Paul Beeston is sure to get this franchise back to the ‘Blue Jay Way’ of doing things.
The best news regarding Paul Beeston being back in the fold for the Toronto Blue Jays, even in just an interim capacity, is that someone with a track record running a professional baseball franchise is now charge of finding the new president & CEO.
Beeston was sitting atop the pyramid, owned at the time by another well-oiled, publicly-owned company (Labatt's Breweries), when I first became the "third man in the booth" before the 1993 season. That allowed me to be along for the ride as the Blue Jays went out and dominated the American League en route to repeating as World Series champions.
I wished I'd paid a little closer attention to the way the team was run in those days. Pat Gillick was still there as general manager, a post he would hold as Beeston's second-in-command and chief decision-maker on all things baseball until leaving after the 1994 work stoppage to take over as GM for the Baltimore Orioles. Beeston would follow Gillick out the door following the 1997 season to go to New York to become president & COO of Major League Baseball, a post he held until 2002. Since then, he has been in semi-retirement all the while still keeping an office at the Rogers Centre to keep his eye on the Blue Jays, still a passion in his life.
When rumours that Paul Godfrey, the outgoing president & CEO, was not interested in re-upping his deal to continue past the end of this calendar year, the obvious names that came up were Beeston and Gillick. The return of Cito Gaston, the skipper during the club's glory years, to the dugout in late June after the firing of lame-duck manager John Gibbons brought a lot of fans back to the ballpark. The team played better under the "old school" ways of Gaston, so why not bring some executives back to see if the retro-way of doing things might bring back similar results. The only problem is that Beeston has stated, for anyone who would listen, that he really has no designs on running a major league franchise anymore, and Gillick is not available as he's a little busy running the Philadelphia Phillies, currently waiting to see if the upstart Tampa Bay Rays or defending champion Boston Red Sox will be their opponent in this year's World Series.
Then the names that started popping up in the media include John Tory, former president & CEO of the media and cable divisions of Rogers Communications and current owners of the Blue Jays; Gordon Kirke, sports lawyer and media commentator; and Greg Sorbara, former Minister of Finance for Premier Dalton McGuinty's Ontario Liberal party. The argument for these early names is that Godfrey's replacement should have a strong business and marketing background in order to keep money filling the coffers for the Blue Jays and Rogers Centre.
Well, I'm going to debate that logic and the return of Beeston, no matter how brief, fits my argument. Someone with knowledge of the day-to-day workings within the framework of Major League Baseball is essential. The better the team is, as we all witnessed during the World Series years of 1992 and 1993, the more money will flow through the doors. It happened before and is sure to happen again if this team is ever a true contender once more, not us being told that the team is a contender by those running the front office. This is why Beeston's connections throughout the game, with other teams and the commissioner's office, will be invaluable.
It's time to get back to the 'Blue Jay Way' of doing things which, under Beeston's first regime, meant players were excited to come and play in Toronto and management didn't have to overpay for any player's services, something that has become a staple since Beeston and Gillick rode out of town in the mid-90s. And when the team was close to winning it all, star players like Dave Winfield, Jack Morris, Dave Stewart and Paul Molitor were brought in to put them over the top, not lightning-in-a-bottle types that are currently gambled on to fill the holes. With a president & CEO in place with a baseball background, the days of trades like Jayson Werth-for-Jason Frasor will, hopefully, become a thing of the past.
We all still trust Paul Beeston because we have no reason not to. Instead of having some head-hunter firm in charge of finding Godfrey's successor, which I've always thought was done as a way of passing the buck and not showing any true leadership, we have 'The Beest' with his vast resume of success, scouring the sporting landscape to find someone to steer the Blue Jays back towards playing baseball in October, something that hasn't happened in many moons.
I feel pretty good about that. How about you, ticket buyers and consumers?
