In Peter Gammons' recent article on teams that are training in Arizona and have new managers, Dusty Baker mentions Cito Gaston twice.
"Someone suggested that I sit out a year. Why? I don't want to be the next Cito Gaston. He won two world championships, took some time off after losing his job and hasn't managed again, and he was a great manager. This is a funny business."
"It still kills me that we didn't win the World Series. We were so close ... I want to win at everything. I hate to lose. I come to the park thinking about nothing but winning. And, beyond winning and the players, I wanted to win to be the second African-American manager to win a world championship, to be Cito's successor."
Obviously, Baker has a great deal of respect for Gaston - more than many fans in Toronto have. At best, Cito was thought of as a push-button manager who sat back and watched his players win; at worst, he has been credited (debited) with running Shawn Green and John Olerud out of town.
My opinion is that Cito was good at gaining the respect of his veteran players (which is not always easy to do, as Buck Martinez will no doubt tell you). He wasn't as effective with young players, and wasn't especially good at in-game strategy. But the Jays have been to the post-season a total of five times, and Cito was in charge of four of those teams (and the hitting coach on the fifth), and deserves credit for that.
What do you all think?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20030217115551999