A TEAM FOR THE 80s : Blue Jays Winging : Toronto’s Losing Days Are Forgotten as Cool, Young, Talented Players Go for AL East Title

Catcher Buck Martinez was standing in the Blue Jay clubhouse Tuesday, explaining how his wife had noticed a flaw in his swing and helped him out of a slump when he stopped in mid-sentence to listen to the postgame radio show emanating from a speaker above his head.

“And so that wraps up tonight’s broadcast,” Toronto broadcaster Scott Ferguson was saying. “The Blue Jays have another game against Minnesota tomorrow night before the much-awaited, four-game showdown series with Detroit.”

Martinez shook his head. “So if we win those, I guess it’s all over, huh?” he asked, facetiously. “Hell, I thought those guys were in fourth place.”

Let’s play ball!

Forget the past 50 games because the real season begins tonight. That’s when the Detroit Pussy Cats, er Tigers, tiptoe onto Toronto Blue Jay turf for the first of four games against our so-hot, league-leading hometown boys.

--Page one story in The Toronto Star

Less than eight months after culminating a brilliant season with a World Series championship, the Detroit Tigers are a worried bunch. They’re edgy. They’re fidgety. And they’re downright nervous.

And, although they won’t admit it, the Tigers’ state of unrest has at least a slight connection to the success of the Toronto Blue Jays, who revel atop the American League East.

--From a story in the Toronto Globe and Mail

The Tigers and the Toronto press were providing enough bulletin-board fodder to fill a league full of clubhouse walls, but the Blue Jays just keep quietly winning. They swept the Twins and, thanks again to Arlene Martinez, Toronto beat Detroit on hubby Buck’s two-run homer in the 12th inning of the opener of the “showdown” with the defending champions.

Toronto has won 15 of its last 19 games and is assured of at least a split in the series with Detroit. In the opening days of a 27-game battle with the elite of the American League East, the Blue Jays have a 5 1/2-game lead over second-place Baltimore. Detroit is third, 7 1/2 games back and New York is eight games behind in fourth.

There’s a horde of Detroit media in town, desperately trying to elicit a few equally flammable quotes from the Blue Jays, but the Toronto players are being infuriatingly humble these days.

Detroit News columnist Jerry Green spent a few days asking everyone in a blue and white uniform about pennant fever. Most of the players looked at Green incredulously and asked, “It’s still the first week of June, isn’t it?”

The local media may be excited, but the Blue Jays aren’t exactly running to the local jeweler to get sized for world championship rings. This young team is remarkably unflappable.

In Lloyd Moseby’s case, maybe “unaware” would be better word.

The Toronto center fielder was shopping in a downtown mall two days before the Detroit series when a fan stopped him and asked him how the Jays (they always call them just the Jays here) were going to fare against the Tigers.

“The Tigers? I thought we were playing Minnesota,” Moseby replied. Then he went home and checked the schedule to see if he’d better start packing for a road trip.

And when he tells you this story, you believe him.

It’s just that the Blue Jays, you’ll excuse the cliche, are taking it one day at a time. From Manager Bobby Cox on down, this team is the picture of quiet confidence.

“From day one, we’ve been thinking about the pennant,” said relief pitcher Bill Caudill, who is ecstatic about playing for a winner after a six-year career with also-rans--the Chicago Cubs, Seattle and Oakland. “But you don’t want to look beyond today if you can help it.

“Sure, most of us get up in the morning and check the box scores to see what Detroit, Baltimore and New York did. But if you look back at the dog too many times, it’s gonna catch you and bite you.”

It looks like the dog better be a greyhound this time. For the time being, Toronto is an incredibly well-balanced team, apparently devoid of weaknesses.

They have power (54 homers), a .271 team average (third in the American League), speed (53 stolen bases, tops in the AL), pitching (a team earned run average of 3.55, second-best in the league) and defense (a .981 fielding percentage which rates third in the AL).

Perhaps more impressive is that balance. Cox says even he can’t believe it.

“I don’t know the answer, but we just can’t seem to miss,” he said. “Everybody’s contributing. I really don’t see how we can play any better.”

In their first 53 games, during which they’ve put together baseball’s best record (36-17), the Blue Jays have gotten at least 17 RBIs from every position on the field (including the designated hitter spot). Ten players have 12 or more RBIs.

Right fielder Jesse Barfield, for instance, is hitting .285, with 12 homers and 28 RBIs and he is often the Jays’ No. 8 hitter.

“We’ve gotten the two-out hits when we need them,” Cox said. “We’ve gotten help from everybody on the roster at one time or another. We’ve got terrific balance. It’s pretty much impossible to pitch around anyone. We’ve got power to break games open and the speed to manufacture runs.”

They’ve also got an outfield that appears to be set for the next decade with young veterans Barfield, Moseby (5 homers, 21 RBIs) and George Bell (11 homers, 34 RBIs). All three are 25 years old, but they total nine years of major league experience. The infield is anchored by 22-year-old shortstop Tony Fernandez (good and getting better), second baseman Damaso Garcia, a fine fielder with a team-leading 14 stolen bases, a .281 average and 28 RBIs and first baseman Willie Upshaw (6 homers, 31 RBIs).

Garth Iorg and Rance Mulliniks platoon at third and have driven in 28 runs between them. Martinez and Ernie Whitt platoon behind the plate. Whitt, a career .243 hitter, is batting .306 with 24 RBIs.

Combine that kind of hitting with consistent defense and Toronto’s traditionally solid starting pitching and you’ve got a contender.

In fact, the Blue Jays have been contenders for a couple of years. Last season, they were 36-17 and 3 1/2 games behind the Tigers (who had gotten off to that 35-5 start) after 53 games and finished second at 89-73. In 1982, Toronto had an identical record, but it was only good enough for fourth in the American League East, arguably the best division in baseball.

For the past two years, however, the Blue Jays did have one glaring weakness.

“When we took out the starting pitcher,” says catcher Whitt, “we all held our breath.”

It didn’t take a baseball genius to see the problem. Toronto relievers lost 28 games last year and, even more demoralizing, the Blue Jays managed to lose 25 times when they either led or were tied in the seventh inning.

But recognizing a problem and rectifying it are worlds apart in the sometimes bizarre business of baseball. The voids can be filled, but there’s usually lawyers, agents, months of negotiations, huge sums of money and, in this case, one very shrewd general manager, involved.

They call them executive vice presidents these days, but Pat Gillick is a throwback to the good old days of general managers. He’s only 47 years old, but he has built the Blue Jays into a power by putting together a strong farm system, taking chances on youngsters other teams didn’t protect in the major league draft and deft trading.

Last year, Gillick went out on a limb and gave up two starters (left fielder Doug Collins and shortstop Alfredo Griffin) and some cash to get Caudill from Oakland. He also traded starting pitcher Jim Gott and two minor-leaguers to San Francisco for Gary Lavelle.

With the added bullpen strength, Toronto is 31-5 this year in games they have led or tied after six and the bullpen is 15-4 with 19 saves, the best in the majors.

“Some reporter calls me in the middle of November to tell me about the trade,” All-Star pitcher Dave Stieb said, “and I’m supposed to go crazy ‘cause we got a relief pitcher (Caudill). This guy makes it sound like I’m gonna win 30 games and we got the World Series in the bag. I’m trying to enjoy the winter and I can’t get that excited about the acquisition of one guy.”

But even Stieb, the Blue Jays’ self-appointed angry young man, thinks for a minute and then concedes, “Finding the weak spots and filling the needs is what you want from management as a player. That’s the most important thing.”

Caudill’s feelings haven’t been hurt. He’s a got a team-leading nine saves, despite a less-than-awe-inspiring 3.88 earned-run average, and says he’s never been happier.

“I wasn’t used to the attention at first,” Caudill said. “I really became the focal point if I lost a game, though. If I pitch well, it’s expected. If I pitch poorly, it’s blown out of proportion. I tried to be super-human at first. Now, I’m back to doing the things that got me here.”

Caudill’s not the only one who’s happy he’s wearing a bird and a maple leaf on his hat these days.

“If you ever become owner of a baseball team, ask Pat Gillick to be your GM,” Cox said.

The Blue Jay manager is grateful he can now look to his bullpen without wincing, but his admiration for Gillick goes way beyond a couple of advantageous trades.

In the late 1930s, Branch Rickey decided that the best way to build a dynasty was to sign every good young player he could find. Forty years later, in the age of mega-buck, multi-year free-agent contracts, Gillick & Co. figured that under the right circumstances, in the right place at the right time, an old idea can still be a good idea.

Gillick, who had spent 10 years in the Houston organization working his way up to Director of Scouting, held a similar position with the Yankees when he decided to “accept the challenge” of starting from scratch when Toronto was awarded an expansion franchise in 1976.

“We put together a game plan and decided to stick with it,” Gillick said. “We knew we had a patient ownership and the luxury of some probably not-too-critical fans for the first few seasons.”

The game plan was to “draft as many young, talented players, regardless of their position, as possible.” The Blue Jay ownership (45% of the team is owned by Labatt’s, a Canadian brewery, 45% by the team’s Chairman of the Board, R. Howard Webster, and 10% by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) embraced the farm-system approach, rejected the free-agent market and took a beating in the early years.

Toronto won 270 games and lost 482 in it’s first five years (1977-81).

In the meantime, however, Gillick and vice president Bob Mattick, who had gone through the growing pains of expansion in the Seattle, Houston, Milwaukee and Montreal organizations and served as Blue Jay manager for two seasons, were building their version of the team of the ‘80s.

Whitt, Iorg and pitcher Jim Clancy are the only remaining original expansion players, but Gillick picked up Bell, Upshaw, Gott, pitcher Jim Acker (who has eight saves this season), infielder Manny Lee and outfielder Luis Thornton for a measly $25,000 apiece in the major league draft.

He traded for Garcia, Martinez, Mulliniks, designated hitter Len Matuszek and, of course, Caudill and Lavelle. He purchased the rights to pitchers Doyle Alexander and Jim Musselman, as well as designated hitter Jeff Burroughs. And pitcher Dennis Lamp is the lone free agent.

Up from the farm teams came Stieb, Moseby, Barfield, Fernandez, pitchers Luis Leal and Jimmy Key and outfielder Ron Sheppard.

It’s paying dividends now, but not everyone saw the method in Gillick’s madness in the early days.

Whitt grimaces when he talks about those days.

“For the first few years, I felt like we had a very negative approach to to baseball,” he said. “Every team sets goals in the spring and ours was not to lose 100 games. And they’d always promote the other team. Like if Boston was in town, the radio ads would say ‘Come out and see Carl Yastrzemski.’

“Mr. (Peter) Bavasi (then the club’s president and chief operating officer) would always say we were the sizzle getting ready for the steak, but as players, it was frustrating. Nobody likes to lose. We felt like they had the funds to go into the free-agent market and still build the farm system.”

But Gillick is quick to point out that the Blue Jays were at a distinct disadvantage when it came to signing free agents.

“Let’s face it,” he said. “We would have had to really overwhelm someone to get them to come up here to play in those days. We chased the Goose (Gossage) very hard, but I don’t think we were really ever in the running.”

Their payroll in 1977 was $760,000. Now, it’s $9 million, 14th highest in baseball. But the Blue Jays still don’t have any superstars, just a collection of super players.

Indeed, the young Blue Jays are not scheduled to be seen on NBC’s game of the week this season. Said NBC baseball analyst Tony Kubek:

“I looked at the schedule, saw that Saturday game against Detroit and tried to get it on the game of the week, but the higher-ups said it wasn’t financially feasible because we can’t get any ratings in Canada. I wanted to say it would be a great game, anyway, and who cares about finances . . . but I realized it was a dumb question.”

With the possible exception of Stieb, this whole team would make a great group American Express Card commercial.

They don’t come into the clubhouse tugging at their ties and doing Rodney Dangerfield impressions, but they do feel like they don’t get the recognition they deserve.

“We’re still overlooked by the media,” Moseby said, “but we have the respect from our peers and that’s what really counts. It used to be pretty frustrating in years past when teams would change their pitching rotation and save their best pitcher for the next club.

“The rest of the league knows what we can do, but the media isn’t gonna give us respect until we win it all.”

Moseby and his teammates may not have to wait much longer, but Cox prefers anonymity. It makes it easier to do his job.

Cox, who was fired by Atlanta owner Ted Turner in 1981 after four years at the helm of the Braves, didn’t have time to apply for unemployment benefits. Gillick snatched him up faster than if we was a left-handed reliever with an 100 m.p.h. fastball.

The Toronto manager’s office is filled with the usual managers fare--golf clubs, chewing gum and chewing tobacco--but it also contains boxes of toys, some dolls and Huggies (disposable diapers). Even more unusual is the comfortable aura of hospitality that is unique in major-league clubhouses.

“Want some coffee?” Cox asks a visiting writer, after returning from the airport where he picked up his family. His wife, Pamela, and three daughters--Kami, Keisha, and Skyla--live in Marietta, Ga. during the school year and come to Toronto for the summer.

Cox, who pitches batting practice nearly every day, didn’t want to miss his daily workout, but he still found time to make a coffee run to the trainer’s room for a stranger.

“It’s been a helluva day. My 3-year-old (Skyla) gave herself a haircut before the flight and her mom was in tears,” he said, but he was still smiling.

Bobby Cox can’t imagine there is anything in the world to cry about these days.

“All this talk about pressure,” he said, “I just don’t get it. If we lose, are we gonna die? We have a really simple philosophy around here. We try to at least split every series and take three out of four or two out of three when we can.

“Somebody has to lose every night. If you give your best shot, where’s the pressure?”

Cox is the kind of manager who says, “if you’re going to bring a young kid up to the majors, then you have to be willing to play him regularly for at least three years to give him a fair shot at proving his major-league worth.” His patience and low-key approach to the game has had a very positive effect on his youthful roster.

“This team has a lot of poise for such a young group,” said the not-so-young Whitt, 32. “They don’t let their emotions run up and down with the fortunes of each game. You’ve got to credit Cox for that, though. If you go out and play hard, he’ll leave you alone.”

Make no mistake, Blue Jay Fever is sweeping Toronto. Hockey may still be the No. 1 sport, but scalpers were getting about $80 for a box seat to this weekend’s series with the Tigers. Still, this is not your typical baseball town.

For the example, the fans treat balls hit into the stands as if they carried some sort of incurable disease.

Barfield hit a foul ball that came to rest in an aisle at Exhibition Stadium Wednesday and the ball sat there for about half a minute before a youngster walked over and picked it up.

And the scoreboard operators seem to be lacking a grasp of the game’s finer points. Wednesday night against the Twins, Fernandez singled to right, but Whitt was thrown out trying to score from second. But the out at the plate didn’t stop them from flashing a giant “How Sweet It Is!” repeatedly on the scoreboard.

While they may not be baseball’s most knowledgeable fans, they are fast becoming among the most vociferous and already may be the most loyal.

“In the early years, it was really weird,” Whitt said. “We’d be rallying, with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth and no one out and you could hear a pin drop in the stadium. The noise level has changed dramatically, to say the least.”

Both in the stands and in the standings, Ernie.