Happy belated Canada Day, if you are living in Canada; if you are not, you should celebrate anyways, for it will make your skin glow, lower your cholesterol levels and give you a greater appreciation for Neo-Classical art. Otherwise, Happy Fourth of July, which I'm sure is also a fine holiday but I have to work so I can't really appreciate it much.

Here in Toronto, a strange calm has come over the city and its baseball fans. I admit that, had you asked me before the season (or three weeks ago) about bringing Cito Gaston back to manage the home team, I probably would have dismissed it as a terrible idea. Not out of any dislike for Cito, but on the principle that time marches on, and you can't wallow in nostalgia whenever the going gets tough. The Dolphins aren't bringing back Don Shula, GM isn't bringing back the 1959 Cadillac and the Bond Series isn't bringing back Sean Connery.

That said, I've been strangely disarmed by Cito's return. I should be really irritated by the revisionist history going on in this city, about how wonderful things were in the mid-90's, and how Cito never should have been fired. The hard facts are (1) the Blue Jays had four straight losing seasons from 1994-97, (2) the 1997 team finished dead last in the American League in runs scored, even worse than this year's team, and (3) Cito was embroiled in an ugly controversy with the local media that was a much bigger deal at the time than any of John Gibbons' run-ins. I still believe that the summer of 1997 was the lowest point in franchise history, and it was time for a change.

But I'm not really irritated at all. Cito seems to genuinely enjoy being back on the bench, and most Toronto fans seem to genuinely enjoy having him back. People keep saying that he looks 15 years younger, and they're probably right. I have even shocked myself by taking genuine enjoyment at seeing him back. He has said all of the right things; he does not have magic pixie dust that he can sprinkle on the hitters to wake up their bats, and admits that they have a lot of hard work to do. Adam Lind has been called up, the bench has been given regular work, the bullpen has been used appropriately.

(and of course, it helps that the John Gibbons Watch is over. As I've written in the past, everything that I have seen and read about Gibby suggests that I have absolutely nothing in common with him, yet I still kind of liked him, and you hate to see someone dangling in the position where they know that they could be axed at any moment)

So we'll ride out this season and see how things go; I wrote in the spring that this was an 85-win team, and that's what I'm still aiming for. (and now, I am the one who is guilty of wallowing in nostalgia. But I guess it's that kind of year; the latest Indiana Jones movie set the trend for "nostalgia that doesn't suck" and the Yankees will do the same at the All-Star Game and beyond, hoping to still be around for a playoff run in September, in a stadium that has plenty of great memories but is well past its Best Before date).

The Jays currently sit 13th in the AL in runs scored, a tiny sliver ahead of the Mariners. Seattle is facing Detroit (4.82 ERA) this weekend, the Jays are in Anaheim (4.01 ERA + John Lackey tomorrow) - they could easily fall to last by Monday.

After John Gibbons was fired, some shots were taken at Gary Denbo, the unfortunate hitting coach who was also canned. One of the great mysteries of baseball is just how much of an effect hitting and pitching coaches have on major league players - if any at all. Obviously, there have been individual cases of a coach and player working magic together - think Charlie Lau and George Brett - but an entire team?

One thing that I have come to believe about baseball managers - both GMs and the ones on the field - is that even the best managers don't give you much of an edge. All managers have access to the same data, they make decisions based on the same principles - and there's a huge amount of luck involved that pulls everybody towards the middle of the pack. But bad managers - they can kill you. Think of a financial manager; even the best financial managers aren't going to consistently beat the market - there are too many other intelligent people doing the same job, making the same decisions based on the same information. But a bad manager can certainly lose a lot of your money, and fast.

Perhaps the same principle applies to coaches, that even absolute the best coaches can only make incremental improvements here and there - most teams employ coaches who are at least competent, and many are better than that, and they're all striving for the same thing. But a bad coach can just screw up the whole team. Perhaps Gary Denbo will prove the point - or, who knows, maybe the entire Jays lineup dined together at a shifty restaurant and is carrying an intestinal parasite. I dunno.

But I am beginning to think that, although I was highly critical of the Jays' handling of Adam Lind a month ago, maybe they did him a favour by keeping him in Syracuse and shielding him from whatever has infected the major league team. Lind has hit three home runs since getting called up, including a pair of bolts to centre field. Bat speed... real, honest-to-goodness bat speed. It's been a rare sight here north of the border and is nice to see.