When the Toronto Blue Jays open the 2019 season against the Detroit Tigers Thursday afternoon, it will mark not only a new beginning for a team trending towards a more youthful core, but a fresh start for its rookie manager too.
While Charlie Montoyo expects his first game as a major league manager to be special, he couldn't quite articulate how significant it will be -- not yet anyway.
Montoyo, who was hired this off-season to replace the affable John Gibbons after six years at the helm of the club, will have his family from Puerto Rico in the stands for Thursday's opener, as well as friends travelling from some of the minor league cities in which he has managed in the past. The 53-year-old, who spent much of the last six weeks at spring training getting to know the players he'll be managing -- and some of the media members he'll be dealing with on a day-to-day basis -- opened the press conference by joking that he was nervous to see so many reporters in front of him.
"You know, my meeting at spring training was really good and I'm debating -- I don't want to mess it up," he said with a laugh. "I think we're good. ... Everybody was giving me high-5's and stuff so if I say something else I might mess it up."
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