2022 Game Eighty-Eight: Blue Jays 4, Phillies 3

 

more like "Go"-sé Berríos

I would much prefer to just be like, hey José Berríos struck out thirteen through six (no Blue Jay had done so previously [really, not even Clemens? {no not even him}]), and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. went four-for-four to the extreme delight of the guy behind home plate in the full pineapple costume, and the Blue Jays won a close game it felt like they really needed after that miserable road trip; but, instead, the day after this fine night of Blue Jays baseball was utterly marred (that's right utterly marred) by the announcement that the kind and humane Charlie Montoyo had been relieved of his duties (I didn't feel relieved at all! I felt upset!). I had certainly seen people calling for this move, but I had determined them to be mean, and considered it a settled question. Andrew Stoeten, formerly/forever of the Drunk Jays Fans blog, ran a big piece a day or two before that he introduced thusly: "Should the Blue Jays fire Charlie Montoyo? No. Ah, but WILL the Blue Jays fire Charlie Montoyo? Also no. OK, now that that’s settled, let’s talk about it!". This was how I felt about it, too, thinking that it would be out of character for this front office to make this move at this time, both in the sense of the recent real-life tragedy that the team was dealing with, but also, to return to the realm of the trivial (this is to say "of baseball"), it is an uncommon thing to fire one's manager in the second half of the season (even if the All-Star Game does not arrive until next week, this is where we are) when one's baseball team is in a playoff position. But they did, and honestly it was all handled as well as these things can be, with a perfectly fine press conference in which Ross Atkins offered more thoughtful answers than you might expect to questions that were, at times, more thoughtful than you might expect, too; and then, a little later, there was John Schneider, for whom everybody is rightly glad, but it was weird (for him too, obviously). The national-level baseball writers had some initial "Montoyo is a lovey man who had lost the room a little" takes, after which a number of my least-favourite Toronto writers were like "yeah we definitely knew all about that for sure, even though none of us reported it." In an article you can read here, the ever-ready Kaitlyn McGrath goes through everything with characteristic equanimity, and it all makes sense, and I recognize (and appreciate) that the deservèd promotion of John Schneider will not mark a major shift in terms of team culture/vibe/hugging, but I don't know, man, I'm just not thrilled about any of it. Ross Atkins offered less guidance on how to talk about all of this with your young daughters than I would have liked, honestly. 

And so we say goodnight to the Charlie Montoyo era. 

KS