Gibbons Not THAT Surprising a Hire There were quite a few eyebrows raised when the Blue Jays chose John Gibbons to manage their revamped lineup. Retread managers, rehired by the club that fired them, are rare - particularly when they didn't win in their first go around.

Historically, only Bobby Cox, rehired by the Atlanta Braves after leading the Blue Jays to the 1985 AL East title, has been brought back to a team that fired him without winning a championship for that team. If Gibbons can repeat the success Cox had with the Braves in his second stint... well, that would do.

Gibbons was decent enough in his first go with the Jays, posting a 305-305 record, with some well-known bumps in the road, but hey, who HASN'T wanted to throttle Ted Lilly at some point? He's a braver choice than retreads like Jim Tracy or Jim Riggleman, and a known commodity for Alex Anthopoulos.

It shouldn't be a huge shock that the Jays would bring someone back. After all, over the years, they have brought back or reacquired:

• Paul Beeston
• Cito Gaston
• Jim Acker
• Pat Borders
• Jacob Brumfield
• Rob Butler
• Tony Castillo
• Howie Clark
• Rob Ducey
• Mark Eichhorn
• Tony Fernandez (x3)
• Jason Frasor
• Alfredo Griffin
• Pat Hentgen
• Ken Huckaby
• Cliff Johnson
• Doug Linton
• Brandon Lyons
• John MacDonald
• Candy Maldonado
• Trever Miller
• Chad Mottola
• Dan Plesac
• Luis Sojo
• Paul Spoljaric
• Shannon Stewart
• Dave Stieb
• Brian Tallet
• David Wells
• Dewayne Wise
• Chris Woodward

This is Team Prodigal Son, right down to Gregg Zaun and Jack Morris returning as analysts after finishing their careers elsewhere. There's a culture of "Once a Blue Jay, Always a Blue Jay" in the organization, with Gibbons as merely the latest beneficiary.

Labels: Alex Anthopoulos, Blue Jays, John Gibbons

  ¶ posted by Jim Turner at 11:55 PM