So yesterday J.P. Ricciardi's in trouble for slamming Adam Dunn, and today he fires manager John Gibbons.
Coincidence? Perhaps. Gibbons's firing has been expected for a week or two. But will firing Gibbons keep the media wolves at bay for a while? Not if this recent exchange between a reader and the Toronto Star's Richard Griffin is any indication:
Q: Hi Richard,Another "personal" question. Do you think that speaking your mind (as you do in these mailbags) hurts your relationship in gleaning knowledge from the great J.P. Riccardi and/or John Gibbons? For example, in your June 4th mailbag: "But J.P. is a genius so who are we to question him?" I personally love the cutting sarcasm, since you write what we as fans are feeling (in my opinion), but do you find it makes your job more difficult? Nik Jones, Port St. Lucie, FL A: Good question and I'm not sure of the answer. What I do know is that if I believe what I'm writing it makes it easier to walk through the door into the clubhouse or the pressbox and deal with the Jays' front office and manager. And I do believe in what I'm offering to readers as opinion. As for the sometimes sarcasm, sometimes I just can't help myself. Between the two Jays' men, Ricciardi and Gibbons, the manager has a far better grasp on the situation than J.P. seems to. After some rocky moments with Gibby, the relationship has settled into one of arm's length mutual respect. In fact I think Gibbons enjoys answering questions that challenge his baseball intelligence and make him think. He gives thoughtful, detailed answers, rather than those brushed-off questions from casual media that are one dimensional and treat him like a country bumpkin which he's definitely not. As for J.P., he still believes that he's in Canada to teach us all about baseball which is quite irritating.
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Griffin didn't like Ricciardi from Day 1, because Ricciardi came from the A's and the A's were run by Billy Beane and Billy Beane wrote that damn book and ... well, you know. At one point, early in Ricciardi's tenure, Griffin suggested that sabermetrics was somehow racist, and if sabermetricians had their way, Jackie Robinson never would have gotten a chance to play.
Seriously.
But Griffin eventually warmed up to Ricciardi, especially when the Jays played well (funny how that works). Now he seems to have turned around on the subject again. And if Griffin sees the firing of Gibbons as Ricciardi passing the buck, I think we'll have to forgive him. Because that's sort of what it looks like to me, too.
Gibbons will always be best remembered for a couple of kerfuffles in 2006, first with Shea Hillenbrand and later with Ted Lilly. Funnily enough, that team finished at 86-76, Gibbons' best record.
It's good to see Cito Gaston get another shot. At one point, Gaston was looking like a Hall of Fame manager.
Remember that?
Beginning in 1989, Gaston managed the Jays for most of nine seasons. In his first season, he took over in May when the club was 12-24. They went 77-49 the rest of the season to grab the division title. In his second season, the Jays finished two games out of first place. In his third, fourth, and fifth seasons they won division titles, and of course in those latter two seasons they won the World Series, too. Has any modern manager done better in his first five seasons?
That's not a rhetorical question; I really don't know. It's not that surprising that Gaston was fired near the end of his ninth season; the Jays hadn't been competitive since his fifth season. What's surprising is that he hasn't managed in the 11 years since. What's even more surprising is his next chance comes, finally, with his old team.
And it's a team that could make some noise. What happened in 1989 is a once-in-a-career sort of thing. But you know, these last-place Jays are probably better than their 35-39 record. As I suggested earlier today, they need to get Adam Lind into the lineup. But otherwise Gaston just has to make out the lineup card and hope for the best. The Jays are 12th in the league in scoring but probably have the talent to move up three or four spots. And considering their pitching, this team's capable of a decent second-half run.
Rob Neyer
