Play For Each Other
You will spend an entire lifetime chasing this seemingly impossible dream.
Very rarely will you ever get to witness or experience first-hand what this human behaviour unicorn feels like.
To play for each other.
For real. In a no B.S., platitude-laden or corporate-speak kind of way. Doesn’t matter whether it’s business, life, family, marriage and friendships. To truly ‘play for each other’ ranks as the ultimate; the most uncommon, rarified, exquisite air of our collective human experience.
How many times in your life can you swear on a stack of bibles that you’ve been part of a cause, company, mission or family that truly placed team before self?
This is precisely why the Toronto Blue Jays matter right now.
Their 45-year-old manager is doing something within that clubhouse that you won’t get to see very often. It’s a real-life lesson in leadership that has Toronto one victory away from capturing baseball’s most coveted prize. The pinnacle of achievement in an intensely competitive environment. High stakes pressure with team goals, individual performance and a boiling pot of national pride on the line.
Game 6 of the World Series happens tonight in Toronto where the Blue Jays hope to capture their first title in 32 years and spark a frenzy of celebration from coast-to-coast. Facing the heavily favored, big bad wolf known as the Los Angeles Dodgers, John Schneider’s Blue Jays have already won something more precious than a 20-pound, 24-inch piece of hardware called The Commissioner’s Trophy. Discover how a former minor-leaguer and 24-year employee has rallied an entire country to believe in something bigger than themselves and PLAY FOR EACH OTHER on this edition of Leaders & Legends.
“If you don't believe in these Blue Jays, you are just not paying attention!"
- BUCK MARTINEZ, September 9, 2025
Born in Princeton, New Jersey, John Schneider feels very Canadian.
He loves to drink beer. He prefers Tim Horton’s for his morning coffee.
Just an everyday, even-keel American who has all of Canada believing in his Cinderella-like team. Not since the Summit Series in 1972 has there been such a galvanizing force that has 40 million people glued to their television sets. Agonizing over every pitch. Every at-bat. Replaying their moments of Blue Jays magic the following day with complete strangers in coffee shops, sports bars and grocery line-ups. The 18-inning ordeal that was Game Three – The Monday Night Marathon - created much sleep deprivation and a shared experience that weary Canadians now wear as a badge of honor. They hung into the very end. Watching.
In this era of social, political and cultural polarization, Canada’s Team has pulled an entire country together.
It’s a squad that reflects the very best of human qualities such as dedication, perseverance, resilience, selflessness, hard work, humility and trusting the person next to you. Up and down a roster that features a mix of star players, journeymen and fresh-faced rookie, the Toronto Blue Jays play for each other.
At the centre of it all is a most unlikely, unassuming, beer-drinking bearded hero who readily identifies with any ordinary fan.
Standing just one victory away from a World Series championship, the John Schneider story represents a real-life, modern-day version of the Tortoise and the Hare. Chosen in the 13th round of the MLB Draft, Schneider was a weak-hitting minor league catcher with a .206 batting average. Never would he see the bright lights of the big leagues. Seven seasons in the minors got him as far as the Triple A level, before seven concussions and two back surgeries took their toll.
For Schneider his slow and steady climb began as a catching instructor and managing Blue Jays prospects with Toronto’s Gulf Coast League rookie-level club. Along the way, there were minor-league stops with the Vancouver Canadians, the Dunedin Blue Jays and the New Hampshire Fisher Cats before being elevated to the big club as a coach in 2019.
He is a baseball lifer who has paid his dues, while making peanuts, performing before small crowds and an endless trail of long bus rides dotted by dumpy hotels and crummy food.
Staying loyal to the organization, Schneider was the skipper for three different championship teams in the Blue Jays minor-league system before finally getting his chance to be one of only 30 major-league managers when he took over in 2022. It hasn’t hurt that Schneider played a key role in the development of franchise cornerstones Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., managing them as teenagers in Dunedin back in 2017. When you know how far John has travelled to arrive at this moment, you will see this conversation with Hazel Mae differently.
What all of Canada has been watching John Schneider do all season in the Blue Jays dugout is something anyone in any leadership position can study and learn from. Greg Langman is a veteran executive leadership coach who has been studying the off-field human behaviour indicators that are playing a significant role in the Blue Jays success this season. From his vantagepoint, the ICF certified Langman believes Schneider is worth watching for three key reasons:
1. Relationships Drive Results
According to Langman, Schneider’s leadership begins with an intentional focus on personal relationships before on-field performance. Having managed so many Blue Jays players since their early days in the minors, he understands the foundation of any high-performing team is personal trust. By focusing on the person behind the player, he creates the psychological safety net and confidence needed for people to bring their best selves to the field. As Langman explains, ‘teams that play for each other grow from trust, not tactics”.
“If you keep the player in the forefront, it usually works out in the long run”. - JOHN SCHNEIDER
2. Contribution Culture
Schneider’s clubhouse isn’t built on celebrity hierarchy but on everyday contributions by everyday kind of guys. Each player is given real opportunities to contribute their talents to one another forming a collective strength that defies the odds over time. For Schneider, he celebrates and orchestrates the diverse skills, quirks and personalities of each person to give all they have at the right time. When players bring their full selves to one another and the field, the team gains texture, creativity, and resilience that defies the odds.
“It takes everybody to win” - JOHN SCHNEIDER
3. Lead From Identity
In his early managerial years, Schneider tried to be all things to all people. Tried to please too many people from ownership to the front office, sponsors, players, fans. Over time, he learned that sustainable leadership flows from clarity about WHO YOU ARE, not from constant adaptation to the wishes of others. From first-hand experience coaching CEO’s senior leadership teams across North America, Langman knows that when leaders stay firmly rooted in who they are and what they stand for, they offer stability to others in the swirl of massive or sudden change. According to Langman, “When leaders lead from their true identity, it becomes an unspoken invitation for their teams to also unlock the genius within them. Just like the Blue Jays, through all their ups and downs, it’s how any high-performance group truly begins to play from a foundation of conviction and strength”.
“The biggest thing I’ve realized is that I’ve tried to stop pleasing everybody” - JOHN SCHNEIDER
From where I sit in the Alberta foothills, the Blue Jays story has become very personal. Since getting caught up in Jays fever back in September, my son and I talk and text several times a day wondering how we are managing to squeeze all of this baseball viewing into our regularly scheduled lives. Both Ryan and his son Cayden have made the Blue Jays appointment television, creating a bond that will last a lifetime over special moments that will become treasured memories. While he may be neglecting a few household chores these days, Ryan is making good use of his extended TV time to perfect his Buck Martinez impersonations! In our family, hockey and golf are our shared sports, but we’ve never been so riveted by a line-up that’s fun to watch, refuses to quit and features a whopping 15 guys on the roster that spent time in the minors this year. In other words, the Jays have plenty of ham-and-eggers who through the force of their collective effort are giving a team loaded with future Hall-of-Famers a real run for their money on baseball’s biggest stage.
With deep, billionaire pockets, the Dodgers have purchased their dynasty. The Blue Jays are building theirs from the ground up.
Building a team based on character and chemistry. Stuff you can’t measure with analytics or data points.
Teams moulded through character aren’t perfect, but they damn well stick together. They work through conflict (like the Max Scherzer mound visit that rocked a nation) and recover quickly from setbacks. In the face of unrelenting pressure and heart-breaking, 18-inning losses, they still have trust and faith in each other. For Canadians, these quiet, stoic values reflect our shared national identity. Sitting next to the mightiest nation on the planet; we are well aware of a superpower that dominates the global narrative. Perhaps that is why this Toronto Blue Jays team feels like an extension of ourselves as Canadians. Earning respect without feeling the need to bully anyone. No need to taunt, scream or shout. The inner confidence to play a very long game knowing its better to partner and collaborate than divide and conquer. In many ways, physical specimens and great athletes like Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani are perfectly suited for cities like New York and Los Angeles that worship at the altar of glitz, glamour and celebrity. Meanwhile, Canada’s hero was born in Montreal, raised in the Dominican Republic and with 8 post-season home runs to his credit, Vladdy plays with a heart bigger than his formidable backside.
No matter the size of his 14-year contract, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is one of 26 players on the active roster who shows what it looks like to play for each other.
No matter what unfolds in Game 6 tonight - or a potential Game 7 tomorrow – Vladdy, Bo, Schneids, George, Gaus, Max, Ernie, Kirkie, Trey and the rest of the Blue Jays have already won something no one can take away.
They are one of us.
Always will be.
“I think this is a quote from Herb Brooks, but we are a team of uncommon men… I think a normal team would've folded today, and we're not normal. I think we're the best team in baseball, and we got out of bed today with our hair on fire and ready to play" - ERNIE CLEMENT
p.s…. Has there ever been a better national anthem in Canadian history than what we saw in Game One of the World Series?
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