John Gibbons grew up in San Antonio, so his accent sounds as if the Texas winds are blowing straight from his mouth, and his bowlegged gait conjures images of horse-weary cowboys. Texas is embedded in his background and persona, but not in his blood.

Gibbons, the long-serving manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, is actually the scion of a family of Massachusetts optometrists, not Texas ranchers. While his formative years were spent in Texas, some of his earliest recollections are from the years when his family lived in Middleton, Mass., in a house with the Ipswich River running through the backyard.

“I’m really a New Englander,” Gibbons said in his signature Texas accent. “That’s where the jerk in me comes from.”

Gibbons, who rarely misses an opportunity for a self-deprecating joke, said the last line with a wink, knowing he was speaking to a fellow New Englander. After all, few consider Gibbons the jerky type, even if he has unloaded on a few players and more than a few umpires over the years, sometimes in spectacular fashion.