Cito Gaston manages last game in Toronto

Cito Gaston has managed his last game in Toronto, and addressed fans in a letter he wrote in the Toronto Star. Below is a snippet from the letter.

That first World Series will always be special. We won the second one in such dramatic fashion. But the first one’s always going to be the one. When Winfield hit the ball down the line and Robby scored from first base — I can still see that ball. Both series were great, because the way the second one ended, what a fairytale that is. I know Joe Carter must still think of that every day.

Cito seems like a genuinely good dude. I think it’s neat that he came back for a second tour of duty in Toronto, although it was kind of a dead end to begin with with all of the loaded teams that are in that division. He came back and spent a few more years around the game, which is just nostalgic and cool for guys like me who saw Gaston manage those tremendous Toronto teams while growing up and first following the game.

If I’d known then how rotten most Canadians were, I would have never been a bandwagon Blue Jays fan boy as a 12 year old. But that’s neither here nor there at this point.

Rob Neyer asks if Gaston is a Hall of Famer. Personally, we think that his merits (.516 career W%) are borderline but he is the first black manager to win a World Series.

Cito my man, thanks for being another good figure in a game that is full of them. Another tie to my childhood is gone from this game. They’re getting fewer and far between.