Gillick Elected to Hall of Fame

Yesterday, the Veterans Committee elected executive Pat Gillick to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Gillick had success as a general manager with the Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners and the Philadelphia Phillies. Gillick put together the Blue Jay teams that won back to back World Series in 1992 and 1993, the Oriole teams that went to the post-season in 1997 and 1998, the Mariners team that won 116 games in 2001 and the Phillies team that went all the way in 2008.

I believe the greatest of those achievements was with the Blue Jays. Gillick was there from the beginning when they were named an expansion team in 1976 and remained with them for nearly two decades through thick and thin. Gillick was a pioneer in scouting talent in Latin America. The only other organization that was that extensively involved in player development in Latin America was the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Jays would not have achieved their run of success from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s without Gillick.

Gillick will be formally inducted in July 2011.