Cito Gaston pens a letter to his fans in Toronto:

I really got to know and appreciate the fans here after I got fired. I always came back to spend the summers here. My wife and I, we walk a lot. So on our walks we ran into a lot of you on the street. Even the police officers and the firemen, even the mounted police riding their horses would stop and say, “Thanks for the memories. Thanks for the good years we had around here.”

When I came back as manager in 2008 what a welcome I got. There were all kinds of signs in the stands saying “Welcome back” — even one lady had a sign up asking me to marry her. I guess she didn’t know I was already married. I still can’t go out to the mound, taking a pitcher out or leaving him in unless people are yelling their support at me. Sometimes games aren’t going too good and I still have to wave at them, even though it’s probably not the right time to do it.

In the last 30 years, only two teams won consecutive World Series, and Toronto is one of them. Cito led this team through its brightest moments, and the fans won’t forget that. Thanks to Terrence Skelton for the pointer.