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In Toronto, 1993 was a very good year.
The Maple Leafs, with general manager Cliff Fletcher as the guiding light that spring, advanced to one victory away from the Stanley Cup final, the closest they had been to an NHL championship since 1967.
Down the street at what was then still known as the SkyDome, the Blue Jays were in the early stages of a second consecutive World Series season, the team having been cleverly retooled over the winter, with calm, cool manager Cito Gaston at the helm.
Those were the days. The appeal of nostalgia is in comfort, in remembering simpler times, younger times, times when, in hindsight, it all made sense, when it seemed somebody had all the answers. But here and now, it's just kind of sad.
Fletcher is back as the temporary, ineffectual front man for a massively dysfunctional Maple Leafs organization, going nowhere fast, contradicting himself at every turn.
And yesterday, Gaston returned to manage the Blue Jays, the beneficiary of a massive bloodletting including the firing of John Gibbons that must have been inspired by an ownership finally grown skeptical of general manager J.P. Ricciardi's promises.
Gaston is a decent guy, a smart guy, a good baseball man, with an aptitude for quiet, mature leadership. He has been unfairly ignored by the sport since he was let go by the Jays in 1997 (a firing appropriate at the time, by the way).
He deserved a shot to manage, and succeed, somewhere else. And in 1989, when he reluctantly accepted the Jays' managerial job after Jimy Williams's dismissal, he took an underachieving team, helped it to a miracle turn around and reached the postseason.
This has nothing to do with any of that. This is an act of pure, cover-your-butt cynicism.
Everyone should recall that when Paul Godfrey achieved his long-time goal of becoming the Jays' president, his first grand plan for reviving fan interest in the franchise was to seek a future in the past.
Remind people of the glory days. Connect to all of those happy memories. Bring in one of the hero Blue Jays, Buck Martinez, straight from the television booth, to be the field manager and face of the franchise.
It didn't work. Not even a little bit.
After that, in desperate need of a new story to sell to his masters/team owners at Rogers, Godfrey came up with the idea to build a personality cult around Ricciardi, to cast him as a genius who could build a winner the newfangled way, and do it on the cheap. The guys on the executive floor sure liked the sound of that.
And now this, a full repudiation of everything that Ricciardi stands for (whether the Adam Dunn foolishness this week was the last straw or not, it's crystal clear from who's been hired that Ricciardi's days are numbered) and a blatant feel-good, nostalgia play.
The only problem is that most of those who remember when have already grown away from the team, and those who came on board afterward aren't going to get all dewy-eyed at the mention of Cito's name.
What it's reminiscent of is the Toronto Argonauts' employing Michael (Pinball) Clemons as a human shield, insulating themselves with the goodwill he'd well earned.
Of course. that worked out, to a point — Pinball turned into a successful, if unconventional head coach, he won a Grey Cup in 2004 and the team eventually struggled back from bankruptcy.
And maybe this will work out, too.
Maybe a team that seems less than the sum of its parts will find inspiration in a guy they don't know, except for a passing glance during spring training, whose glory years took place when they were boys.
Maybe the problems with the team's hitting are all emotional, and this is the necessary kick in the pants. Maybe Cito can help pitcher A.J. Burnett grow a brain.
Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't it be the story of the year? Wouldn't it complete the great Blue Jays circle of life?
But back on planet Earth, let's hope Gaston is getting paid well for this. Let's hope he's held them up for a whole bunch of guaranteed years in his contract.
And if/when a season already rolling downhill proceeds to its seemingly inevitable conclusion, let's hope ownerships shows at least a modicum of respect for the paying customers, takes responsibility for the organization's failure and puts someone in place to set a reasonable, believable course for the future.
That's what the Maple Leafs are going to do, isn't it? Just as soon as club president Richard Peddie and Fletcher and the search committee get around to it.
And that's what Rogers and company have to do, right after they finish playing baseball fans for suckers — again.
