Gaston deserves to get the call

The wait could soon be over for Cito Gaston. The former Blue Jays manager will find out Sunday night if he has been granted entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Gaston, who went 894-837 across parts of 12 seasons in Toronto, will have his fate determined by Major League Baseball’s contemporary era committee, a 16-person panel that includes former players, managers, executives, and historians. He needs the support of 75 per cent of the panel, 12 votes, to be inducted into Cooperstown. Others being considered are former managers Jim Leyland, Lou Piniella and Davey Johnson, umpires Ed Montague and Joe West, and executives Hank Peters and Bill White.

This will be Gaston’s first and likely only shot at being enshrined. Unlike players, who can remain on a ballot for up to 10 years, the voting process is not handled by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America but instead by this committee that convenes once a year.

The committee this year includes former players such Jeff Bagwell, Tom Glavine, Chipper Jones and Jim Thome, former commissioner Bud Selig and Hall of Fame skipper Joe Torre. The group will meet Sunday at the annual winter meetings in Nashville, and the results will be announced at 7:30 p.m.

Gaston, the first African American manager to win a World Series, has a strong case. He led the Jays to a back-to-back championships in 1992 and 1993 while also earning four American League East division titles. He also spent parts of 11 seasons in the majors as an outfielder.

There have been 22 managers in major-league history with at least two World Series titles on their resumés. Of those, 15 have already been inducted into the Hall of Fame, while Bruce Bochy and Terry Francona figure to end up in Cooperstown once eligible.

The only other members of the two-title managerial club who haven’t enter the hall are Ralph Houk (1961, 1984), Danny Murtaugh (1957, 1976), Bill Carrigan (1913, 1929) and Tom Kelly (1986, 2001).

“It’s not easy dealing with 25 dif

ferent guys, different characters,” the late Jays infielder Tony Fernandez once said of Gaston, who was inducted into Canada’s Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002. “He had a father-like approach coaching style. And, to me, those are the kinds of coaches who have more success with their players.”

Fernandez’s words back up Gaston’s reputation as a player’s manager. He spent seven seasons as the Jays’ hitting coach before he was promoted to manager in May 1989 after Jimy Williams was relieved of his duties. Gaston initially declined the offer before his players convinced him to take the job.

With Gaston at the helm, the 1989 Jays turned their sub-.500 season around and went 77-49 the rest of the way to become the eventual AL East champions. The Jays finished second the following year before winning three consecutive division titles in what is fondly remembered as Toronto’s golden era of baseball.

Gaston was known for getting the best out of his roster, particularly the hitters. George Bell was the AL most valuable player in 1987 when Gaston was the hitting coach and the Jays finished with a top-five offence in all but one of his first five years as manager.

During a second managing stint with the Jays from 2008-10, Gaston helped transform José Bautista from a journeyman third baseman into one of the game’s elite power hitters.

The biggest criticism of Gaston was the unfair perception that any manager would have won with that much talent. During the Jays’ first title run in 1992, they had three all-stars and the third-highest payroll in the sport. The following year, they spent more than anyone else and had seven all-stars.

There is no denying the talent of those teams but Gaston’s strength was putting players into clearly defined roles and being patient enough to allow them to work through slumps. Sometimes, there’s something to be said about getting out of the way.

“Cito has never got the credit that he deserved,” former Jays outfielder Joe Carter told MLB Network earlier this week. “They say that he really didn’t do too much because he just sat back and let the players play. To me, that’s called managing. He knew what type of players he had and to this day I would run through a brick wall for Cito Gaston.”

The other obstacle that Gaston might encounter during Sunday’s vote is his lack of longevity compared to other candidates. Piniella managed 3,548 games across 23 seasons, Leyland managed 3,499 games over 22 years, while Johnson was the bench boss for 2,445 games during a 17-year career. Gaston managed 1,731 games over 12 years.

Still, Gaston has something the other three don’t, a pair of World Series titles. Leyland, Piniella and Johnson stuck around the big leagues longer, but they each have just one championship.

The resumé speaks for itself and hopefully the voters agree. A Hall of Fame without the first African American manager to lead his team to the ultimate prize wouldn’t seem like much of a hall at all.