There can be little doubt that former Jays’ fan favourite John McDonald still cares deeply about his ex-team and the men he played with prior to the shocking August trade that sent him to Arizona for his chance at the post-season. Johnny Mac is proud of the role he played as mentor to some young Jays, but frustrated by his efforts with others that didn’t work as well as hoped. As such, he was thrilled when his own former mentor, 45-year-old Omar Vizquel signed on with the Jays to help Yunel Escobar.

“I hope he can bring Yunel to another level,” McDonald said of the talented but enigmatic incumbent shortstop. “He’s so good, but he’s still got another level that he can get to. I think it’s great for Yunel. Omar is going to be a totally different type of mentor than I was.

“Yunel has his routine. He had his style of work that works for him. Now having somebody in Omar with his resume, with his Gold Gloves, him being Latin, it’s going to be so much easier for him to be out there with Yunel talking about different things. It translates into being so much better with Yunel than it would have been with me. Which is great.”

Rogers Centre fans are going to miss Johnny Mac, entering his first full season in Arizona, but before there was John McDonald in terms of highlight reel skills and dedication to his craft, there was Omar Vizquel. As such, McDonald is advising fans to ignore age and watch what Vizquel brings.

“I feel like I’ve been able to help other players because I’ve been able to use the words of Omar Vizquel when I’m talking about trying to teach someone something,” McDonald said. “Have you ever explained to somebody not just how you do something but how you learned it. Omar was able to verbalize a lot of things to me. So I’ve been able to talk to other people about it. I learned so much from him that when I say I learned this from Omar, people are immediately going to think Omar’s unbelievable. He’s arguably the best shortstop to ever play the game. Why wouldn’t someone listen?”

When it comes to things Vizquel, Johnny Mac talks the talk, but he also walks the walk. On May 12, 2006 at Tropicana Field, Rays DH Jonny Gomes slammed a high drive to left that Reed Johnson raced back to the fence, looked up and waited. But the ball hit a catwalk and bounced down into medium left field. An alert McDonald had raced out from shortstop and made a stunning diving catch as a unique ground rule at the Trop has that as a live ball and in play. The only other player to catch a ball off the catwalk was, you guessed it, Vizquel. That play links them forever.

“I knew Omar had done it, I had seen a highlight of him doing it and talked to him about it,” McDonald recalled. “So every time a ball goes up in that building, I want to catch that same thing. Holding Omar in such high regard, you want to emulate things that he does. Thinking about plays like that, I had so much confidence that eventually I just had it in my mind that I was going to catch one of these balls. That’s the mentality that I learned from him. I’m not sure that I could say he’s still better than me, but I instilled in myself I felt like eventually he was going to be proud of me.”

McDonald would love nothing more than to still be a Jay or to have returned to the team as a free agent, but when the Diamondbacks offered him a guaranteed two-year contract, he called GM Alex Anthopoulos. The Jays still had to wait find out whether Kelly Johnson was coming back. Rather than delay and miss that opportunity, Johnny Mac took the two years. It could have gone either way. But from afar, he sees a bright future for his former team.

“The players on this Jays team are very good baseball players,” McDonald offered. “They’re capable of winning 90-plus games. Even in that division I believe that. With Ricky Romero at the front of the rotation there’s so many positive things the second half to make this ball club great. I like to have the mindset going into spring training that it’s really possible. It’s tougher in that division, there’s no denying that. We hit it at the right time. Our GM said our time is now.”

Thinking ahead, McDonald would love an interleague trip to Toronto. He sees similarities between his new and old team and misses the city for what it brought his family and his career.

“I would love it just to see everybody again,” McDonald said. “My wife and I were talking about it a couple of days ago. The relationships that I formed over the course of time in Toronto, the people were great. I lived right across the street from the ballpark and walked to the ballpark every day. You got to see and meet so many people and interact with so many people in town.

“It’s a huge city but over the course of time it’s so small because you got to meet more and more people. When I got to Toronto, they said it was a hockey town, it’s not a baseball town. But it feels so much like a baseball town to me. I tell players this all the time. When you’re playing well, it’s awesome. If you don’t play well, don’t expect people to cheer for you. If I’m in the stands and I’m not playing well, I’m not cheering for me. Why would I?”

McDonald has never had that problem and he’s predicting if his friend Vizquel, in his mind, the original him, ever makes the Jays’ opening roster, Toronto fans will feel the same about him.