Gallagher: Readers in Burlington, Ontario can't get enough of Gibby
John Gibbons’ new memoir is a national bestseller, and it is especially in demand in Burlington, Ont.
May 25, 2023
By Danny Gallagher
Canadian Baseball Network
What is really remarkable about the success story that is Gibby is that an Indigo store in Burlington, Ont., has sold the most copies of any store in the chain in Canada to date.
That's your trivia item for today.
Remarkable, considering Burlington is located about an hour south of Toronto where Gibby (John Gibbons) managed the Blue Jays in two different stints. You'd think a Toronto store would be leading the way in sales.
Gibby, a hardcover with 256 pages, continues to be a phenomenon after more than 55 days on the book shelves.
The book is a credit to Gibbons and Greg Oliver, who helped him write it and Josh Donaldson with his Foreword, but it's also a credit to ECW Press, a long-time independent publishing company located in downtown Toronto.
Gibbons was a manager who never won a league championship in the major leagues and never made it to a World Series but he's a winner with Gibby, which has been seen often on the best-seller lists of the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star every Saturday.
The story of Gibbons is uplifting and candid, if not humourous. Gibby: Tales of a Baseball Lifer, has sold thousands and thousands of books, probably more than 10,000, although the exact figure is unknown. 5,000 is considered a bestseller in Canada.
ECW has been an underdog publisher for decades, plying away in the shadows of behemoth publishers such as Harper Collins Canada, Penguin, Simon & Schuster Canada and Random House.
ECW is one of the truly great, small-time publishers. It had its beginnings in 1974 when it was founded by Jack David and Robert Lecker as a magazine called Essays on Canada Writing (ECW).
David and executive editor Michael Holmes, an acquistions editor, who has been with the company for a long time, saw something special in Gibby. Holmes had met Gibbons years ago at a banquet and was fascinated by him. Holmes also worked on projects with Oliver.
"The book's appeal was always going to be in Gibby's kind, authentic voice, his quick wit and humour. It's the ultimate feel-good, everyman sports story,'' Holmes told me in an interview. "I never, not for a second, doubted that it would be a bestseller. Even before I read a single word. But it has met and exceeded our every hope and expectation.”
Dave Reynolds, the sports-category and non-fiction manager for Chapters/Indigo, saw the potential after studying sales pitches from ECW sales folks, especially when hundreds and hundreds of people pre-ordered the book.
“It’s always great to see books from Canadian publishers with Canadian content and/or by Canadian authors, so at Indigo we are delighted to carry Gibby,'' Reynolds said in a company-issued email. "Given Gibbons’ association with Toronto baseball and the historic seasons of his second run with the Blue Jays, Gibby is a fantastic read for any sports fan and also a great Father’s Day gift.”
To celebrate the launch of the book, @indigo is hosting an Instagram live event with Gibbons on June 5 at 7 p.m.
Danny Gallagher's new book about the Expos is called Around The Horn, a collection of vignettes about the franchise from 1969-2004.