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6/29/2001 - Commanding from the Dugout: Blue Jays Managers (Part 2 of 2)

When Jimy Williams was fired after the first month and a half of the 1989 season, the Blue Jays turned to their hitting coach, Cito Gaston, who agreed to take the position as long as it was just temporary. “Temporary” turned out to be nearly 9 years, four division titles and two World Series championships.

Born on March 17, 1944 in San Antonio, Texas, Gaston was an athletic stand-out in high school before signing with the Milwaukee Braves in 1964. After three years in the Braves’ minor league system, Gaston made his major league debut in 1967, appearing in 9 games for the Atlanta Braves. He would return to the majors in 1969, after being taken by the Padres in the 30th round of the expansion draft. En route to hitting .318 with 29 home runs and 93 RBI, Gaston was the Padres representative in the All-Star game.

Gaston would remain with the Padres before being traded back to the Braves (for Danny Frisella) on November 7, 1974 and roomed with Hank Aaron. He remained with the Braves until being sold to the Pirates on September 22nd, 1978 where he finished his major league career. He would play in Mexico for two more years before leaving his playing days behind.

He became the Braves minor league hitting instructor in 1981 (at the urging of Hank Aaron who was the Braves ‘ Vice President of Player Personel) and then became Toronto’s first full-time batting instructor, after being hired by Bobby Cox. In 1982, the team’s overall batting average improved by 36 points to .262 and would remain above .260 for Gaston’s first tenure as hitting coach.

After William’s dismissal as coach, Gaston was named temporary manager on May 15th and on May 31st, was named full-time manager. Under his guidance, the Jays would go 77-49 en route to their second Eastern Division title.

After a 1990 season where the Jays finished just 2 games behind the first-place Red Sox, the Jays reclaimed the AL East division title in 1991 and in 1992, Gaston led the Blue Jays to the World Series where, in 6 games, they defeated the Atlanta Braves to claim their first World Series championship, a feat they repeated against the Philadelphia Phillies in 1993.

However, after their 2nd consecutive World Series championship, things began to sour for the Blue Jays. Never again would Gaston lead the Blue Jays to a winning season, as the Jays finished below .500 in 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997. With the fans upset, Blue Jays management realized that something had to be done and a change had to be made. With a week left in the regular season, Cito Gaston was fired.

Tim Johnson was one of the most controversial managers in Blue Jay history. He was hired to manage the Blue Jays on November 24th, to fill the vacancy created when Cito Gaston was fired. To say he had big shoes to fill was an understatement, but he didn’t make things easy on himself.

Johnson was born on July 22nd, 1949 in Grand Forks, North Dakota and signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers after Montebello High School. In, 1970, he won a Silver Glove Award, as the best-fielding minor league shortstop, with a .978 fielding percentage while playing for Albuquerque of the Texas League.

However, his major league playing days would come with Milwaukee and Toronto, not Los Angeles. On April 24, 1973, L.A. traded him to the Brewers for fellow shortstop Rick Auerbach. He appeared in 136 games that year, hitting .213. It would turn out to be the most games in a season he would ever play.

On April 27th, 1978, having appeared in just three games for the Brewers, Johnson was traded to the Blue Jays for infielder Tim Nordbrook, and would appear in 111 games, playing all four positions for the Blue Jays, before retiring in 1979 with a career batting average of .223 with 84 RBI.

In 1980, he became a scout for the Central Scouting Bureau and, two years later, became a scout for the Dodgers, eventually managing in their minor league system and that of the Expos and Cubs, in addition to be in a bench coach for the Expos (1993-1994) and Red Sox (1995-96). He had also managed in Mexico, leading Hermosillo ot the Caribbean World Series in 1989-1990 and in 1994, lead Escogido to the Dominican League playoffs.

In 1998, he would spend one stormy year managing the Toronto Blue Jays to an 88-74 record, good for only third in the American League East. He had a year-long feud with pitching coach Mel Queen and clashed with Ed Sprague and Pat Hentgen. In addition, news that he had lied about serving in Vietnam began to surface. Just when it appeared that everything might have been smoothed over, Johnson was fired in the middle of 1999’s spring training schedule.

Johnson returned to Mexico, managing the Mexico City Red Devils to the championship in the Triple-A rated Mexican baseball league. For a brief period in early 2000, he was also an advanced scout for the Brewers.

Jim Fregosi went from the manager of the team Toronto beat in the 1993 World Series (the Philadelphia Phillies) to manager of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Fregosi, born in San Francisco, California on April 4, 1942, broke into baseball in 1960, when the Los Angeles Angels selected him off the Boston Red Sox roster in the AL Expansion draft. He would play for 18 seasons with the Mets, Texas Rangers and Pittsburgh Pirates, but primarily with what are now known as the Anaheim Angels. When he retired, he held the Angel records for games, at-bats, runs, hits, doubles, triples, extra-base hits and total bases. In August, 1998, his number “11” was retired by the Angels.

As a shorstop, Fregosi won a Gold Glove in 1967 and was an All-Star in 1966-1970. In December 1971, he was traded to the Mets for outfielder Leroy Stanton, catcher Francisco Estrada and a pitcher by the name of Nolan Ryan.

With a career batting average of .265 with 151 home runs and 706 RBI, Fregosi was released in 1978 so that he could accept the position of managing the California Angels (replacing Dave Garcia). After a 62-55 record in his first year, he led the Angels to the AL West title in 1979 (with an 85-74 record). He would manage the Angels until 1981. After managing in Louisville from 1983-1986 (including two first-place finishes), he replaced Tony LaRussa as manager of the Chicago White Sox, and led them to three consecutive third-place finishes.

Philadelphia was Fregosi’s next stop, as he managed the Phillies from 1991-1996, including a trip to the World Series in 1993, where they lost in six games to the Blue Jays. After being fired at the end of the 1996 season (in which the 5th place Phillies finished with a 67-95 record), Fregosi served as a special assistant to San Francisco Giants GM Brian Sabean.

Fregosi served as the manager of the Blue Jays from the middle of Spring training 1999 to the end of the 2000 season. Fired at the end of the 2000 season as manager of the Blue Jays due to low attendance, Fregosi became the special assistant to Braves GM John Schuerholz.

Buck Martinez made headlines when the former Blue Jays catcher went from the broadcast booth to the dugout when he became manager of the Blue Jays for the 2001 season.

Between 1967 and 1986, Martinez played 1049 games with the Toronto Blue Jays, Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers. He hit .225 with 58 home runs and 321 RBI. He came to Toronto in 1981 and in 1982-83, proceeded to have back-to-back seasons where he hit 10 home runs (career highs). In 1985, however, his career was shortened when he suffered a broken after a collision at home plate with Phil Bradley. He played just 81 games in 1986, hitting just .181.

After retiring at the end of the 1986 season, Martinez became a color commentator for the Blue Jays, including work with ESPN beginning in 1992. When Jim Fregosi was fired at the end of the 2000 season, Martinez beat out fellow Blue Jays Ernie Whitt, Willie Upshaw and former Kansas City Royals manager Hall McRae to become the newest Blue Jay manager. To date, he has led the Blue Jays to a 38-41 record, and currently they sit third in the American League East.

SHORT TERM MANAGERS

Mel Queen went from pitching coach to managing, when he filled in for the departed Cito Gaston for the final 5 games of 1997, guiding them to a 4-1 record.

Queen, born on March 26, 1942 in Johnston City, NJ, hit .179 in 274 major league at-bats, playing as a shortstop and third baseman for the Cincinatti Reds. Beginning in 1966, he also pitched, making 7 relief appearances for the Reds. By 1967, he was working exclusively as a pitcher, although he went down to shoulder injuries and demotion to the minors before being traded to California (for cash) on October 24, 1969. In 140 games, he went 20-17 with a 3.14 ERA.

Queen began coaching for Waterloo in the Midwest League in 1979 and worked his way through the Cleveland Indians organization until being their major league pitching coach in 1982. He joined the Toronto organization in 1986 as a pitching instructor and served as the major league pitching coach from 1996 to 1999. In 2000, he became the special assistant to the President and GM.

Gene Tenace was born on October 10, 1946 and played in the majors from 1969 to 1983, primarily with Oakland (1969-1976) as well as San Diego, St. Louis and Pittsburgh. Over a career that saw him appear in 1555 games, Tenace hit .271 with 201 home runs and 674 RBI. However, he would probably be best known for hitting 4 home runs (including two in his first two at-bats, making World Series history) in the 1972 World Series when Oakland beat the Reds. Tenace was named World Series MVP.

He served as a coach for the Brewer’s minor league system, as bullpen coach for the Astros and worked in the Yankees minor league system before joining the Blue Jays in 1989 as a minor league hitting instructor. In 1990,he became the Blue Jays major league hitting instructor in 1990. In 1992, he became the first ever Blue Jay bench coach and was a bullpen coach in 1996.

From August 21 to September 26, 1991, Tenace took over for Cito Gaston when the latter was sidelined with a ruptured disk in his lower back. Tenace also stepped in when, from May 27-29, 1994, Gaston was suspended. Tenace’s managerial record was 21-15. Tenace currently serves as the hitting coach for Trenton in the Boston Red Sox minor league organization.

John M. Milner firmly believes that Joe Carter's home run in the 1993 World Series was one of the turning points of his life. Discuss this, his columns, baseball or life in general with him at docmilner@yahoo.ca.

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