Blue Jays manager John Gibbons reminisces on 1980 MLB draft
John Gibbons could have been a Blue Jay more than two decades before he first joined the organization, if he had made a better first impression.
Toronto first eyed its current manager in 1980, when he was a still a 17-year-old catcher at MacArthur High School in San Antonio. Keen on Gibbons’ potential, the Jays sent scout Al LaMacchia to see him at an individual tryout prior to that year’s MLB draft.
But Gibbons, unaware of who LaMacchia was, left the scout unimpressed in that initial interaction.
“I was catching a pitcher in the bullpen and there’s this old man just sitting there watching and I’m like, ‘who is this guy,’” Gibbons said with a laugh in his Toronto office last week.