Defending Attacking Cito

In Saturday's round-up of the Jaysosphere, I included a link to this post from Batter's Box--a lengthy critique of criticism of Cito Gaston as a manager. Overall, I agree with most of their points--Cito was a manager ahead of his time in the early 90s, now that the game has caught up to him, he doesn't seem like such a genius.

Fine. Fair enough. But there's one passage that stands out to be as exceedingly wrong and worth pointing out:

And the undercurrent to all of this?

No, not race - at least, I've never thought so. Not then and not now. I have worried that could be an issue. I'm always going to be suspicious when a 66 year old black man is universally called by a nickname rather than his surname.

A few people took the author to task for this in the comments section, but here are my two cents on the issue of Cito and racism.

Cito is called "Cito" because of a sense of familiarity on the part of Toronto fans, who remember the late 80s/early 90s period when the Jays were the hottest ticket in the country. Toronto fans call their manager Cito because they [i]like[/i] him--I'm too young to know this for sure, but I bet Cito's predecessors were casually referred to as "Jimy" and "Bobby", contrast that to the obvious disdain whenever somebody mentions "Tosca" or "Gibbons".

Another example would be Buck Martinez--I don't know a single person who didn't call him "Buck" during his managerial run--and like Williams and Cox, he's as white as they come.

But let's step away from the Jays and look at other famous baseball managers. Sparky. Casey. Even Lou Piniella and Tony La Russa sometimes get the first-name treatment. All white.

Other Toronto sports figures, outside of baseball? Not so much lately--too many Pats and Brians out there to have the name refer to just one--but what about Harold and Punch, back in the day? Or everyone's favourite ex-Leaf coach, Roger? Or if we're allowing players, Dougie, Wendell, Mats, and Borje?

My point is this: Cito Gaston may not be the best manager in baseball history, or even Blue Jays history. Second-guessing him is perfectly valid. On the other hand, sometimes people may go too far in expressing their displeasure with Cito, just as they do with any other coach in any other sport.

But that expression is not a sign of racism in and of itself, nor is referring to him by his nickname--that's a sign of endearment, if anything. A sign that we like this guy better than the average bum the Jays trot out behind the bench.