Charlie Montoyo gave us an appointment in his office at 3:30 pm A member of the Toronto Blue Jays organization supervised us from the Rogers Center field. You have to go down some stairs, turn left, go up some stairs, then turn left when you get to the home team locker room.
Maybe he told us to follow the music.
The achievements of a great salsa singer follow one another. Montoyo, the door of his office, interrupted his preparations for the battle waiting for his protégés to receive us.
For the past two years, his interaction with journalists has been limited to videoconferences due to the pandemic. These meaningful interviews, personally, inspire him. He was glad that we got to know him even better outside of the traditional press briefings before and after the fight.
Charlie Montoyo was named to the helm of the Blue Jays in October 2018. At the time, the future stars of the Toronto team, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, is still playing in the minor leagues and the 53 -year -old Puerto Rican will be responsible for guiding these hopefuls of great talent to the top.
In his fourth season in Toronto, Montoyo can be proud that Guerrero and Bichette have become men under his care, prominent players named once in the All-Star Game.
The Jays have also had more wins since he was hired, even in the playoffs in 2020. They won 91 games last year, just short of the playoffs, and are among the favorites to win the World Series. in 2022.
Professionally, Montoyo has many reasons to smile, but the Toronto baseball team pilot’s explanation of his wide smile is different: he fully measures the luck he has.
I couldn’t believe that one day I would be a manager in the Major Leagues. I couldn’t believe I could compete with Tony La Russa, Dusty Baker and all the big names. Never, I’m telling you honestlyhe swears sitting well under our spotlights.
” The system is not designed to give opportunity to those like me. “
A native of Florida, a small village in Puerto Rico, he rolled for 10 years in the league’s minor baseball network. In 1993, he was entitled to the latest prize: five of the bats in four Majors games including the Montreal Expos.
A few years later, in 1997, he removed his glove and cleat to become manager of a Tampa Bay Rays affiliated team at the lowest possible professional level. He then rose through the ranks for 18 years to finally get his first managerial position in MLB, in Toronto.
I don’t know how long I’ve been here (in MLB), but I’ll always be proud of where I came from. I am from Puerto Rico. From Florida, to Puerto Rico. And not many like me are managers in major leagues. In fact, there are only three of us Latin Americans and we are all Puerto Ricans: Alex Cora (Boston Red Sox), me and Dave Martinez (Washington Nationals). So you can hear me remind you, as you can see even in my office.
It’s really impossible to miss the clues scattered around the Blue Jays boss’s office. A poster of Ray Barretto, a legendary percussionist of Puerto Rican descent, sits on the wall. Maracas and other drums painted in Puerto Rican colors are placed throughout the room.
In one corner of his office, Montoyo has a pair of bongo, another conga and another type of drum that he spends time with. His good friend and compatriot Hector Lebron, the team’s official translator for the Spanish-speaking players, accompanies him occasionally to jam.
Whenever he plays and I pass by, I always do dance moveslaughed pitcher Alek Manoah.
Charlie is very relaxed, but always focused on the goal and he really wants to win.he continued. When things don’t go well, he reminds us all that it’s important to stay positive, keep having fun and keep working because there are good things to come.
These lessons are indebted to Montoyo to his youngest son.
14-year-old Alex Montoyo was born in 2007 with a heart defect that required multiple open-heart surgeries and long hospital stays. He tortured his parents.
Now, I’m the guy who always finds the positive in the negative, but you have no idea what I was then. My head got hot! I could shout when I made a mistake (during a fight). And then my son was born with this heart problem and we spent all that time in the hospital. It calmed me down. Because I know everything is worse … he says. I think it has made me a better manager.
” I’m still frustrated after a game, then I say to myself ‘come on, let’s start again. Here we go again”. Because of the latter, no one will die. We’ll all be fine, see? “
The 56-year-old Puerto Rican pointed out that baseball is a negative sport at its core. There’s an old saying like this: if you hit three times out of 10, you’ll go to the Hall of Fame, but that also means you fail seven times. It’s hard!
I know the negative doesn’t help anyone and I know that more than anyone today because I led the same way. I know what helps and doesn’t. Win is positivehe said.
The Blue Jays rebounded recently from a struggling start to May. The Torontonians lined up eight wins to post a record 30 wins in their first 50 games of the season, the first since 1992.
Source: Radio-Canada
