Opinion | A humble Canadian quietly has brought the Phillies to the World Series

There are few people in Major League Baseball who have paid their dues quite like Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thomson.

The 59-year-old product of Corunna, Ont., is the definition of a baseball lifer. He is a former 32nd-round draft pick, a catcher who never played above A-ball, yet he was an Olympian and a coach whose career spanned four decades, including 28 years in the New York Yankees system, before he earned a big-league dugout of his own.

Managing in the majors was long Thomson’s dream but it’s one he almost gave up on. After being passed over for the Yankees’ job in favour of Aaron Boone in 2017, he was resigned to having reached the apex of his career. Later that off-season, when Thomson made a lateral move to become the Phillies bench coach, he confided to friends that it would likely be the final stop of his career. He hadn’t reached the end of the line, but he was approaching it.

Five years later, Thomson got the chance he was no longer looking for. When Joe Girardi was fired following a 22-29 start, the Phillies handed Thomson the managerial job on an interim basis. At the time, he was considered a placeholder.

Then something surprising happened. The Phillies turned their season around, going 65-46 to earn the final wild-card spot. Once the post-season began, they disposed of St. Louis, Atlanta and San Diego to reach the World Series. Thomson earned a two-year contract and made history. According to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, he became the first Canadian manager to lead his team to the Fall Classic since William Watkins in 1887. He also became the fourth manager to take over a team that was at least seven games under. 500 and lead it to the post-season, joining Dick Howser (1981), Cito Gaston (1989) and Jim Tracy (2009).

“Everybody says he doesn’t have a lot of experience,” said former big-leaguer Mike Gardiner, who played with Thomson on the 1984 Canadian Olympic team. “I tell you what, he has more experience than most managers, especially the recent hires they’ve had the last four or five years of players who played but never managed.

“He has been in every possible situation in the biggest city in baseball for years. Nothing fazes him. He’s been there, done that, and that’s why he has a good rapport with the big-name players like (Bryce) Harper and (Kyle) Schwarber, Rhys Hoskins and J.T. Realmuto. They buy in because he’s just letting them be themselves with a sensible sense of direction.”

Thomson also happens to be as humble as it gets, the type who puts his players ahead of personal gain. After the Phillies won their first eight games following Girardi’s dismissal, he bristled at the outside praise, redirecting credit to those in the clubhouse while being respectful to his close friend and former boss.

When Thomson became the first Canadian to manage a big-league game in his home country in July, Phillies president Dave Dombrowski thought it would present a rare opportunity for the mild-mannered coach to talk about himself and bask in the praise. But Thomson seemed extremely uncomfortable with all the hoopla. Not much has changed since.

“I don’t know,” Thomson said on the eve of Game 1, trying to downplay his significance to Canadian baseball. “I mean, it’s great. I’m a proud Canadian and I love my country. I love what we stand for.

“But to tell you the truth I’m just happy to be managing a team in the World Series. I’ve heard from a lot of people back home that everybody’s behind us, it’s a big story, and that’s great. But it is what it is.”

Among those cheering on Thomson this weekend are members of that 1984 Olympic team, who have remained close. A large group was in attendance when Thomson got inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019 and eight former players rented out a suite at Rogers Centre when the Phillies visited this summer.

Canada wasn’t even supposed to be in those Olympics, which welcomed baseball as a demonstration sport, but they earned a late invite after Cuba boycotted the Los Angeles Games. The Canadians went 1-2 with their lone win coming against eventual gold-medal winner Japan. A year later, Thomson was playing in the minors for Detroit. Five years after that, his coaching career began.

“He was a leader,” Gardiner said on this week’s edition of the “Deep Left Field” podcast with Mike Wilner. “I remember pitching in Brantford one night in the Intercounty League, and I gave up a home run and he was so mad at himself because he felt like he called the wrong pitch. And I’m like, ‘I threw it, it’s on me.’ He just took that pride, and you can just still see that now in how he handles himself … He’s a humble guy, but also a great listener.”

Hollywood scripts are usually reserved for players, but Thomson has a feel-good story of his own. He is the first Canadian to serve as a full-time big-league manager since George (Mooney) Gibson in 1934 and, after growing up in a town of barely 5,000 people, he’s now operating under the brightest lights the world has to offer. Thomson might not care much for the glory, but he’s getting it anyway.

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