Future Blue Jays Newsletter

I know I promised you all a 10-20 top prospects newsletter, and I will get to it forthwith.

October has proven to be a busy month: I’ve been shopping my next book around to publishers, there was a guest speaker gig to prepare for, and oh yes - there’s been a lot of baseball to watch, along with the late nights and concomitant far too early mornings.

John Schneider’s decision to bring Brendon Little into game five to the ALCS was not only the wrong decision in hindsight, it probably was in foresight, too. But to continue along in that line of thinking, it gives insight into the nature of Schneider’s relationship with his players, and the respect they have for him. It also reminded me of a couple of anecdotes he and I talked about way back in 2019.

Schneider very much came up through the system with Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He managed them at then-Low A Lansing in 2017, and again one step up the ladder at New Hampshire the following season. A story I was told about his time in Lansing shows both the discipline he demanded, and the esteem his players held him in.

That season, the high performance staff put in a ping-pong table in the Lansing clubhouse. The idea was that it would help warm up players and develop fast-twitch and hand-eye coordination better than pre-game card or video games. The players responded enthusiastically, organizing mini singles and doubles tournaments. The problem was that they embraced the table too much, and began showing up late for drills before the scheduled games.

After about a week of players filtering onto the field after the designated time, Schneider had the table removed. When the players asked why, he told them, and said perfect attendance in pre-games would get it back in a couple of weeks. Not only did they players arrive on time for that time period, they kept it up for the rest of the season. When I relayed that story to Schneider, he said, “wow, you’ve done your homework.”

Another story comes from Schneider’s time in New Hampshire, one he told me himself. After posting a .988 at two A-ball levels in 2017, Bichette struggled through his first six weeks of AA the following year. Using a strategy first used by longtime baseball manager, coach, and executive Paul Richards, Schneider threw batting practice to Bo with the instructions to swing at every pitch, regardless if it was a strike or not. That taught the struggling youngster how to use his barrel, and how to discern between pitches he could get to it with, and those he could not. Maybe to a fan that seems like a relatively simple drill, but it more than drove the point home, and Bo helped lead New Hampshire (Vladdy had moved on to Buffalo) to an Eastern League title.

The point of these stories is that Schneider has faith in his players. He’s hands on with their development, and puts them in situations where they are likely to be successful. They, in turn, have faith in him - it’s no coincidence that Ernie Clement, Nathan Lukes, and even Little have had the best seasons of their career. That’s what a leader does - develops people, and puts his or her trust in them. Of course, sometimes that faith is not rewarded, but in the end - that’s baseball.

Schneider reminds me of former Toronto Maple Leafs manager Dan Howley, who figures prominently in that upcoming book I mentioned. Like Schneider, Howley was a backup backstop, a career minor leaguer save for 32 at bats for the 1913 Phillies. Howley used some revolutionary training methods for his day (his pitchers ran miles every day in spring training, and pitched live batting practice to his hitters) and numerous players both in Toronto, and in Howley’s later big league managing stints in St Louis and Cincinnati, had the best years of their careers under his tutelage.

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Our oldest son was born just a few months before the Jays 1992 World Series triumph. The routine we had settled into saw my wife going to bed not long after him in the early evening, while I stayed up to give him one last partial bottle at 11 pm, to help get him to 6 am, when it was mom’s turn. I had just sat back down in front of the tv when Mike Timlin deftly fielded Otis Nixon’s bunt and tossed it to Joe Carter for the final out.

Our youngest son came along in 1994. Both boys have become huge Jays fans (no surprise here), and we FaceTimed while watching Toronto’s ALCS-clinching win over Seattle. Yesterday morning, I joined the throngs who logged onto Ticketmaster, and unlike 2015 or 2016, I was able to get through! Game six was all that was available (and a big shoutout to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose decision to pause a limit of 50% markup on resale tickets the previous government had legislated), but if the series goes that long, we’ll make the climb up into the 500s. As our oldest son said, let’s hope the Jays don’t go up 3-1, and we have to cheer for the Dodgers in the fifth game.

Enjoy the Series, Jays fans. It’s been a remarkable season, and this is coming from a guy who has avidly followed the team since Day One.

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Finally, speaking of that upcoming book of mine, it’s called “The Howleyites,” and celebrates the 100th anniversary of both venerable Maple Leaf Stadium, and the championship team led by Dan Howley that played in it. The Howleyites also documents the changing demographics of the city, and gives a play-by-play of the Leafs’ own remarkable season. It will be out early next spring.