On the phone from his home in San Antonio, John Gibbons adopted a serious tone.



“You’re not gonna like this,” he said, “but it was 80 degrees here today.”



That would be 27 Celsius. At that moment, Toronto was under a cold-weather alert for the second straight night, minus-7 Celsius and falling.



Gibbons chuckled when I told him that. On Sunday, by his Texas standards, it will be a few degrees cooler when he checks into his office in Dunedin, Fla., but still a comfortable 24 Celsius.



Blue Jays’ pitchers and catchers report on Tuesday.



Yes, for Canadian baseball fans, next week marks the beginning of an annual period of subservient envy (oh, for that warm Florida weather), coupled with renewed hope (of course the Jays can win it all, and who needs Edwin Encarnacion anyway?).



However, I had not solicited this conversation with the manager to ruminate over such romantic notions, but rather to talk...