling nugget of information in the tremendously researched piece is that the distribution of Human Growth Hormone in America has become a $1.4 billion industry with the general public. So is pro sports a reflection of society or the other way around?

In any case, the true blockbuster news on Tuesday was that in its four-year existence ending in December, there existed a sloppy paper trail implicating current major-league players Rodriguez, Melky, Nelson Cruz, Bartolo Colon and Yasmani Grandal.

There will be no further implications in terms of future punishment for Melky as he prepares to bat second and play left field for the Jays -- as long as he keeps his nose clean. Nothing new was learned of PED transgressions for the period after he was suspended. In fact, Cabrera, Colon and Grandal, a young catcher with the Padres, have already been punished with their 50-game suspensions for failed tests in 2012. But in the two other cases of A-Rod and Cruz, there will most certainly be more news to come.

When A-Rod allegedly came clean a few springs ago, he explained that his use of performance enhancers was restricted to a time between 2001-03 when he was with the Rangers. However, in the new story, his name appears over and over in the handwrittten records of Bosch – between the years 2009-12. The timelines don't jibe. Rodriguez will have some explaining to do to the Yankees and MLB.

As for Cruz, the Rangers' power-hitting outfielder has never failed a drug test that has become public and therein lies the rub. That is the basis for a player being suspended. But his reputation from this moment on in the court of public opinion, will likely never recover.

The current drug agreement in baseball's CBA suggests that what starts as random drug testing can be made more specific and more frequent if there's legitimate suspicion of wrongdoing -- as now seems to be in the cases of A-Rod and Cruz – but that a suspension cannot be issued unless there is a failed result.

By the way, the name of Nationals' lefthander Gio Gonzalez was also in the Biogenesis files, but the pitcher's father, a Miami resident, insisted to New Times that he, himself, was the client for personal health issues, not his son. 

Clearly, Biogenesis, BALCO and other shady businesses of that type, have been a big part of baseball's problem. However, someone with an axe to grind wandering into a newspaper office and dumping a bunch of files onto a desk, taken from a clinic that is officially out of business is not enough to hold up in court, in producing further action against anyone, including Bosch. Biogenesis was obviously no BALCO in terms of efficiency, since three of the five named baseball clients all failed drug tests and have accepted their punishments. Then there was Manny and A-Rod, also now tied to Bosch. That incompetence in the art of cheating should also help to act as a deterrent to many young major-league players.

This is never good news to a sport that sells itself as family entertainment. But this entire cleansing process with more and more details from the Steroid Era continuing to become public, would seem a necessary evil to atone for earlier sins.

Two steps forward, one step back. MLB is confident that with a new hGH blood-testing program the World Anti-Doping Agency has labelled the most stringent in pro sports, that the sport is headed in the right direction in efforts to restore the game's image. Let's hope.

Blue Jays newest starter R.A. Dickey will be fan favourite: Griffin

Every aspect regarding the newest Blue Jays' starting pitcher, R.A. Dickey, seems slightly offbeat, curiously refreshing. Let's start with the righthander's circuitous career path from being a Rangers' first round draft selection in '96, to being labelled a career bust 10 years later, to discovering and harnessing the knuckleball, now, to a 2012 NL Cy Young Award an accepting a sudden career detour north of the border to Toronto with little fanfare.

The list of the unusual with Dickey continues. Consider the fact that the now-38-year-old Dickey was born without an ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow, as Jays' fans are aware, the villain in every Tommy John surgery. Move ahead to January 2012, with his climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa to raise money for a charity that attempts to free women from sexual slavery in India. Yes, this is a different breed of pro athlete.

Dickey clearly lives by his own guiding principles, which may help explain his unexpectedly brief and obviously civil negotiations regarding a contract extension with Jays' GM Alex Anthopoulos on the weekend at his home in Nashville. It was always anticipated Dickey was in the financial driver's seat. The Mets had renewed him for $5 million for 2013. They had offered to extend him two more years for $20 million, a deal that would have kept him in New York for an average of $8.3 million, through 2015. 

That's clearly a bargain for a man that produced the numbers he has, the past three Mets seasons. The veteran fan-favourite capped a three-year comeback in '12 with an NL Cy Young Award, posting a 20-6 record with a 2.73 ERA in 223-2/3 innings.

On the heels of that success, with $5 million already in place, Dickey was reportedly asking the Mets for between $25-26 million for that two year extension both sides coveted. But that was too rich for a Mets franchise that had had ownerhsip issues and was itself not expecting to truly contend for the next three years, even with Dickey. Besides, at the end of it, he would have been 41. Instead, Mets' GM Sandy Alderson began to shop him.

The Jays were the ones. There was a buzz starting on Friday, but a horsehide cone of silence seemed to descend on the proceedings on Sunday. The deafening silence from inside the Mets' office, the usual source of leaks, indicated that the ball was in the Jays' court and that negotiations for an extension were proceeding behind Anthopoulos' self-imposed veil of secrecy. Nothing new. That's just the way he rolls.

But on Monday morning, even though as Fox Sports had reported on Sunday, the Jays had been given a 72-hour window of opportunity to satisfy Dickey's demands, earlier Monday The Star suggested that a deal had been struck and that all that remained was a physical exam at Jays' spring headquarters in Dunedin. The news was quickly confirmed by Ken Rosenthal of Fox, who expanded with the dollar values.

Surprisingly, the two-year extension was reportedly for just $25 million, the same amount Dickey had been asking for from the Mets. Clearly, Anthopoulos and the Jays expected that the cost of doing business would go up because he was changing franchises, that his price of staying in New York would be off the table, that his demands would go up, with a new team, new country, new taxes, etc. 

Instead, the Tuesday deadline became moot as Dickey stuck to his Mets' demands and Anthopoulos was quickly able to reach an agreement, tying the Cy winner to the Jays for three years, a total of $30 million. According to Fox, a signing bonus will be paid up front, possibly before rich guys start getting taxed at a higher rate by the U.S. federal government. In any case it didn't take long for Dickey and the Jays' GM to become friends.

The trade is expected to be announced late Monday or early Tuesday, a seven-player deal that had been rumoured since late last week. The trade will bring Dickey, major-league catcher Josh Thole and a prospect to the Jays for an attractive prospect package that includes Top 5 organization farmhands catcher Travis d'Arnaud and righthander Noah Syndergaard, major-league catcher John Buck and a third prospect.

Why would the Jays give up two such higly regarded youngsters? They receive a Cy Young pitcher who, even at an advanced age, has seen his numbers and his production increase in all statistical areas over the past three seasons as he learned how to maximize his repertoire. Consider, also, what the free-agent market has produced this winter.

Dickey will average $10 million per year. Zack Greinke was six years and $147 million with the Angels. Anibal Sanchez, five years and $80 million with the Tigers. Hiroki Kuroda, one year and $15 million with the Yankees. Ryan Dempster, two years and $26.5 million with the Red Sox.

Dickey is a bargain. Anthopoulos considers the Jays window of opportunity to be right here, right now led by a revamped rotation that will include Dickey, Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, Brandon Morrow and Ricky Romero.

The 20-year-old Syndergaard, at A-Lansing in 2012, will likely not be a contributor in the majors during that period, even if he goes on to a strong career after that. As for d'Arnaud he was the centrepiece that the Mets insisted on and you don't get quality without giving up quality.

It was suggested in this space over the summer, in a constructive way, that if the Jays continued to insist on hoarding prospects and building for the future with a powerhouse farm system, pleasing fans in cities like Vegas, Manchester and Dunedin, with mediocrity in Toronto, it was suggested that Jose Bautista would become impatient and Anthopoulos, at the end of 2013 the Jays might end up with another Roy Halladay situation, wherein your star was promised a contender around him when he signed his previous contract to stay loyal to the Jays and you failed to deliver. No such worry now.

The odd man out in a veteran rotation is lefthander J.A. Happ, who, unless someone is dealt, becomes a swingman in a deep, hard-throwing bullpen -- filling the role of Carlos Villanueva. The Jays' goal is to have a major-league capable inventory of eight starting pitchers. Happ would be No. 6, with others like Drew Hutchison and Kyle Drabek returning from surgery as the summer progresses.

Dickey became the third Mets pitcher to win a Cy Young Award, joining Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden. At 37-years-old when the 2012 season ended, he was the third oldest to capture Cy, following Roger Clemens, 42, of the Yankees and Gaylord Perry, 40, of the Padres.

He becomes the fourth Cy Young winner to be traded before his next season. The others were David Cone to the Jays from the Royals in '95, Pedro Martinez to the Red Sox from the Expos in '98 and Roger Clemens from the Jays to the Yankees in '99. Notice the consistent Canadian angle.

Dickey was not a one-hit wonder. For his three seasons since joining the Mets in 2010, his performance and his statistics have improved each season as he learned to harness his two speeds of knuckleball, mixing it with a mid-80s fastball and a changeup that keeps hitters guessing. But his bread-and-butter is still the knuckleball. And no chance of Tommy John.

The Mets always knew that Dickey's best before date would likely expire before they were ready to contend. At the meetings, they extended David Wright and have control of the face of the franchise third baseman for eight years, but Dickey's prime is now. Who knows when he's 41.

The Jays' farm system is deep in pitching prospects. D'Arnaud was a valued piece of their future, but now that leadership falls to incumbent J.P. Arencibia who has always embraced Toronto and is under control for at least the next four seasons. His importance has increased substantially.

Anthopoulos prides himself on never chasing a dream with money he had not planned on spending. When the Jays were finalists for young Cuban defector, Aroldis Chapman several years ago, before anyone knew they were true players, Anthopoulos had ownership's go-ahead to make the deal with the 20-year-old lefthander with the 100 m.p.h. fastball. But when the Reds upped the bonus ante at the last minute, he told Jays' ownership that despite the green light, he was out. Self-discipline.

The negotations with Dickey ended successfully at an affordable rate, even less than the GM might have been expecting to pay when he flew out of Toronto to meet his man.

The 23-year-old d'Arnaud, was the key player for the Mets. The Jays would not give up Anthony Gose as the second prospect. Syndergaard is the second of the A-Lansing Big-3 to be traded this winter. Lefthander Justin Nicolino was dealt to the Marlins in the 12-man November blockbuster.

Both prospects were rated among the Top 5 in the Jays' system. The Jays remain deep in minor-league starting pitchers and have managed to hang onto the big-armed righthander Aaron Sanchez, who may be the best of the highly touted of the Lugnut trio.

Spring training will have a different feel when Jays' camp opens in 57 days.

Jays GM Anthopoulos made it a Blue November with his one-stop shopping: Griffin

NASHVILLE, TENN.-There were several obvious signs that the Blue Jays are done dealing at these winter meetings and that GM Alex Anthopoulos is happy with where his roster stands at this point, 68 days before the start of spring training for pitchers and catchers.

First, when the Jays added catcher Eli Whiteside on a waiver claim from the Yankees early in the week, it filled out their 40-man roster. Most years they will leave a spot open in order to leave the option of selecting a player in the Rule 5 draft, the final procedure of the annual meetings. That draft took place on Thursday morning.

The Rule 5 is meant for veteran minor-league players that were not protected by their clubs and are available to be selected and move up. The catch is they must stay on the new club's 25-man roster all year or be offered back at the end of spring training. Because of the heavy lifting Anthopoulos did earlier in the off-season, there was no scenario under which he could see that happening with a minor-leaguer. The Jays did not participate.

Second, Anthopoulos arrived late and left early from these meetings. He came in to the Opryland on a Monday flight from Toronto, after the trade-fest had already started, and changed his departure to early on Thursday, skipping out on the Rule 5, leaving it to his assistants. The Jays were active in the minor-league portion wherein their Triple-A and Double-A teams can select players from the teams below them in other organizations.

"January will be minor-league signings, maybe last minute trades, teams that have lost out on certain players if we have depth somewhere, maybe we'd have a fit there," Anthopoulos had analyzed on Wednesday of his next possible moves. "Clearly we made a large transaction early and that's going to impact our ability to do other things. I don't expect to do anything big."

Basically, the Jays went into the off-season with a self-admitted, itemized shopping list. They needed two starting pitchers, a second baseman, a left fielder and a legitimate leadoff man. In the space of one week in November, they filled all of those needs.

They made THE DEAL with the Marlins, obtaining Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson for the rotation; Jose Reyes at shortstop and leadoff and utility man Emilio Bonifacio who is a candidate for second base. Before the trade they had signed second baseman Maicer Izturis. After the trade they had quickly signed disgraced left fielder Melky Cabrera.

If it wasn't exactly one-stop shopping, it was one-month shopping that filled most of their needs in one-fell swoop. Doing it all at once made it easier to talk Rogers ownership into taking on a huge and unanticipated amount of payroll. It was one decision rather than dragging out the process and trundling up to the head office with each new move. 

“We had people in the office that would not have done tha trade," Anthopoulos said. "Which is an indication that it was a fair deal from a baseball standpoint. It's very hard to give up that kind of talent. One of the big talking points internally was whether to give up the players – we were taking on a lot of dollars – or just go spend it in the free agent market and we get to keep our young players, which in theory is outstanding. That is the way to go, in theory, if you can guarantee getting the free agent players."

In hindsight, making the moves early in the winter had multiple benefits for Anthopoulos and for the organization. It created a renewed enthusiasm for Blue Jays baseball that took away much of the sting of the final few months and having manager John Farrell abandon ship. It created a belief among free agents like Melky Cabrera that he would be coming to a winning situation. All of Jose Bautista's free agent friends apparently want to come and play now. It has helped sell tickets and removed the "small-market" perception in the United States that has dogged the Jays since the strike. 

“The problem is as we've seen even last year, there was an example of a reliever that we tried to sign last year, I must have called the agent 80 times," Anthopoulos recalled. "We were offering more money and ultimately it was geography, it was family, it was all those things. Sometimes, even if you have more money and more years, there's no guarantee you're going to get the player.

"You just don't know how things are going to go and as much as we sit here and talk about let's go sign this free agent and I remind everybody that a bunch of other teams are having the same conversaton we are. There's value to getting the bird in the hand. In a perfect world you keep the young players, you sign the free agents to get the right value. From that standpoint it was the certainty of acquiring the players carried a lot of weight."

So, with the inability of the Yankees to spend money, with the Red Sox throwing money around like drunken sailors, with the Rays always looking to keep their payroll in a manageable range and with the O's still just a one-year wonder looking to make it two, how does Anthopoulos now handicap the AL East as he heads home for the holidays.  

"I still think there's so much more to be done on all levels," he said of not only his club, but of the competition. "We ended up making a transaction early, not be design, it just worked out that way. There's no doubt, those teams, not the Rays, do have dollars to spend, they have holes to fill. They're going to keep doing it, so normally New York and certainly Boston can be big players in free agency. I expect that to continue. We made a big transaction early. There's a lot of very good free agents that are still out there, so we're not done. Those teams are going to continue to get better. No doubt about it."

In the Rule 5 Draft on Thursday, the Jays lost one minor-league player and selected three in the AAA and AA portion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Blue Jays may be done but where are the Yankees: Griffin

Day 3 of the Baseball Winter Meetings and where are the Yankees. That's the big question right now. Their money stays in their pocket. The team everyone is now looking at is the Dodgers, lurking on Zack Greinke, while the Red Sox have already added Mike Napoli, Jonny Gomes and Shane Victorino. As for the Jays, they have already made their big moves, headlined by the 12-player deal with the Marlins and signing Melky Caberera to play left field. GM Alex Anthopoulos feels, at least at these meetings, he is likely done.

"We don't have any traction, or anything that's starting to move," Anthopoulos said of further moves. "I feel very confident that we won't make any deals here. Hopefully it changes. If I had to bet right now, I'd feel really confident we aren't going to do anything."

That means the GM is saying that out of the question, at the moment, are decisions to add starting pitching, a second baseman or to move one of his catchers -- in particular J.P. Arencibia. In fact, the very-sensitive-to-the-feelings of his player Anthopoulos feels emotionally for his men who are the subject of unsubstantiated trade rumours, Arencibia in particular.

“I got asked about J.P. earlier and I know he got bombarded with questions (when he came to the Opryland Hotel) and everyone’s asking about it." Anthopoulos said. "There’s just a lot of things out there and it’s not right, I think at times, that one player’s name gets thrown out there and the fact is we don’t shop players. I think he understands. I believe almost every trade we’ve ever made hasn’t really leaked or been rumoured for weeks or things like that have gone on, so I think from that perspective, that’s pretty telling."

Anthopoulos is certainly a man of his word when it comes to his dealings with players. It's why he explained to Carlos Villanueva that he could not publicly commit to him as a starting pitcher last summer or else he would have been painted into a corner. It's why Vernon Wells sent him an expensive gift and an emotional personal note after the under-the-radar trade to the Angels two years ago. Maybe it's why Arencibia is so confident he will be the Blue Jays' opening day catcher as they strive for a division title in 2013.

"When things are out there for weeks and days at a time, I have yet to see it where we’ve actually made a trade," Anthopoulos said. "There’s times, like anything, that our team will get used, to try to get another team to move or up the price for somebody else.

"Actually, I had an agent tell me that a GM tends to use us all the time on the phone, 'Me and Alex are talking about this,' when I’m not talking to that team at all. That’s fine. Just for me, J.P. just seemed like he got bombarded a little bit. I understand that’s part of it.”

Anthopoulos so despises negotiations that have become public, it is to the point that he tells GMs to come to a meeting alone, or with just one assistant so that tracing any leaks is easier. But if a leak does happen, it does not mean that he cuts off the talks because of it. 

“No, you never bite your nose off to spite your face if it’s a good deal for the club and it’s the right deal," he explained. "I think what happens is if there’s leaks, you try to work a little faster, you try to accelerate things because things can fall apart. 

"One time I remember really accelerating things was the (Roy) Halladay trade. It was on the weekend, and I think FOX Sports had talked about the three-way with Cliff Lee and it had never been talked about before, so I accelerated things that day and completed the deal that night because I had the sense things could fall apart. It’ll force you to not work at your own pace and potentially do some things you don’t necessarily want to do, so to make the best deal that you can I think you’re better off to keep things quiet on both sides."

But right now Anthopoulos is looking forward to 2013 and has no fear or trepidation concerning a potential tete-a-tete confrontation between his manager John Gibbons and his headstrong third-baseman Brett Lawrie, the master of baserunning mayhem.

"I think as a baserunner, yes, he'll get better," Anthopoulos insisted. "I think if you're a free swinging guy and you don't walk, you might slightly improve. Players make adjustments to baserunning. Will players make mistakes? Sure. That's my belief, we can get into a scouting debate and no one's right or wrong. I'm a believer that base running players improve. He was spoken to. It doesn't mean as a 22-year-old kid he's not going to get better as a base runner. I'm not worried about him.

"That's the least of our concerns. Brett's going to get better as a player. He's 22, so many expectations on him, so much hype. Being Canadian certainly adds to that. He has a chance to be a star and he's going to be under the microscope. But there's a lot of times with the high energy and how he plays that he makes exciting plays and he does some great things. That's part of the growing pains.

"I remember (Vlad) Guerrero seemed like he was a little bit more wild early in his career and over time he got a little better. But people said he was a little bit reckless. Now, if you're talking about a guy having a better on-base percentage, if a guy is always swinging at everything, I'm not betting on his on-base percentage climbing. That one, I don't think a hitting coach is going to change that. You might slightly, slightly improve."

Last season, Lawrie batted near the top of the Jays' order, but with the additions of Jose Reyes and Melky Cabrera, Lawrie will drop to an RBI spot, either fifth, or more likely sixth in the Jays' lineup. That's always more of a power spot, but Lawrie has not shown that.

"He's got raw power, but I see him being more gap-to-gap," Anthopoulos said. "If you told Brett go hit home runs, he'll hit home runs, sure, go watch batting practice. I don't think his swing is such that it's going to be a big home run swing, 30, 40 home runs. Brett, with his legs, is going to be able to drive balls to the gaps, a lot of extra-base hits.

"Even the year we got him from the Brewers, he led that league in extra-base hits. If you watch his swing, lower half, he's going to drive balls to the alleys and he's going to hit some balls out. I just don't see it being a big power bat, I see it being an extra-base bat, with his legs allowing him to do a lot of things because he'll hit for a high average because of his legs. I can be wrong, but he's got the raw power to (hit a lot of home runs), I just don't see the swing translating that way."

Anthopoulos already has a pretty good team put together and is not actively pursuing anything else at the moment. But if he gets the right phone call, that could all change. It's been a good off-season for the Jays as an organization with the latest feel-good being that the late legend Tom Cheek has won the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Handicapping AL East Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos chooses status quo: Griffin

NASHVILLE-It's still early in the winter meetings, early in December and, yes, relatively early in the off-season, but even at this early stage, how does the always competitive AL East stack up for 2013? How many teams can challenge 90 wins?

The Jays have made the most startling impact following their 12-man deal with the Marlins. The Red Sox are starting to spend and re-build after their mid-summer salary dump to the Dodgers. The Yankees are crumbling with the news of Alex Rodriguez being out at least until June. The Rays are deep in pitching. The O's wnt to the post-season but repeating is tough. So has all that changed the early view of the balance of power?

“I would say the way the (standings) ended up last year,” Jays' GM Alex Anthopoulos said when asked to handicap the AL East. “You have to go that way.

“I don't like to get caught up in what people do in the winter. People talk about Anaheim last year, Boston two years ago. I was here when they signed (Carl) Crawford and (Adrian) Gonzalez. We were all saying wow, nobody's going to win a game again. To me you show respect to the teams that already won. Till we start playing games and guys stay healthy and have good seasons, we're the fourth best team in my opinion because the other three teams haven't gotten worse.”

To use a horse-racing analogy, the Jays are the early speed, the Red Sox have positioned themselves well off the pace as a late closer. The Rays and O's are lurking and the Yankees stumbled out of the gate.

But the Red Sox are the team to watch. Last season their opening day payroll stood at $175.2 million As of Tuesday morning, the Sox had $79.475 million in guaranteed contracts to nine players. They have much money left to spend, even if their intent is not to match last year's bloated payroll. They have added first-baseman/catcher Mike Napoli, outfielder Jonny Gomes and catcher David Ross. They re-signed DH David Ortiz in the days after announcing John Farrell as manager. They need more.

The Yankees are going to have to also spend their way out of their current funk. The news on Monday that their all-contract third baseman, A-Rod, will be undergoing left hip surgery and will miss at least half the 2013 season has stunned them. It showed their age, their fragility and they're not wearing it well.

The only positive with the A-Rod news is that it explains their star player's dismal post-season performance this year. But why did it take this long to make this decision? Derek Jeter will miss the start of the season. Russell Martin is gone. Nick Swisher and Rafael Soriano are on the way out. They re-signed to one year deals Hiroki Kuroda and Mariano Rivera. Yes, GM Brian Cashman has much work left to do.

“I still think it's the toughest division in baseball,” Jays manager John Gibbons said. “That first go-round (as manager in 2004-08) was tough. You were looking up at Boston and New York all the time. Tampa was on the verge of really coming into their own. You could see some young players -- in Baltimore at that time they scored runs so on the nights they pitched they were very tough.

“Boston had a down year last year, but that's not going to last. And Baltimore gets into the postseason (in 2012). Tampa is right there. So it's a tough grind, tough division to play in, but that's why we feel with the trades we made and signing of (Melky) Cabrera gives us a shot. But you've got to go out and do it, but it gives us a lot of excitement.”

The Red Sox are definitely not done dealing this winter. They have a surplus of catchers, led by Jarrod Saltalamacchia who is named in rumours with the White Sox. They have been mentioned on the periphery of the Josh Hamilton speculation. They could even deal an established starting pitcher to the Royals for hot-shot rookie prospect Wil Myers. But that talk has slowed down here in Nashville.

The Yankees will not sit still either. They have an albatross-ian five-year commitment to A-Rod, but they always need to win now and will reach out for a third-base replacement in the short term, whether it;'s Eric Chavez, a free agent who played for them last year or someone else like Yunel Escobar from the Marlins.

“It doesn't really change what we do,” Anthpoulos said of the New York baseball follies. “The Yankees are great. They're good every year. They continue to be good every single year. (Yankees GM) Brian Cashman does an unbelievable job of continuing to sign players to short term contracts that produce, so it doesn't change anything for us.”

Despite what Anthopoulos and Gibbons choose to maintain about the fierce competition in the AL East, the Jays have not been in a position like this of being division favourites since '94, coming off the back-to-back World Series years. There is an added pressure to respond to roster moves by others. The manager can feel it.

“There's always pressure, no doubt about it, because a lot is expected in the baseball world and the country of Canada and Toronto specifically there,” Gibbons said. “But yeah, that's a good thing. That means you've got a good team. But there's always pressure in this business to perform.”

If the season was to begin tomorrow, my projected AL East Division standings would be:

1-Jays; 2-Rays; 3-Yankees; 4-Red Sox; 5-O's. The meetings continue through Thursday. But, as we have said, it's early.

 

 

Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos arrives at winter meetings: Griffin

NASHVILLE-The concept of the Baseball Winter Meetings started out as an afterthought, an add-on to the minor-league annual sessions in 1962.

Why not have all the major-league general managers in the middle of the off-season gather together for a week and make some news, make some trades to keep the game in the spotlight and the fanbase interested? Choose a warm weather climate, make some trades, have a few drinks at the lobby bar, make some more trades, abide by some artifical trade deadlines -- ususally it was for a long time midnight on the Friday -- then head home for the Holidays.

Usually the winter meetings were hosted by a minor-league city, but Dallas seems to be in the regular rotation now and Anaheim and even Toronto have played host to the swapfest. The initial concept was good, but somewhere along the line the concept was hijacked.

My first meetings of the 33 that I have attended was as a public relations person working for the Expos in Montreal. The meetings were in Orlando, FL, in 1978. At that debut session, I handled my first trade, my first winter meetings press release. It was December 7 and I was planning on going to Disney World when the call came in from club president John McHale. The Expos had obtained Bill Lee from the Red Sox for infielder Stan Papi. Make the announcement. That taught me that you don't ever make dinner plans when you're attending the winter meetings.

The hijacking of the trade concept of the winter meetings was gradual. It started with free agency becoming a key to building a winner as opposed to trades. The big player agents like Scott Boras and other figured out early on that with every GM being in the same hotel for a week, it made it a lot easier to sell your clients to a captive audience, especially one looking to make moves to impress the fans.

It reached the point in the early '90s where pulling the trigger on trades was waiting until after the big free agents signed their contracts. The agents would be staging their own press conferences in the lobby and stealing all the headlines meant for the baseball executives. Commissioner Bud Selig even cancelled the MLB portion of the meetings in 1993. The agents were part of it, but the pending strike in '94 was another. Also, tragedy struck at the '92 meetings in Louisville when Marlins' president Carl Barger had a massive heart attack in the hotel lobby and died. The meetings were also not held in '94.

Nevertheless, the meetings still hold tremendous appeal for fans. This year it's all about free agents Josh Hamilton, Zack Greinke, Michael Bourn and others and trades involving Diamondbacks outfielder Justin Upton, Mets' Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey and Rangers' shortstop Elvis Andrus with other moves lurking.

The big news of the morning of the first day was that Hamilton was at the Opryland Hotel in person, likely to meet with prospective employers face to face and convince them that he's not a risk for 7-10 years and $25 million per season and that Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez is scheduled to have a procedure to repair his damaged hip.

Meanwhile, Jays' GM Alex Anthopoulos was arriving on Monday morning for his fourth winter meetings ready to make more moves and pssibly add more salary. Last December in Dallas, he obtained backup catcher Jeff Mathis for lefthander Brad Mills and traded righthander Nestor Molina for closer Sergio Santos. And so it begins.    

 

 

 

Experienced MLB pool for Blue Jays open manager position runs 54 deep

There is a certain train of thought that believes the Blue Jays, with the recent addition of competitive talent that has seemed to make them an instant contender, this line of thinking believes that perhaps GM Alex Anthopoulos should unmistakably change direction in his search for a manager and be certain to hire someone with previous MLB experience.

For those that are interested, whether you agree with this thinking or not, following is a list of the 54 baseball men with major-league managerial experience that do not have their own team at the moment. The list includes just those skippers that have managed one full season or more in the dugout, dating back 13 years to include the 2000 season.

The arbitrary cutoff year for this list seems to make sense since anyone that managed in the back in the 20th century for his last time may have already lost touch with today's players and game. Managers are listed alphabetically by team that they managed.

1-Bob Brenly, D'backs; 2-Bobby Cox, Braves; 3-Mike Hargrove, O's-M's; 4-Lee Mazzilli, O's; 4-Sam Perlozzo, O's; 6-Dave Trembley, O's.

7-Jimy Williams, Bosox-Astros; 8-Grady Little, Bosox-Dodgers; 9-Bobby Valentine, Bosox-Mets; 10-Don Baylor, Cubs; 11-Lou Piniella, Cubs-M's-Rays; 12-Mike Quade, Cubs.

13-Jerry Manuel, Chisox-Mets; 14-Ozzie Guillen, Chisox-Marlins; 15-Jack McKeon, Reds-Marlins; 16-Bob Boone, Reds; 17-Dave Miley, Reds; 18-Jerry Narron, Reds-Rangers. 

19-Manny Acta, Indians-Nats; 20-Buddy Bell, Rox-Royals; 21-Jim Tracy, Rox-Dodgers-Pirates; 22-Phil Garner, Tigers-Astros; 23-Alan Trammell, Tigers; 24-Larry Dierker, Astros.

25-Cecil Cooper, Astros; 26-Brad Mills, Astros; 27-Tony Muser, Royals; 28-Tony Pena, Royals; 29-Trey Hillman, Royals; 30-Joe Torre, Dodgers-Yanks. 

31-John Boles, Marlins; 32-Jeff Torborg, Marlins; 33-Davey Lopes, Brewers; 34-Ken Macha, Brewers-A's; 35-Tom Kelly, Twins; 36-Art Howe, Mets-A's.

37-Willie Randolph, Mets; 38-Bob Geren, A's; 39-Larry Bowa, Phils; 40-Gene Lamont, Pirates; 41-Lloyd McClendon, Pirates; 42-John Russell, Pirates.

43-Felipe Alou, Giants, Expos; 44-Don Wakamatsu, M's; 45-Tony LaRussa, Cards; 46-Larry Rothschild, Rays; 47-Hal McRae, A's; 48-Jim Fregosi, Jays.

49-Buck Martinez, Jays; 50-Carlos Tosca, Jays; 51-John Gibbons, Jays; 52-Cito Gaston, Jays; 53-Frank Robinson, Expos-Nats; 54-Jim Riggleman, Nats. 

 

Blue Jays payroll bump with Jose Reyes and others means no turning back: Griffin

The Blue Jays and GM Alex Anthopoulos have chosen an inexorable path for the franchise in 2013. It is to spend money, to spend money wisely, to try and compete with the big boys for a post-season berth in MLB. What is surprising, but was intuitively necessary for ownership, is that the attendance did not suggest this bump was coming. But what management understood was that a skeptical fan-base was ready to jump ship if Rogers showed it did not want to compete right now. There's no turning back.

The 12-player deal with the Miami Marlins, when completed, will bring them two starting pitchers, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle; a dynamic leadoff hitter and shortstop, Jose Reyes; a speedy utility man, Emilio Bonifacio, and an experienced backup catcher, John Buck. It has added a quick $41.25 million to payroll for 2013 and $163.75 in guaranteed salary for 10 seasons, plus an option. Those payroll numbers do not even include the arbitration-eligible Bonifacio, who earned $2.2 million with the Fish in 2012.

So, how did the Jays actually reach this point of ballsy enlightenment in their franchise history? Consider these major contributors to this monumental moment wherein Anthopoulos was able to pull the trigger on the highest volume deal in Jays history -- with a chance to have the biggest impact. Three major contributors to the decision are Jose Bautista, Miami manager Mike Redmond and Blue Jays fans.

1-Bautista. Ever since Anthopoulos took a chance against the advice of many and signed the 2010 major-league home run champ to a five-year deal, the GM has worked with his star right fielder to guarantee the franchise is moving forward, not tagged as rebuilding. Mr. Bats serves as Anthopoulos' GM conscience. If the fourth year GM wore an inspirational bracelet it might read W.W.J.D. In this case, “What would Jose Do.” Before Bautista it was Vernon Wells and when Alex started as GM it was Roy Halladay.

In this case, the Bautista influence on the Marlins deal doubles up, because after the injury to their star player, after the team limped home with 73 wins, after a leadership void in the clubhouse was exposed during Joey Bats absence, after the organization was embarrassed by Yunel Escobar's eye-black and John Farrell's dream of a dream job, the Jays realized that if they did not act right here, right now, that the next knock on the GM's office door might be Bautista asking out. Anthopoulos and Bautista had promised each other they would win during his tenure and the GM tries to be a man of his word.

2-Redmond. The first question that popped up when Redmond was given permission to interview with the Marlins was, “Why?” I remember three years ago, before Redmond officially retired as a player, Anthopoulos talked about “great young baseball minds” and in the course of that chat mentioned the former MLB backup catcher. When Redmond retired, he was quickly hired by the Jays to handle A-Lansing. Last year it became A-Dunedin. It seemed that logically Redmond would have been a candidate for the Jays. Instead he was gift-wrapped and handed over to the Marlins. Why?

The unintentional method to Anthopoulos' madness shines through with this trade. The Redmond influence was clear in the package of prospects the Marlins settled on in the deal. Outfielder Jake Marisnick played for Redmond at Dunedin. Justin Nicolino pitched for him late in 2011 and because the minor league clubs train together at the Mattick Complex, Redmond was able to see a lot of Nicolino, plus Adeiny Hechavarria and Anthony DeSclafani, who debuted at Lansing in '12. The deal would not have been made without the influence of Redmond, very familiar with the players coming back in return.

3-The Jays fans. The fan-base in the first four months of the regular season, through the trade deadline, showed Rogers careful ownership, president Paul Beeston and Anthopoulos what was possible with a winner. Don't underestimate the influence of the Jays' fans on this deal, a reflection of their support the first seven months of 2012.

The big factors were the return to the World Series roots in terms of logos and colours, which became a clear hit with fans. There were the smart offerings of savvy blog sites, the positive TV and radio numbers, the youthful enthusiasm clearly reflected on early season road trips, from Cleveland to Milwaukee to Boston, to Seattle, plus all of the visual and verbal feedback at the Rogers Centre. The clear enthusiasm showed Jays Nation was ready for a winner, that under the right circumstances the support was there.

Recall that Beeston had head-scratchingly said last December that when the fans came back the money would be spent. It made no sense. Well, until the injuries and the collapse in August and September, the fans were there if anyone had cared to notice. A wise man once said the closest emotions are love and hate. Jays' fans obviously hated the final two months, but at least they cared. Jays' management noticed and understood.

The following Jays' payroll numbers are compiled using the authoritative site, Cot's Baseball Contracts. This is the most expensive roster ever put together by the Jays, topping the $97,983,900 in 2008, the penultimate season of former GM J.P. Ricciardi. That year, the Jays were 86-76, but ownership was expecting more and forced Ricciardi to slash payroll to $80 million in '09. He did not react well and was gone by the final weekend.

How far ahead of any payroll in the 37-year history of the Blue Jays' franchise is this group? Already, the 2013 payroll for 15 players stands at $100.6 million in guaranteed salary. In terms of futures, the Jays are on the hook for $300.9 million in salary to those same 15 players. Here's the payroll in descending order for 2013. That first number is followed by guaranteed years and guaranteed money.

Bautista $14 million; 3 years-$43M. Johnson $13.75 million. Buehrle $11 million; 3 years-$48M. Reyes $10 million; 5 years-$96M. Edwin Encarnacion $8 million; 3 years-$29M. Brandon Morrow $8 million; 2 years-$17M. Ricky Romero $7.5 million; 3 years-$23.1M. Buck $6.5 million. Adam Lind $5.15 million; 1 year-$7.15M (option buyouts).

Casey Janssen $3.9 million. Maicer Izturis $3 million; 3 years-$10M. Darren Oliver $3 million. Sergio Santos $2.75 million; 2 years-$8.75M. Rajai Davis $2.5 million. Dustin McGowan $1.5 million; 2 years-$3.5M.

Add to that committed payroll, key arbitration-eligibles Bonifacio, Colby Rasmus and J.A. Happ who will by the time they settle combine for about $12 million and the 2013 payroll already stands at $112 million for 18 players, even with the knowledge that the injured McGowan and Santos will likely not open the season in the majors.

And it says here the Jays are not done dealing yet. Ideally, they could still use a strong bat in the outfield and have not settled on a starting second baseman.

Bonifacio is a Mike McCoy type, times two, while Izturis could be considered a younger, more complete Omar Vizquel or John McDonald. Maybe another MLB team covets one year of Josh Johnson so much so that they will make it worth Anthopoulos' while in MLB talent. But this Marlins deal is a great start and has energized the fanbase at a time when they were likely deciding how to spend any future entertainment dollars.

 

 

 

 

 

Giants sweep Tigers in World Series with win in extra innings: Griffin

DETROIT-The Giants swarmed over the dugout rail at Comerica Park arms raised to the sky and raced to the mound, bouncing around their excited closer Sergio Romo in wild celebration of a well-earned World Series sweep of the heavily favoured Tigers.

It was a moment the 37-year-old Marco Scutaro had been waiting for his entire life. In the top of the 10th inning, the gritty second baseman reached out and slashed a single over second base. The DH Ryan Theriot raced around third and slid home to give the Giants a 4-3 win. Romo entered for the final three outs to earn the save in the bottom of the 10th and the Giants were World Series champions for the second time in the last three seasons.

It seemed fitting Theriot was the one that scored ahead of Scutaro's clutch single. The second base position had once belonged to the 32-year-old Theriot for the first 81 games of 2012. Then on July 27, GM Brian Sabean acquired Scutaro from the Rockies for a minor-leaguer. Now, three months later, the two men had combined for the winning run in the clinching game of the World Series. Theriot know how much it meant to his teammate.

“Marco's Marco, he's been doing the job ever since he got here and without him, we wouldn't be here,” Theriot said, graciously, champagne goggles perched atop his head.

“There's other guys in the locker room as well. There's him and there's Hunter (Pence). There's guys this is their first (World Series ring). It's something special. It's something that doesn't happen a lot. I'm very fortunate and blessed to be on two championship teams. You cherish these moments. You don't take these moments for granted. You thank your lucky stars that you're in this position.”

Theriot was with the Cardinals a year ago when they oulasted the Rangers in seven games. This year, he began the season in San Francisco, with the trade for Scutaro completing a virtual makeover of Giants' position players from 2010, with only catcher Buster Posey playing the same significant role he did against the Rangers, when they won in five games. Scutaro came up big in the NLCS and was MVP vs. the Cards. That''s why they were here.

Nobody thought the Giants could do this once closer Brian Wilson was disabled and out for the year. Nobody thought they could do this once Melky Cabrera, leading the league in hitting at the time and the All-Star Game MVP in July was suspended for 50 games – then told to go home when he became eligible to return. Nobody thought they could do this when Tim Lincecum in the first half looked like the freak instead of The Freak.

“(Manager Bruce Bochy) pushed all the right buttons,” Theriot said admiringly. “The way he handled that bullpen this year was absolutely amazing. I think that's going to be talked about for a long time. Everybody said bullpen by committee and this and that. It was the whole bullpen. I'm talking everybody. Every opportunity they got the job done. You go down the list, those guys, they answered the call.”

Nobody thought the Giants could do this when they faced triple elimination games against both the Reds in the NLDS and the defending champion Cardinals in the NLCS. But here they are finishing the season, finishing the playoffs with a seven-game winning streak.

“When you look at the clubs that we played and having our backs to the wall, it's pretty remarkable what these guys have done,” Bochy said. “It's amazing what a club can do when they do play as a team and they're unselfish and they do whatever they can do to help a club win and that's what these guys did. You know I count my blessings.”

Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval set the tone for the World Series with home runs in his first three at-bats of Game 1 and a four-hit game. He batted .500 with eight hits, three homers and four RBIs. He was the World Series MVP.

“I still can't believ that game, it's the game of your dreams,” Sandoval said.”You don't want to wake up. I think this is one of the keys, you know, when you fight and you win. You learn from things tha happen in your career. You get up, you get down. You never give up. I'm just blessed to be here.”

For the first time in the four games of the World Series, the lead changed hands from the Giants to the Tigers and it was a real game, one that ebbed and flowed through a steady rain that didn't dampen the Giants resolve.

But it was not easy. This was a different Tigers team than had rolled over, offensively, for the Giants in the first three games of the Fall Classic. In the bottom of the sixth, with Matt Cain needing a shutdown inning to keep the fans at Comerica out of the equation, DH Delmon Young tied the game with an opposite field blast into the right field stands. It was his eighth post-season homer as a Tiger, the franchise record.

“I'm a little bit flabbergasted, to be honest with you,” Tigers' manager Jim Leyland said in the aftermath of being swept out at home. “I never would have thought that we would have swept the New York Yankees and I never would have thought that the Giants would have swept us. But it happened.”

The Giants took the early lead in the third inning but left a run on the table. With one out, Pence, the emotional leader of this team, doubled one hop into a bush in deep left centre. That was followed by a triple off the right field wall by Brandon Belt. With one out and the second run on third base for the Giants, Max Scherzer manned up and induced a grounder to second by Grego Blanco, right at Omar Infante holding the runner. A flyball to right into the alley by Theriot ended it.

By the way, that Tiger guy, Miguel Cabrera has pretty good power the other way. In the third inning, the Triple Crown champ stayed back and drove a pitch from Cain high and deep to right field. Pence tracked the ball all the way to the fence as it landed two rows up in the bleachers. Cabrera's first homer of the World Series cashed Austin Jackson from second base. Cain had no decision but was the starter in all three clinching games.

“It just seemed like all the pieces fit together,” Cain said. “A lot of us kind of had the same mentality about the game. Nobody really stood out and tried to steal the spotlight.”

The lead for the Tigers on the Cabrera homer was the first in the Series in its 30th inning. When Cabrera stepped on home plate, it was just the Tigers fifth run in those 30 frames.

But the Giants had the answer. Posey, the NL's likely MVP, has been all about quality in his production, not quantity in this post-season. In the sixth inning facing Scherzer, with his team trailing by a run, the league batting champion and Hank Aaron Award winner crushed a changeup that drifted back to the middle of the plate and pulled it fair inside the left field foul pole to give the Giants back a lead that the Tigers only held for two full innings. Posey had also homered in the clinching Game 5 of the NLDS against the Reds, a grand slam at Great American Ball Park that put the game away.

“This guy is an incredible talent,” Bochy said. “His makeup is off the chart. He's to me the MVP, no question. As important is what he did behind the plate in the post-season and helped get this pitching on track. He's the one putting the fingers down and calling the game back there. He's special and for him to come back off that injury shows you how tough he is. But what a special talent.”

For the Giants and their surprising bullpen strength, Cain went seven, relieved by lefthander Jeremy Affeldt in the eighth then winner, Santiago Casilla in the ninth, followed by Romo. The injured resident flake, Brian Wilson, black beard and all, was there to cheer his teammates on, a season that ended with a seventh Giants championship title.