December 20, 2023

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

We always used to say that the toughest job in a major-league organization -- on some nights -- did not belong to the most obvious choice.

No, it was not the third base coach, who had a tying run thrown out by two sections.

No, it was not the general manager who gave the free-agent, right-hander a huge contract and then had to send him to the bullpen eight starts into the season.

No, it was not the manager who lifted his dominant starter after 47 pitches and had to take the podium to answer the question “why the quick hook?” Meanwhile the analytics department were nowhere to be seen.

Not every night, but after some games the toughest job in the organization belongs to the travelling secretary.

In the days when each newspaper paid for a seat on a charter (actually I think the ball club received free add lineage), we saw it first hand more than once.

The worst case I ever saw was after the Blue Jays were “edged” 11-1 in July of 1989 at Arlington, Tex. The bus left the old ballpark outside Arlington Stadium down the left field line 45 minutes after the final pitch. It was a long hike from the press box against the exiting crowd which meant that Jays-Rangers games had more typos than anywhere else in the league.

The Jays were happy to get out of town after the lopsided thumping. Mike Flanagan gave up six runs -- five earned -- reliever Frank Wills allowed one in 1 2/3 and then Jeff Musselman was touched for four runs in two innings. The loss dropped the Jays record to below .500. Again.

Often times the buses (two, one for players, the other for the manager, coaches, broadcasters and writers) would pull up on the tarmac alongside the charter. On this night we entered the Dallas-Fort Worth terminal.

Now, remember this was pre-cellphone days. We spotted the young travelling secretary walking by laughing uncontrollably.

“What’s up?

“You’re not going to believe this: Dallas is a hub for American Airlines, right? We’re flying American, right? Guess where our plane is?”

“Hopefully about five gates down ...”

“Nope, OUR plane is still in Newark. It has to fly here, pick us up and head back to New York,” he said. Again he was laughing.

I called him over so we were 1-on-1 and asked if he would agree counting the Montreal Expos that I would have been on a few more trips than he had. He agreed. I told the young man to do himself a favor and put on a sad face when he reported to management that American Airlines had messed up and his charter is 4 1/2 hours away.

Players quickly began giving him crap.

Once on the plane players were relentless teasing the travelling secretary. It wasn’t his fault. He had called American from the press box and explained that the game was in the seventh inning. He used the phone beside my set.

We landed in Newark at 7 a.m. and headed into Manhattan in rush hour traffic.

A coach yelled from the back of the bus “Hey Ernie,” to catcher Ernie Whitt, who had his family on the trip as we inched along towards the tunnel. “Wouldn’t today be a good day to take the wife and kids up to the observation tower of the Empire State Building?”

Whitt leaned into the aisle and dropped a Dave Stewart-like death stare.

Years later when the equipment truck was slow loading, whether the sandwiches wasn’t what he wanted George Bell would yell at travelling secretary John Brioux:

“We got rid of the last guy, we’ll get you, you gotta do better.”

At the end of the 2023 season veteran travelling secretary extraordinary Mike Shaw (Oakville, Ont.), was hired by the Atlanta Braves. Shaw shared the John Cerutti Good Guy award from the Toronto chapter of the BBWAA with retiring 3B coach Luis Rivera, a former Expos.

Now, with Shaw in the deep south, we’ll never see Sportsnet’s Ryan Leslie and Shaw in the same place.

The Jays stayed within the ogranization with a solid hire in Rodney Hiemstra, former Jays public relations manager.

Release

Rodney Hiemstra will sadly no longer be part of the Toronto Blue Jays communications team. But he’s not going too far…

Rod has been appointed the new manager of team travel for the Blue Jays.

Reporting to general manager Ross Atkins, Rod will oversee all aspects of team travel throughout the baseball calendar, including transportation, accommodation, and immigration needs.

As people who have worked closely with him, Rod is the ultimate team player with immense passion for the game. He has established himself as a resourceful expert and the go-to for all information, while building deep and meaningful relationships across the club and industry.

Rod started at the Blue Jays in 2017 as the media intern. He earned progressively senior promotions over these past seven seasons, which is a testament to his incredibly strong work ethic and his selfless approach to always supporting others.

Hot Rod, or rather his likeness, even showed when fans could not enter the park during the COVID pandemic.

Rod assumes his new duties immediately. Rod will enjoy much success in this new role, just as he has in the Communications department all these years.

We thank Rod for being an incredible teammate and friend. Please join us in wishing Rod a huge congratulations.