Great Expectations: The Lost Toronto Blue Jays Season - Softcover

Davidi, Shi; Lott, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1770411879 ISBN 13: 9781770411876

Publisher: ECW Press, 2013

Synopsis

The making of the Blue Jays' 2013 season.

After a disastrous 2012 season, the Blue Jays had a major makeover, adding an array of star players through trades and free-agent signings, including R.A. Dickey, the best pitcher in the National League last year, and ticket sales have since soared. Starting with a behind-the-scenes look at the offseason fallout that led to the roster upheaval, this book covers every aspect of the 2013 season with a particular focus on the personalities involved. The cast includes Alex Anthopoulos, the 36-year-old general manager from Montreal; R.A. Dickey, a sexual abuse survivor who also happens to be the only major-league pitcher to throw a knuckleball; Brett Lawrie, the team's lone Canadian, whose kinetic style of play is a double-edged sword; José Bautista, the two-time home-run champion bidding to revive his power after wrist surgery felled him last summer; and Melky Cabrera, whose 50-game drug suspension last year forced him to sign a free-agent contract with a new team for half the money he might otherwise have realized. Their guide is John Gibbons, whose challenge is to meld a diverse collection of newcomers and holdovers into a winning team in a city starved for a championship. For a generation of fans, 2013 is on the cusp of being a season like no other.

About this title

About the Author

Shi Davidi is a baseball columnist and TV analyst with Sportsnet in Toronto, who has covered the Blue Jays since 2002. Shi is a graduate of Ryerson University-s journalism program. John Lott has covered the Toronto Blue Jays since 2000 for the National Post in Toronto.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Great Expectations

The Lost Toronto Blue Jays Season

By Shi Davidi, John Lott

ECW PRESS

Copyright © 2013 Shi Davidi and John Lott
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-77041-187-6

CHAPTER 1

THE BLOCKBUSTER

"Hopefully by the end of 2013, we'll say 2012 is the best year the organization had. We needed it for all these things to happen. And if that isn't the case, we'll just say that was a terrible year and we lived through it."

— Alex Anthopoulos in February 2013

BY THE TIME THE BLUE JAYS ended their 2012 season on October 3 at 73-89 after a 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins, all Alex Anthopoulos wanted to do was get away. In previous years the tireless GM immediately pushed himself and his lieutenants into post-mortem meetings that lasted for days, using those talks as a springboard into the winter's business, everything happening at a dizzying, manic pace. But all the losing in a year of misery, all the grinding of moving players up and down from the minors while scanning the waiver wire or working the phones to try to find some upgrades, had taken a toll on the whole organization. So Anthopoulos did something almost unthinkable for him — he told everyone to go home and take a break. Even the man known for sending 2 a.m. emails briefly stepped aside from work, returning home to Montreal to reconnect with family and celebrate Thanksgiving. He needed the time not only to get away from baseball, but also to relax with his immediate family and newborn son John, an August addition to his clan.

By the time the holiday weekend was over, he was ready to begin picking up the pieces of his baseball team, and the first order of business was debriefing manager John Farrell.

They spoke all day the Monday after Thanksgiving and again on Tuesday, exchanging information and ideas in an open, direct, and forthright manner they hadn't enjoyed for months. The conversations were mostly constructive, although there were tense moments. Farrell complained of instances when he felt Anthopoulos made decisions without considering his input. Anthopoulos countered by telling Farrell that he needed to be stronger in stating his case when something was especially important to him, and he shouldn't relent if he didn't believe in a particular move. Then, at the very end, Anthopoulos finally broached the subject they had stayed away from, but ultimately the one most pressing: what to make of all those clandestine feelers from the Boston Red Sox?

Anthopoulos raised the matter first, asking Farrell directly what he should do if the Red Sox called again, inquiring about his availability. Farrell replied by saying that if he had an opportunity to pursue the job, he'd be interested, the same response he gave nearly a year earlier when the Red Sox took their first run at him. The Blue Jays angrily rebuffed that effort by demanding frontline pitcher Clay Buchholz in return for their manager, abruptly ending the conversation. This time, Anthopoulos told Farrell the Blue Jays hadn't been contacted yet by their division rival, and that nothing could happen unless they were. Essentially, it was a message that the Blue Jays were ready to discuss trading him, a marked shift from the GM's public pronouncements that "John is our manager." They were done fighting for someone who wanted to be somewhere else.

The next day Red Sox owner John Henry called Blue Jays president Paul Beeston to ask about Farrell again, and the ball got rolling. Negotiations were primarily handled between Beeston and close friend Larry Lucchino, Red Sox president and CEO, with input on trade pieces from Anthopoulos and his Boston counterpart, Ben Cherington

Edition details

• Publisher: ECW Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1770411879
• ISBN 13: 9781770411876
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 183