The Re-Energizing of a Baseball Lifer

John Gibbons is looking forward to spring training in February. Since his last MLB managing gig at the start of the 2018 season, “Gibby”, as Gibbons is known throughout the game, hasn’t been in a spring training camp.

Back then, it was in Dunedin, Florida where the former big-league skipper reported. Come February, Port St. Lucie is where Gibbons will be working the Grapefruit League for six weeks.

This past week it became official. Gibbons has been hired by the New York Mets to be the club’s bench coach for rookie manager Carlos Mendoza.

Applause. Applause. At least in my mind, baseball experience, judging a game in real-time, from the dugout, is making a comeback. Yes, analytics is here to stay. A bunch of Ivy League graduates holed up in a room in some undisclosed location in MLB ballparks crunching numbers to steer at-bats is how things get done these days.

But, (there’s always a but) though Gibbons is on board with how lineups and rosters are patched together in the modern game, decision-making based on what his years of baseball experience are screaming from his gut is money in the bank for the Mets.

This is the same organization, although light years from different ownership and on-field management, that saw fit to draft Gibbons in the first round back in 1980. This is how far back his professional baseball knowledge dates.

As an 18-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, Gibbons was dispatched as a rookie to the now-defunct Appalachian League. MLB superstar in-waiting Darryl Strawberry and future MLB manager Lloyd McClendon shared the same team bus as Gibbons for that first taste of what being a pro is.

Ever since then, Gibbons has soaked up the nuances of the game. No, MLB hadn’t forgotten Gibbons. The game hasn’t passed him by. The Mets just needed to recheck their rolodex (kids, ask your parents). Bringing onboard rookie manager Mendoza, with the hiring of the very experienced Gibbons, is akin to a sign on a glass case housing an axe that states – break in case of an emergency.

There’s no emergency at Citi Field in Queens, New York. Buck Showalter is out as manager after two disappointing seasons at the helm of the ‘Amazin’ Mets. Mendoza has a three-year contract. Gibbons has been brought on board to make sure the new attitude of the Mets’ on-field product assembled by new team president of baseball operations David Stearns is stable for Mendoza to succeed.

The chemistry between Mendoza and Gibbons has history. After the 1991 baseball season, Gibbon’s last as a player, he began a new chapter in the game as an instructor, coach, and manager. When managing the Kingsport Mets in 1995, among his roster of baseball rookies was a 20-year-old from Bolivar, Venezuela – Carlos Mendoza.

Great baseball minds think alike – and like elephants, they have long memories. So, on the day before this past Thanksgiving, when word started circulating in the media that Gibbons was in consideration for a coaching spot on Mendoza’s staff, many of the “insiders” were caught off guard.

Reports are that Mendoza reached out to Gibbons to be part of his new journey with the Mets. Clearly, Mendoza, who in recent seasons has been the bench coach for the crosstown New York Yankees, was impressed with his first professional manager nearly 30 years ago to have him on his short list of people he wanted to be surrounded by, when or if a managerial offer should come his way someday.

When looking up Gibbon’s MLB stats at Baseball Almanac, 18 games of service are shown. 10 games in 1984, and eight games in the Mets’ 1986 World Series championship season.

The addition of Gibbons to Mendoza’s coaching staff is the final ingredient to a recipe of success this coming MLB season. Every club and skipper needs a reliable rudder. Now, the Mets have their stabilizer.

Let the winnings begin. Gibbons is back where he belongs.