A Baseball Card titled Black Power

Baseball cards have always fascinated me. I love how an entire story can be captured in a small piece of cardstock. A few days ago, while searching online for baseball cards from Latin American baseball teams one card particularly caught my attention. This card was printed in 1970 in Venezuela. The team is Navegantes del Magallanes and it features four Black ballplayers from the US playing winter ball in Venezuela. The card is titled El Poder Negro which means Black Power the name given to this group of four Black ballplayers by the Venezuelan press in homage to the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute in Mexico City. Back then Venezuelan baseball fans from the city of Valencia in Carabobo state were so proud to have these four great ballplayers in their team, and they enthusiastically celebrated their uncanny ability to constantly hit jonrones (home runs). One of the ballplayers in this baseball card is a young man by the name of Clarence Gaston. Could that be him? Could Clarence Gaston from the famous Black Power ballplayers of Navegantes in Venezuela be Cito Gaston the manager of our favourite team the Toronto Blue Jays?

Cito Gaston’s Grace under Pressure

How could I not love the Blue Jays? Having grown up in the Dominican Republic I was already a fan of their Dominican ballplayers even before they came to Toronto and I always admired their leader Cito Gaston and the grace he displayed under enormous pressure. As the song goes, I loved them before I knew them. Cito Gaston was someone I looked up to as a teen living in Scarborough during the 1980’s and considered him a role model for anyone aspiring to be a leader. There was something about his cool, calm and collected style that inspired me. Those days often I would proudly wear my Toronto Blue Jays cap and jersey. And when I played ball, I would ineffectively try to emulate the poetry in motion swing of the great Dámaso García my favourite ballplayer. Back then I imagine most teenage boys in Scarborough wanted to be like Gretzky when they grew up, I dreamed of being like “Damasito” García, what can I say.

A few years ago, when my French conversation professor Jean-François asked me to make a presentation for Black History Month inevitably I chose to talk about Cito Gaston. While doing research for this presentation I found out about how Clarence became Cito, and how despite growing up in the segregated South, Cito Gaston would reach the highest echelons in professional sports and leadership.

The Teachings of Cito Gaston

When Cito Gaston was named manager of the Blue Jays in 1989, he was only the fourth Black manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) history. In 1992 when his Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series Cito Gaston became the first Black manager to win this championship. A feat he repeated the following year in 1993 despite having lost several key players in his lineup. His transformation of the Blue Jays from perennial contenders to World Series Champions must be one of the greatest achievements in baseball history. A calm and cerebral leader, Cito Gaston, was a chess master of baseball coaching moves who often made decisions that at first glance appeared counterintuitive yet would benefit the long game and baffle his short-sighted opponents. A gifted leader who motivated and placed great trust in his ballplayers, Cito Gaston was a forerunner in quiet leadership before the term became ubiquitous. Finally, Cito Gaston is so much more than a great baseball manager, he is a great example of Black excellence in leadership. In his honour and with Juneteenth not far away here are 8 quiet leadership lessons from the Grand Master of Baseball Strategy himself Cito Gaston.

1 Understand and appreciate cultural diversity

“So, we’re different colours and we’re different creeds and different people have different needs.” People are People by Depeche Mode

Perhaps without planning it, Cito Gaston was already immersing himself into cultural awareness when as a young ballplayer he went to the Dominican Republic and then Venezuela to play winter ball. In those days, he was known as Clarence Gaston his birthname. Winter ball technically is the equivalent of working abroad, which is an excellent way to get to know about and understand other cultures. Cito Gaston got to learn Spanish when he played baseball in Latin America. And he was exposed to a different style of baseball with different tactics and strategies. Maybe his ability to empathize with people from other cultures and backgrounds is one of the reasons why when Cito Gaston became the hitting coach in 1982 for the Bue Jays he was highly respected and looked up to by all the ballplayers including those from outside North America like the Dominican Blue Jays.

When my family moved to Toronto in 1982 from the Dominican Republic, I would say to myself, “what a great country we have moved to, the Blue Jays have so many Dominican players, and with a name like Cito Gaston, the hitting coach must be afrocubano like Celia Cruz.” Years later I found out that Cito Gaston grew up in Texas close to the Mexican border and although his name sounds very Latino, he is afroamericano. And today I still believe Canada is a great country and can be a land of opportunity for everyone.

Many years ago, a co-worker of the young Clarence Gaston told him, “You remind me of a Mexican wrestler named Cito.” That is when Clarence Gaston took the name Cito. The fact he adopted a Latino name shows his openness and capacity to embrace other cultures.

2 Get to know the people in your team well

“Like to get to know you well. So, we can be one, we can be one together.” Like to Get to Know You Well by Howard Jones

Everyone has their strengths and their weaknesses. And often the strengths and weaknesses of a person are closely related. For example, sometimes people who work well under pressure, may not work particularly well when there is low pressure. A leader must get to know their team members to the point that they know everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, since this will allow them to assign the right person to the right job. Also, part of a leader’s role is to help their teammates work on improving their weaknesses.

I cannot think of a better example of a leader who knew his team as well as Cito Gaston knew each of his ballplayers. Perhaps, his experience as hitting coach allowed him to get to know the strengths and weaknesses of each of his ballplayers early in his leadership career. Cito Gaston also built a personal rapport with this team members, which was key later when he led them as manager.

Big Data has taken over baseball and industry with great benefits. However, we should never lose touch of the importance of personal relationships with your co-workers and the importance of knowing their interests, motivations and aspirations. Because work should be more than just statistics and meeting targets, ideally, people should enjoy their jobs.

3 Build trust with your teammates

“If this world makes you crazy. And you’ve taken all you can bear. You call me up. Because you know I’ll be there.” True Colors by Cindy Lauper

One of the benefits of playing team sports it that they teach us to rely on our teammates. Even the best baseball players in the world cannot carry their team by themselves. A team is a composite of many players who ideally complement each other. Alone we can see the strengths and weaknesses of each player. Together a team properly managed demonstrates mostly its strengths.

Cito Gaston calmly placed great trust in his team, even while some in the sports media criticized his decisions. Perhaps, we in North America are accustomed to sports managers who yell at their players to motivate them from watching formulaic Hollywood movies. Cito Gaston knew very well that this berating approach never yields sustainable success. Instead, he played the long game strategy; by building strong relationships with his ballplayers, he cultivated confidence in them. This process took years; nonetheless, the results speak for themselves: for an extraordinarily long time Cito Gaston’s Blue Jays were one of the best teams if not the best team in baseball.

4 Live in the present moment

“Today is the greatest day I’ve ever known. Can’t live for tomorrow, tomorrow’s much too long.” Today by The Smashing Pumpkins

These lessons are codependent on each other. You cannot build trust if you do not know your team, you cannot know your team unless you seek to understand their culture, and you cannot focus on the results unless you live in the present and take calculated risks while not minding naysayers and second-guessers.

Living in the present moment is key to achieving your goals. The great tennis star Björn Borg attributed his success to playing one point at a time. Similarly, Cito Gaston focused on each pitch, each at-bat, each inning, and each game during the baseball season. By focusing on each moment Cito Gaston was able to find a path towards overall success even if a season had its ups and downs, just like life is not perfect and there will be bad days. However, the bad days should never stop you from meeting your objectives. Focus on the present moment and put the past in the past. Often, Cito Gaston, has credited baseball legend Hank Aaron for being his mentor and teaching him baseball strategy lessons such as living the present moment. Early in his career as a ballplayer, Cito Gaston was already learning how to be an authentic leader from the best in game, like the great Hank Aaron.

5 Take calculated risks and do not mind naysayers and second-guessers

“The record shows I took the blows and did it my way.” My Way by Paul Anka

One of first the mistakes new managers in sports and business make is giving too much credence to naysayers and second-guessers. It is one thing to listen to informed dissenting voices within your team, it is something else to let doubters and rock pitchers outside your team affect your judgement as a leader. Professional sports are full of Monday morning quarterbacks in the press and now social media who question the decisions of athletes and their managers without having the slightest clue of what it takes day in and day out to achieve results. Cito Gaston, thankfully, ignored them and went ahead with his plans to develop the Blue Jays into a championship winning team.

One cannot win without taking risks. When things do not work out Monday morning quarterbacks will come out in droves, but you cannot listen to a group that is ruled by their confirmation bias. A leader must move ahead and trust their judgement and their team. Any strategy involves adjustments. However, those decisions to change course can only be made by the leaders in an organization who have the required information to take risks and take charge.

6 Focus on the result

“Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it or just let it slip?” Lose Yourself by Eminem

Leaders that innovate cannot afford to heed attention to the following words, “but that cannot be done.” If they did a Canadian team would never have won the World Series. Being a leader means overcoming both internal and external obstacles. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. We face many distractions in our day-to-day jobs. Focusing on a few key end goals gives us clarity and helps us achieve our objectives.

During his managerial career, Cito Gaston, faced numerous challenges. For one, the Blue Jays did not have nearly the same budget as the wealthiest teams in baseball. Years before the book “Moneyball” came out Cito Gaston was already building a team of unknown rookies and past their prime veterans and encouraging them to do better each day. Despite all the distractions from the press and some of the fan base during years where the Blue Jays experienced significant turnover, Cito Gaston never lost sight of the goal: to become a World Series champion.

7 If others see you as a leader perhaps you should become a leader

“There’s a room where the light won’t find you. Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down. When they do, I′ll be right behind you.” Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears

Cito Gaston was very happy with his role as hitting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays. When upper management offered him the manager role, he was reluctant to take it. What turned the tables was his ballplayers who eventually convinced him to accept the manager role.

It is one thing to be appointed a manager top down by the powers that be. It is something else when your own teammates believe you should be their leader. The ballplayers clearly saw many leadership qualities in their hitting coach, Cito Gaston, and felt that he should be their new manager.

Even if you are a reluctant leader, if your team wants you to lead them you should seriously consider their views. They might see something in you that you have yet to appreciate.

8 Discrimination is still out there, and it will not stop us

“Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps.” Fight the Power by Public Enemy

On October 23, 1993, Joe Carter would hit the homerun that would give the Blue Jays their second consecutive World Series crown. If you are from Toronto, you probably remember where you were that glorious moment. I was with a group of friends watching the game at a sports bar in the Esplanade. As soon as the ball cleared the fence, a carnival spontaneously erupted in the streets of downtown Toronto. We lost a few my friends in the crowd but luckily found them near a parking lot later that evening. The streets were so full of people that I ended up crowd surfing my way to my friend’s car. Those days of euphoria will always be with me.

Cito Gaston and his team worked countless hours, days, months and years to make that victory a reality. Triumph comes with a price and Cito Gaston made substantial personal sacrifices during his years as a manager. His focus was to improve the team from the moment he became the hitting coach for the Jays in 1982. Ten years later he was awarded for his work with two back-to-back World Series wins. All these achievements are made more impressive by the fact that in his career as a ballplayer Cito Gaston constantly faced racial discrimination.

While we always hear about the good times in 1992 and 1993, something we do not hear about is all the racial hatred Cito Gaston and other Black ballplayers endured throughout their careers in MLB. Cito Gaston grew up in segregated Texas. And as a ballplayer he not only endured racial taunts often he was not allowed to eat in the same restaurants as his White teammates. All the Black ballplayers in his generation such as Hank Aaron and Reggie Jackson have vividly described the hate they faced day in and day out in their baseball careers.

Cito Gaston correctly points out that while blatant racism is almost gone in baseball subtle forms still exist. For example, to me it is difficult to believe that Cito Gaston a MLB manager who won the World Series back-to-back years did not get inundated by offers from the wealthiest clubs in baseball to manage their teams right after the 1992 and 1993 victories. Some Monday morning quarterbacks claimed that Cito Gaston won with a club of all stars as if trying to diminish his achievements. However, back in 1992 Paul Molitor and Joe Carter were both over 30 and were seen as being past their prime. It was Cito Gaston who gave ballplayers who had been written off for several reasons including their age the confidence to have one last dance in their careers. And both Tony Fernández and Ricky Henderson who were key in the 1993 victory were also seen as fading stars back then. However, Cito Gaston appreciated differences and saw worth where others did not. And this style of inspirational leadership demonstrated by Cito Gaston is the main reason why the Blue Jays won those years. Also, it is equally baffling to me that Cito Gaston has yet to be inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame despite these incredible accomplishments. Regardless, to millions of baseball fans around the world, Cito Gaston is and will always be simply the best.

In your life you may have been discriminated because of your gender, background or age among other things. And discrimination hurts. However, we will not let discrimination stop us. We owe it to the generations before us and the generations to come. Cito Gaston inspires me not only as a leader. He also inspires me as Black man who broke barriers for other people who faced discrimination in their lives. Not once did Cito Gaston allow discrimination to stop him from pursing his dreams.

When the Toronto Raptors won the NBA final under President Masai Ujiri in 2019, yet another example of Black excellence in leadership, I thought that perhaps this triumph had its origins connected to the story of Cito Gaston the trailblazer.

In 1993 Canada Post issued a Victory Seal featuring Cito Gaston. At long last one of our heroes appeared in a “stamp”. And 12 years later in 2005 Michaëlle Jean became Governor General of Canada the first Black person to hold this office. Something to celebrate, while we all need to do more in this world to conquer hate, as per the wise words of Marvin Gaye.

“Mother, mother

There’s too many of you crying

Brother, brother, brother

There’s far too many of you dying

You know we’ve got to find a way

To bring some loving here today

Father, father

We don’t need to escalate

You see, war is not the answer

For only love can conquer hate”

What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye

Further reading: Player’s Own Voice podcast: Former Jays manager Cito Gaston on what it takes to win https://www.cbc.ca/sports/podcasts/players-own-voice/pov-podcast-cito-gaston-1.6706082