An except of Shawn Green's new (batshit crazy) book on Zen and baseball or some such crap. (
courtesy of Amazon.)
By mid-May of ’97, Cito finally won out over the front office regarding my playing time. Suddenly, my career prospects were slipping away as I was forced to sit day after day in the dugout watching all the games from the so-called best seat in the house.
After weeks of frustration, I met with general manager Gord Ash and asked him to trade me so I could play somewhere, anywhere. A week or two passed, and every day new trade rumors with my name attached floated around the league until at last Cito had to address it.
It was midafternoon at the Toronto SkyDome, four hours before a night game against the Yankees. I’d put on my uniform and was walking past Cito’s open office door when he called, “Hey, Green, come in here and have a seat. I want to talk to you.”
My heart thumped as I approached my boss’s desk and sat down.
“Look, Shawn, don’t think that I don’t like you, ’cause I do,” Cito said. “I think you have a lot of potential, but …” He stopped, considering, maybe searching out a rationale for benching me. “You need to improve your defense. No manager is going to chance it with you the way you play in the field.”
I began to squirm in my seat. My first couple of years I’d played scared in right field because, each time I erred, I couldn’t help focusing on the irritation on Cito’s face. Still, my defense was improving (within two years I’d win the league’s Gold Glove Award, though obviously I didn’t possess this evidence for the defense at the time).
“Also, Shawn, you need to learn how to pull the ball to hit more home runs because you don’t run well enough to steal bases,” Cito continued.
“How do you know I can’t steal bases if you never give me the green light to try?” I snapped. “And as for pulling the ball, I know how to turn on the inside pitch.”
For a left-handed-batter, pulling the ball means connecting with the pitch early and hitting to right field, increasing the chance of a home run. There was nothing I liked more than pulling the ball with power, but I knew that limiting myself to being a dead-pull hitter would reduce my productivity.
Cito wasn’t having it. “You can go on your way, Shawn. The meeting’s over.”
Bless you, Shawn Green. Bless your
precious heart.
Wow, I think my appreciation for Shawn Green just shot up about 200%, and my disdain for The Manager also shot up about 200%.
ReplyDeleteIan nails it.
ReplyDeleteWow - I was on the fence about picking up this book, but now I can't wait. He's on a book tour right now, and I live close enough to one of his signings that I'm going to have to go.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.booksigningcentral.com/2011/05/11/shawn-green-book-signing-tour-the-way-of-baseball/
Cito's the only manager to ever not get along with a player. Shocking stuff.
ReplyDeleteThat's certainly my takeaway from this passage.
ReplyDeleteCito's pull everything approach seems to work wonders with some players (Bautista, JMac) and completely ruin others (Hill, Lind). Shawn Green apparently wasn't a fan.
ReplyDeleteI will say this, though, I wish we still had a manager that would give players the red light occasionally.
Also, while it's obvious that Cito drove Green away from the Jays...he would have been traded a few years later anyway during the Rogers purge of contracts.
ReplyDeleteCito's pull approach worked wonders for JMac? What? He cant hit. Now he can't hit but he swings harder. I don't believe in any "approach" that basically tells all hitters they should try and do the same thing, despite their strengths and weaknesses. Green had ridiculous power to the left center field alley. I remember a game where i myself was sitting in the second deck in right center and Green parked on there!! That is a prodigious opposite field blast.
ReplyDeleteWith the exception of Roberto Alomar and Devon White, has Cito ever had any other conversation with a hitter? Seems like a one note symphony.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the passage, Cito called him out in Mid-1997 and told him he wasn't pulling the ball enough, and wasn't good at running. So in 1998 he goes 35/35 and hits 42 HR in 1999, and drives in and scores 100+ runs each of those next 2 years - Result!
ReplyDeleteSo why are we bashing Cito based on this? (realizing there are many other reasons we can find)
And yes I know Cito was gone after 1997...
ReplyDelete“Also, Shawn, you need to learn how to pull the ball to hit more home runs because you don’t run well enough to steal bases,”
ReplyDeleteI don't even know what that means. Was Cito's philosophy that you have to either pull HRs or hit singles and then steal?
DON'T YOU QUESTION CITOCITY. #counttherings
ReplyDeleteEither hit home runs every time or steal bases every time, Shawn. There is no other way.
ReplyDeletethis is kinda interesting, but who knows how it actually happened
ReplyDeleteThank goodness there's no way an athlete might slant the truth in his favour. They are so egoless. I'll wait to hear how Cito remembers it. Personally, I remember Shawn Green sucking pretty hard for quite a while when he first put on a Jays uniform. He did of course eventually come good. Sound familiar, Travis Snyder?
ReplyDeleteCito got along well with Lind...you are thinking of Snider, BFF.
ReplyDeleteAnd this doesn't change my opinion of Cito one way or another. A lot of managers (and bosses) are like this, and some guys respond and some don't.
Boy was green as new corn and sucked something awful. That's what you get for trying to give it to him gently.
ReplyDelete