Stephen Brooks Out As Blue Jays’ VP of Business Operations
8 years ago
Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports (Not Pictured: Stephen Brooks)
The Jays are down an executive — and one that fans, at least those on Twitter, have become quite familiar with lately — as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reports that Stephen Brooks, who had been functioning as the club’s head of business operations, no longer works there.
Or, to be specific, Shi writes that he resigned. (The URL, which says he was “dismissed,” and the headline, which says they “part[ed] ways,” aren’t typically done by the reporter, so we’re going to go with “resigned,” accept that this is just how these things get spun, and roll our eyes at any conspiracy theories about how it was disseminated).
It’s not a move that’s terribly surprising, given that Brooks was a high-up from the old regime with similar duties to what it’s believed was in Mark Shapiro’s portfolio in Cleveland. Brooks — aka @SBrooksBaseball — was the point man on Twitter for the organization when it came to everything related to the stadium, including the turf changes of recent years and this winter’s project of installing a dirt infield, for example. In fact, the timing of this move might simply be due to the fact that he was finished overseeing that one, last big project.
But I’m speculating, of course.
The decision has certainly caused some Jays Twitter ripples this afternoon, mostly because Brooks was engaging and seemed about as transparent as could be expected in his dealings with fans online. But, not to be too flip about it, it’s not like the next person can’t do that — or as though Brooks was going rogue when he did all that, either. So… who knows what it means?
Our good friend Drew Fairservice doesn’t! And he has some fiery (and not-incorrect) takes on the whole situation, it turns out:
Pretty much. Though I might go slightly farther and say that it’s also an indictment of the parent company that all that was necessary for one of their executives to stand out and be well-liked was for him to provide a basic level of engagement with customers about his job and how it impacts them.
Gregor Chisholm tweets that Brooks was the driving force behind a lot of initiatives — presumably the dirt infield being one of them — which I don’t doubt is true. But not knowing what wasn’t done, or what else was possible, or what his responsibilities were, or precisely who could never seem to be able to break the grips that Aramark and AB InBev have over the facility, what can we really say here?
Bluebird Banter’s Minor Leaguer tweets that at last week’s Pitch Talks event, Mark Shapiro “made it clear he didn’t like the way the Blue Jays priced tickets,” which is certainly something Brooks seemed to have a hand in, based on what he’d tweet about (if not, y’know, his title). Sooooo… yeah. I dunno.
Godspeed, Brooksy.
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