Elliott: R. I. P. Gary Wilson
Ontario Blue Jays first head coach Gary Wilson (Hamilton, Ont.), left, congratulates fellow 2015 Hall of Fame inductee Jamie Lehman (Brampton, Ont.), who pitched six seasons in the minors and was involved drafting this month’s Toronto Blue Jays first pick SS Arjun Nimmala, a Dover, Fla. high schooler.
July 15, 2023
By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
If Gene Bartolozzi was the father of elite baseball in Ontario, then Gary Wilson was his adopted first son.
Bartolozzi started the Hamilton Blue Jays years ago picking up players from here, there and everywhere to play on his team, which headed south.
His efforts earned him a lifetime ban from Baseball Ontario. It was later reduced to one year and Bill Byckowski, Canadian scouting director of the Toronto Blue Jays, phoned with support of uniforms and baseballs.
Wilson (Hamilton, Ont.) was put in charge of Ontario’s best, elite team -- which brought in players from Windsor to Ottawa -- to play for the renamed Ontario Blue Jays in a Michigan Connie Mack league.
Toronto Blue Jays scouts like Ed Heather (Cambridge, Ont.), Greg Minor (Pickering, Ont.), Jim Ridley (Burlington, Ont.), Walt Jefferies (Paris, Ont.), Steve Trout (Peterborough, Ont.) and others sent players to Wilson’s team which worked out every weekend morning in Etobicoke during the winter.
Wilson’s stay was short lived, but every player he coached was placed with a school from Louisville University, Bowling Green, Nebraska, Saginaw Valley State, Rend Lake and places in between.
Ex-players Scott Thorman (Cambridge, Ont.), Peter Orr (Newmarket, Ont.) and Adam Stern (Port Stanley, Ont.) all reached the majors. Nowadays we do our annual top 100 most influential Canadians in baseball. Gary Wilson would have been top 10 material in his hey day.
It was the best program for the simple reason it was the only one at the time. Then, Team Ontario expanded to 18U age group. And the GTA Stars, Canadian Thunderbirds and Windsor Selects were born. Flash forward to 2022: A coach told me that there were 96 elite teams in the province.
“With Gary’s big personality and obviously the brand name made it tough to recruit against,” said Mike Steed, who ran the GTA Stars and is now a pitching coach in the Atlanta Braves organization. “It was different back then though.
“For some reason he liked me. I got a couple of my better players from Gary because he didn't have room on his roster so he called me and basically said ‘I'm sending you so and so … no need to tryout he is good and on your roster.’ My response was “you got it.’”
The seven or organization only had one team so the talent level was different in terms of guys we talked about so it was easy to take any one he passed along.
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Wilson got the Ontario Blue Jays running and they still are a force today under Corey Eckstein, along with the Great Lake Canadians, which Chris Robinson and Stern operate; the Toronto Mets, run by Rick Leitch and Ryan McBride, plus Rick Johnston’s Terriers and Jason Booth’s Ontario Astros to name a few of the 96.
We mention Wilson because he passed this week at age 73. We saw a lot of Wilson those early years. People would ask, “Why do you write so much about the Ontario Blue Jays?” Because scouts said they had the most talent.
It was the same question years later only the answer would change to Doug Mathieson’s Langley Blaze, or John Ircandia’s Okotoks Dawgs or Richard Emond’s Academie du Baseball Canada.
Every six months or so Wilson would give me a call:
“Why isn’t Peter Orr in the majors yet? Why isn’t Adam Stern in the majors yet? Why isn’t Scotty Thorman in the big leagues yet?”
I’d answer that they were progressing ... it’s a long process.
“Gary changed my life, and that is not an exaggeration,” Orr said. “What he did for our group back in 1997 had never been done before, he built upon what the team did in 1996 and he ran with it.
“He was not afraid to go against the grain and create a ‘different’ pathway for Canadian high school players. We didn’t know it at the time but he was one step ahead of everybody in that regard. It became the norm within a few years.”
Orr admits that the Ontario Blue Jays and Wilson “ruffled some feathers back then,” with their recruiting but players were all treated like gold.
“It was an absolutely amazing experience,” Orr said. “We were a team from the Ontario that would go to tournaments in the US and win.”
They beat Team Canada 7-2 at the Skydome, Team USA filled with future big leaguers and won the Michigan loop. Orr was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 39th round -- a round which no longer exists -- in 1997.
“It was incredible what we accomplished when you look back, we were a machine,” said Orr. “I was drafted, but I wasn’t a ‘top’ player, or even a kid you could project would ever one day make the big leagues. I was a skinny athletic kid ... raw as can be.
“I definitely was not a confident player and to be honest I had no idea if I was any good. Gary was the opposite, he had a big personality, a very confident style that I had never really been exposed to before. He instilled that confidence in all of us, it became our team style.”
Orr said when the Ontario Blue Jays arrived at a park, or to the stadium “we had a Gary Wilson type of bravado and it was real, we took care of business.”
Former Ontario Blue Jays SS Pete Orr (Newmarket, Ont.)
“Gary connected with all of us, but I know Gary went out of his way to connect with me and help me believe in myself,” said Orr. “He built up my inner confidence, let me know I could play this game at a high level. He believed in me, and let me know it. It had a huge impact on my journey.”
One of Orr’s favorite Wilson memories goes like this. He was only player on the team that didn’t own a pair of Oakley sunglasses when the Ontario Blue Jays arrived in Farmington, N.M. for the Connie Mack World Series.
“They were kind of a status thing back then, all the good players had a pair,” said Orr. “I’ll never forget when we got to New Mexico Gary said, ‘Hey kid, why don’t you wear mine this week?’ It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but when you are a kid who lacks confidence sometimes it’s the small things that make a difference.
“All of a sudden I was a shortstop, with a cool pair of blue framed Oakley’s and I could of taken on the world. At the end of the tournament, Gary wouldn’t let me give them back and told me to keep ‘em.”
Orr took those Oakleys with him to Galveston Community College.
“I still wasn’t the most confident player,” Orr said, “but I had a piece of that Ontario Blue Jays team with me and that little reminder, was a confidence booster I needed. I knew if I played on that team, against that competition, that I could play anywhere.
“I still went thru many ups and downs before I made it to Atlanta, but Gary and that team were always a part of the player that I came to be. I will be forever grateful to Gary Wilson, and the Ontario Blue Jays.”
“Why isn’t Scotty with the Braves? Why isn’t Peter playing every day the majors? Why isn’t Adam playing every day the majors?”
Orr, now the top Canadian scout with the Milwaukee Brewers and a coach with the Toronto Mets, made the Braves 2005 opening day roster as a back-up infielder. I was in Miami and standing in the Braves dugout and Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox thanked me for driving over from Dunedin.
“You came all this way to write about Orr on opening night instead of covering the Toronto Blue Jays,” said Cox. Toronto opened the same night in St. Petersburg against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Marlins broadcaster Dave Van Horne and ESPN’s Buck Martinez were nearby and overheard what Cox said.
“Coxie,” Martinez said to his former Toronto Blue Jays manager, “Bobby loves all the things Peter can do for a team, but I’m going to guess his office sent him here to write about the Marlins new first baseman.”
Buck was right of course ... that was the year Carlos Delgado joined the Marlins as a free agent.
Orr, a free-agent sign by the Braves, made his debut that night taking over for Marcus Giles in the sixth inning of a 9-0 Florida win as Delgado went 4-for-5 with three RBIs.
Thorman played for the Ontario Blue Jays in grade 10 and 11, joining Team Ontario for his draft year -- after Wilson departed -- when he went in the first round (30th overall) to the Braves. He played two seasons for Cox with the Braves -- once leading the majors in average distance for length of home runs (10 or more to qualify).
1B Scott Thorman (Cambridge, Ont.) played for the Ontario Blue Jays in grade 10 and grade 11.
The first baseman described Wilson this week as a “A real showmen. The kind of guy that would take you to Disney World.”
Wilson predicted Thorman was a first rounder in grade 10. When other scouts told him to tone it down -- after all Wilson had never coached a first rounder -- he would. Yet only or a game or two. Wilson was right on Thorman, now minor league field co-ordinator for the Kansas City Royals.
Stern was selected in the 22nd round in 1998 draft by the Toronto Blue Jays and headed to the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the College World Series. Three years later, he was drafted by the Braves in the third round of the 2001 draft.
Selected in the Rule V draft by the Boston Red Sox, he made his debut June 5, 2005 starting in centre and going hitless facing lefty David Wells in a 3-1 loss to Baltimore Orioles.
Thorman made his debut on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball facing Cy Young Award winner Curt Schilling June 18 of 2006. He swung at Schilling first pitch high and out of the strike zone. “I think I made up my mind to swing at that pitch when I left (triple-A) Richmond,” he joked later.
“Why isn’t Stern back the majors? Why isn’t Thorman back in the big leagues? Why isn’t Orr back the big leagues?
Orr played in 443 games over eight seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals and the Braves.
Thorman played in 175 games with the Braves
Stern played in 54 games in parts of four seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Red Sox and the Orioles.
All three wore the CANADA uniform in international play and wore it well. Stern may have worn it best. Stern hit an inside-the-park homer, drove in four runs and made two highlight-reel catches in centre leading Canada to an 8-6 victory over the Team USA in the first round of the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006.
CF Adam Stern (Port Stanley, Ont.) crosses the plate to high-five Stubby Clapp (Windsor, Ont.) after scoring for Canada.
It the most exciting game I have ever witnessed -- until Orr scored all the way from first base on two Team USA errors -- to win the 2015 Pan Am Games gold medal game in Ajax. The throw beat Orr to the plate, but his head-first slide knocked the ball loose.
Wilson was the organization’s first head coach guiding the team from its inception in 1996 through 1999 season. He worked for 27 years at Procter and Gamble and served as an area scout for the Braves for two years. There was always talk he had been a wrassler in his younger days. We never found out for sure, but he could sure could make some faces like an angry WWE superstar.
Prior to coaching the Ontario Blue Jays, he managed the Toronto Maple Leafs (going 15-8 before resigning July 13, 1978) for the Kitchener Panthers (13-17 in 1979), Hamilton Cardinals (14-18 in 1980, 6-25 as a co-manager with Phil Marvinac in 1984 and 7-25 in 1986) of the Intercounty League for a career mark of 55-93.
Wilson was inducted into the Ontario Blue Jays Hall of Fame into 2015 along with RHP Shawn Hill (Mississauga, Ont.), who pitched parts of seven seasons for the Nationals, Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres (10-18, 4.69 ERA in 45 games) and current Blue Jays cross checker Jamie Lehman (Brampton, Ont.) who was in on making this year’s first round pick SS Arjun Nimmala, a Dover, Fla. high schooler.
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“Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of Gary Wilson, the visionary founder of the Ontario Blue Jays,” the Ontario Blue Jays wrote in a tweet on Monday. “His unwavering commitment to developing young talent has left an indelible mark on our organization and the baseball community. Rest in peace, Gary Wilson. Your legacy lives on. #OBJFamily”
His daughter Jodie Golini said “Coaching those boys was the best thing my father did in his life. He loved them and they loved him back.”
“The summers of 1996-99 brought me so much joy. I lived for travelling with them from one park to another,” Golini said. “This has been such a heavy week. I can’t stop crying.”
Golini said Paul Brown (Chatham, Ont.) and Thorman were the players “who had the most of (her father’s) heart.”
Golini said one plan is to have some of her father’s childhood friends scatter some ashes at the Little League diamond in Stoney Creek and the remainder to be buried with my grandparents. Golini said she would like to take some of her father’s ashes to Cooperstown.
“Cooperstown is where he belongs and maybe it’s ego,” said Golini said, “but I think he’d want me to be the one to say the final goodbye at a place he loved, in a place he worshipped.”