Blue Jays’ John Gibbons becoming an all-timer for ejections

After being thrown out of Sunday’s game, John Gibbons has been ejected 52 times as the skipper of the Blue Jays, putting him 13th all-time among managers.

For a guy who is as well known for being laid back as John Gibbons is, he sure has been thrown out of a lot of baseball games over the years.

After being tossed from Sunday’s game against the Yankees, Gibby has been sent home early during six different games this year, and is moving up the all-time list. In fact, Sunday’s ejection moved him into sole possession of 13th on the list, and he’s still got six weeks to add to his counting total before the 2019 campaign is through.

According to a tweet from Sportsnet Stats on July 25th of this year, Gibbons had received his 50th ejection of his career on that day. Since then he’s been thrown out twice more, which leapfrogged him over a few names on the all-time leaders list.

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At the top of the heap is Bobby Cox, who may hold a record that could never get broken with 161 ejections. Next comes John McGraw at 132, Earl Weaver and Leo Durocher are tied for third at 94, and Tony La Russa rounds out the top five with 87.

Gibbons had been tied with Charlie Manual and Clint Hurdle at 50 occasions being sent to the showers, but again, the two latest ejections have moved him beyond those two, as well as Bill Rigney, who had been tossed 51 times.

Assuming that he does not return in 2019, that’s likely as high as Gibbons will climb on the list (at least as a Blue Jay), as the next hurdle would be Clark Griffith at 58, and Bruce Bochy comes after that. Gibbons is also only one of four active managers on the list, joined by Bochy, Hurdle, and Ron Gardenhire, who is all the way up at #8 with 73 ejections.

This obviously isn’t a terribly important stat, but it does speak to a couple of things. The most obvious is longevity, and Gibbons has certainly had that in Toronto between his two tenures as the bench boss. He’s 84th all-time in games (1545) as a skipper, and 83rd in wins (756), and also second in most of the categories in franchise history behind only Cito Gaston.

The second thing would be how much Gibbons cares about his job, and his players. He’s always been labeled as a “player’s manager”, and he’s never been afraid to stick up for the men in his dugout when he doesn’t agree with how things are going. He’s been accused of being aloof for most of his career, but you don’t wrack up numbers like this by not caring.

While there have been always been lovers and haters of the charming Texan, I hope we can all agree that there are some aspects of his approach that we’ll miss, assuming this is his last year as the bench boss in Toronto. His blunt honesty has always been refreshing, and he’s been well liked by the front offices he’s worked with, and the vast majority of the players he’s managed. Considering the 56 year old has been doing this for parts of 11 seasons, that says a lot about him.

With 38 games remaining in the season, I’d be willing to bet we’ll see Gibby get the ol’ “heave ho” at least one more time. He’s not gonna catch Bobby Cox, but 13th all-time in anything is pretty notable, even if it is for ejections.