WEYBURN – Stories from a career of 38 years in Major League Baseball entertained a crowd at the Weyburn Exhibition Hall on Friday evening, as the Weyburn Beavers held their sports dinner with guest John Gibbons, former manager of the Toronto Blue Jays.
A virtual session had been held with Gibbons in 2020, as the sports dinner that year had to be cancelled due to COVID, so the team ensured they brought him to the city in person this year.
He spoke of playing with the New York Mets prior to his time in Toronto, and of the two times he worked for the Blue Jays. He noted the first time he was in Toronto, “I don’t think I was well-liked. If the team’s good, you’re well-liked.”
When Gibbons was back the second time, he enjoyed his time there better because the team played better.
“It’s amazing what a little winning will do for you as a team,” he said.
Gibbons noted that in 2015, they should’ve been able to win it all, and then in 2016 they made it to the post-season again, but they weren’t as good.
“We all know once a team starts struggling and cracks show, they’re going to clean house,” he said. “Now they’ve got a really good team.”
He remembered “the whole country was crazy” for the Jays in 2015, recalling when they were on the road in Seattle, the stadium was filled with Blue Jays fans. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
More recently, Gibbons has written and released a book of his baseball years, and he can be heard on his podcast every week on Tuesdays. This past week, he had Jays broadcaster and former manager Buck Martinez as his guest.
Gibbons said he had no ambitions to write a book or do a podcast, but he was asked to give it a try. While he was scouting players, he started his podcast, and it’s been going well for him since.
Asked about changes to baseball, Gibbons offered his comments on some aspects of the game, such as the pitch clock now used to limit the time pitchers are on the mound.
“I’m old-fashioned, I’m not always good with change,” he said, noting that historically, baseball is all about statistics, and to limit how long pitchers go “just doesn’t seem right.”
He added if a pitcher is doing strongly in a game, he should be left in. At one time, he said, a manager could get fired for pulling a pitcher too soon, now he might get fired if he leaves him longer than the clock allows.
“Some pitchers had trouble with it,” he said. “If folks like it, that’s what it’s all about.”
He also commented he doesn’t like the new rules about sliding
Asked about what are the characteristics of a great ball player, he said, “It isn’t always the physical skills, it’s not all talent. They have so much confidence. They can mess up but they don’t care, they know they’re to get another shot at it.”
On the World Series-winning squad of the Blue Jays, Gibbons said, “They came to play every day. They fought each other every day, but they always came to play. It was such a unique group of great players.”
Asked by an audience member what his favourite ball park was, Gibbons said the nicest ball park is in Seattle, but his favourite ball park to play in is Fenway in Boston, partly because of the history there, but also because of the atmosphere of the games.
Gibbons hung around Weyburn on Saturday, as he threw out the first pitch at the Beavers game and stayed to watch them beat Regina, and met some minor ball teams.
