December 3, 2023

By Kevin Glew

Cooperstowners in Canada

Rance Mulliniks strongly believes that legendary Toronto Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston deserves to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame when the votes are counted on Sunday.

“In my opinion, it’s been long overdue for him,” said Mulliniks, who has known Gaston since 1982, in a recent phone interview. “I most certainly hope he gets in based on what he accomplished. He won back-to-back World Series and then there’s the historical side of it, he is the first African-American to manage a team to a world championship. That’s very significant.”

It is, indeed.

Gaston is also the only skipper, outside of Joe Torre with the New York Yankees, to pilot a club to championships in consecutive seasons in the past 45 years.

Yet, for some reason, Gaston has never received the respect he deserves.

Like Mulliniks, I hope this changes on Sunday when the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Contemporary Era Committee announces their 2024 selections. The announcement will be made at 7:30 p.m. E.T. on MLB Network.

Gaston is one of eight finalists being considered by the 16-member Hall of Fame voting committee. Three other managers – Davey Johnson, Jim Leyland and Lou Piniella – are also finalists, along with ex-umpires Ed Montague and Joe West and longtime executives Hank Peters and Bill White. Gaston will require 75 percent support (or 12 of 16 votes) to be elected.

Despite his trailblazing role and success as a Blue Jays manager, this is the first time Gaston has appeared on a Veterans Committee ballot.

One knock against Gaston has been that the 1992 and 1993 Blue Jays championship teams were so loaded with talent that all he had to do was get out of the way.

“A lot of people thought those teams were so good they were push-button teams,” fellow World Series-winning manager Dusty Baker told the Toronto Sun in June. “I think that’s hurt Cito’s reputation – the belief that anyone could manage them. I can tell you from experience, there’s no such thing as a push-button team. It doesn’t exist. I don’t care how good your lineup is, there is still a lot to be done.” 

It’s puzzling as to why that criticism has followed Gaston, but not Torre, who managed four Yankees teams chock full of superstars to World Series titles. Torre was unanimously elected to the Hall of Fame by a similar Veterans Committee in December 2013.

And if we do accept that Gaston’s 1992 and 1993 Blue Jays teams were stacked, it takes a skilled leader to convince a group of stars to set their egos aside and jell into a championship-winning club.

“Cito was always humble and compassionate. He had all of the qualities that I think a leader has to have,” said Mulliniks who played for Gaston from 1989 to 1992. “I think the reason he was always able to pass on good advice was because he was always so humble. He was always willing to listen and he always wanted to learn.”

But if you want evidence that Gaston could inspire a less than loaded team to the postseason, look no further than the 1989 Blue Jays. When he took over as manager from Jimy Williams on May 15 that year, the team was 12-24. Gaston proceeded to guide them to a 77-49 record and the division title, with veteran outfielder Mookie Wilson being the only notable addition.

Mulliniks, who was on that 1989 squad, says Gaston was a positive and calming influence after the club’s horrible start that season. Gaston, in that campaign and many that followed, was effective in getting the team to relax and play to their capabilities.

“Cito always had things in the proper perspective, and I think that’s one of the reasons that he was so good at passing along good advice because he wasn’t overreacting to whatever the situation was,” said Mulliniks. “And that was a huge asset.”

Here’s hoping the Hall voters will take all of this into consideration on Sunday. They should also take into account that of the four managers who are finalists, Gaston is the only one with two World Series titles.

Some critics contend Gaston didn’t manage long enough. He posted an 894-837 record in 1,731 regular season games – that’s more than 800 fewer contests than any of the other three managers being considered by the Hall committee. But shouldn’t the fact that he guided two teams to World Series titles in significantly fewer seasons make it even more impressive?

“Cito won four divisions, two league championships and two World Series titles,” pointed out Mulliniks. “How many managers in baseball have done that? There aren’t many . . . To me you’ve got to separate it out, he managed 12 years and here’s what he accomplished during that 12-year period.”

And it should be emphasized that those four division titles and two championships came during a five-year span from 1989 to 1993. Outside of Torre with the Yankees and Bruce Bochy with the San Francisco Giants from 2010 to 2014, there has not been a more successful five-year period for any big league manager in the past 35 years.

Gaston, himself, is likely taking the Hall of Fame talk in stride. Born in 1944 in San Antonio, Tex., he was signed by the Milwaukee Braves as an amateur free agent in 1964.

But even during his playing days, he was underestimated. After competing in just nine big league games with the Braves, he was left exposed in the 1968 MLB expansion draft and selected by the San Diego Padres with their final pick.

Gaston worked diligently to hone his hitting skills and in 1970, he batted .318 with 29 home runs and 93 RBIs and was selected to the All-Star Game.

Unfortunately, he never came close to duplicating that season. He was dealt back to the Braves in 1974 and served as a backup outfielder before playing his final two major league games with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1978.

Three years later, the Braves hired him as a minor league hitting instructor and when Bobby Cox was tabbed to manage the Blue Jays in 1982, he brought Gaston with him to serve as the club’s hitting coach.

Gaston developed into one of the best batting instructors of his era, helping players like Lloyd Moseby, George Bell, Jesse Barfield, Fred McGriff and Mulliniks.

“Cito taught me how to hit at the major league level,” said Mulliniks. “It seemed like he always knew the correct advice to pass along.”

With his strong rapport with Blue Jays hitters, it only made sense for the club to hand him the manager’s position in 1989. Gaston’s first tenure as skipper with the Blue Jays ended in 1997, but he returned to manage from 2008 to 2010. During that time, he helped Jose Bautista rejig his swing and transform the slugger into an American League home run champion.

Gaston was added to the Blue Jays Level of Excellence at Rogers Centre in 1999 and inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002. Six years later, he received the Negro Leagues Museum’s Jackie Robinson Award.

Since Gaston led the Blue Jays to their second World Series title in 1993, two more African-American managers – Dave Roberts (Los Angeles Dodgers, 2020) and Baker (Houston Astros, 2022) – have piloted big league teams to World Series titles.

Ask either of them if Gaston is worthy of a plaque in Cooperstown.

Their answer would be a resounding yes.

I agree with them and so does Mulliniks.

“I got to know the man and I wish everybody had that opportunity to know Cito like I know Cito,” said Mulliniks. “And I’ll admit that I’m biased because next to my dad, Cito is the most influential person I’ve ever had in my life. I love the man. But he won two championships . . . And here’s the question: if Cito Gaston had managed the New York Yankees and accomplished what he did, do you think he’d be in the Hall of Fame already?”

The answer to that question is probably yes.

So, let’s hope Gaston finally gets the respect he deserves and is elected to the Hall of Fame on Sunday.