Great article by Jay Onrait

[dmvincent]

Sums up Jays fans and how they react to the Gibbons hiring and everything else.

http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=409955

[Axeman33]

Excellent write up indeed. He's not just an ugly face. He makes a lot of great points.

As a life long Jays fan (well, as long as they Jays have been in fruition as I am older then they are) I can only hope Gibbons can prove me (and a lot of other Jays fans) wrong and show that he WAS the right guy for the job. As it stands, we have to trust AA's judgement on this one.

I can guarantee Gibbys every mistake will be brought to light by all Jays fans.

[bondon]

It was a really good read. Great final paragraph to end off with.

But the moves Anthopoulous made last week reminded us all of the moves Pat Gillick used to make back in the early nineties, back when the Jays mattered, not just to their own fan base but to all of Major League Baseball. Finally, Jays fans felt like their team was a contender again, and not an also-ran like they were in the Gibbons years. And that's the problem: the re-hiring of Gibbons felt like something that would have happened to a Jays team that hadn't made the big Marlins trade or signed Cabrera. Bringing back Gibbons feels like stepping back to a place Jays fans want to forget, just when everyone was looking forward to 2013. Instead Anthopoulos hit the brakes, threw it in reverse, and parked it squarely in 2008. Here's hoping it doesn't cost him his spot behind the wheel.

I personally am willing to give Gibbons the benefit of the doubt for right now. I personally wasn't as disappointed and appalled as a lot of people I know when I first heard the news. Honestly it was more shock because Gibbons' name had never been brought up in all of this. But I do agree with Onrait in the sense that this was an opportunity for the Blue Jays to go in a different direction. To start fresh, and kind of put the past aside, and the hiring of Gibbons definitely didn't do that. Actually it kind of made it feel like 2005 all over again with the Jays getting their paws on a couple of good pitchers and all.

I really hope this all works out for the team's sake and for our sake as fans. I'm tired of getting this excited and then getting let down.

[TheWhale]

This was a great opinion piece. but like all opinion pieces they fail to rationally look at an event. This came across as a perfect depiction of what the toronto sports fan is (as created by it`s media). A fan base with a false sense of entitlement. Leaf fans believe year in and out that they are big players in free agency. That all the big names would be crazy not to want to be in this city. This is best displayed when Onrait expressed his disappointment in not having a 77 year old Bobby Cox come out of retirement to take the Managers position with the Jays.

With all the negativity surrounding this hiring, I have yet to hear of a candidate that would have been a better hire. The start fresh perspective is understandable but Gibbons took a team full of rags and idiots to 2nd place in the East (the best the jays have done since 93). The team`s ERA was always top 10 under his control (has yet to find that consistency since). Players loved playing for him (hillebrand even admitted to this) and he was well liked by many in the organization....the man is entitled to his opinion and it was a good read though.