Music: {allcanada} ANTHOPOULOS MARKS ANNIVERSARY AS GM WITH LOTS STILL TO DO

Monday, October 4, 2010

{allcanada} ANTHOPOULOS MARKS ANNIVERSARY AS GM WITH LOTS STILL TO DO

TORONTO -- Monday marked one year and one day since Alex Anthopoulos was promoted to general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, and he's still trying to catch his breath.

Over the past 366 days, the 33-year-old from Montreal has dramatically remade a franchise reeling after a clubhouse mutiny against manager Cito Gaston, adjusted the coaching staff, traded Roy Halladay, gotten married, put together a team that far exceeded expectations, and nearly two weeks ago became a father for the first time.

Talk about a whirlwind.

And it's not like this winter is going to be any quieter.

He's in the midst of searching for a new manager, has several free agents to deal with, a few key holes to fill, and several other organizational matters to deal with.

"I think when I finally get to spring training, it will probably be the most stable that we've been in a long time," Anthopoulos said Monday during his season-ending chat with the team's beat writers.

"There's just been one thing after another to get done, and then we can operate with a better pace. I just still feel like we haven't caught up."

There has already been a lot of lessons for the former Montreal Expos mailroom intern, whose boundless energy has been sorely needed over the past 12 months. The former assistant GM hit the ground running when he took over from the fired J.P. Ricciardi last year in Baltimore and hasn't stopped working since.

He has a handful of regrets -- not outbidding the Cincinnati Reds for Cuban left-hander Aroldis Chapman chief among them -- and is learning to cope with them better.

"I remember telling someone on our staff, I said Oct. 3, was a year, OK, we're not making any more errors, any more mistakes," he said. "We're not going to bat 1.000, but I put a list of all the things we could have done, things we should have done that we didn't do and I kick myself for it. I want to make sure that we learn from every single time."

Several of his co-workers, including team president Paul Beeston, have suggested to him that he needs to scale back his workload to avoid burning out. But Anthopoulos has long said his job is one that is 24-7 and he's certainly lived up to that.

"We're all sports fans, and you live and die with the team," he said. "There are a lot of teams I'm a big fan of. You want to know that your GM and front office are up all night, they're thinking about it, they're doing whatever they can, they're getting on the phone. It doesn't mean they're going to be right, but I want to know if I'm a fan, that my GM is doing everything he can, he's not going to be outworked.

"I don't do it for that reason alone, you do it just because that's they way you're built. I can't do it any other way, it's the way I am, I can't turn it of. Sometimes I wish I could -- I just can't."

Anthopoulos remembers that when he was assistant GM how people would tell him that everything changes once your word is the final one and acknowledged Monday "that is right, until you get in the chair, you don't know."

But he feels he's shedding some of his early caution and now is no longer worried about making a mistake.

"You can't be afraid, not to say that I was, but early I was probably maybe overly conservative," he said. "As an assistant GM your thought process isn't the same at all, so I needed to adjust. At the same time, I'm glad I realized these things now, as opposed to two or three years from now. I kick myself a lot for opportunities lost but at the same time I try to console myself by saying if it didn't happen, I wouldn't have gotten better.

"It's kind of crazy."