It took more than a few months, but Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider received some words of wisdom on how to deal with his World Series Game 7 heartbreak from Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
It’s not because Kerr took his time to reach out; it’s because his handwritten letter, which was dated the day after the Blue Jays’ loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the deciding game of the World Series, had been sitting on Schneider’s desk at Rogers Centre during the offseason without the manager’s knowledge.
Schneider said he saw the letter and opened it after the Blue Jays returned to Toronto following spring training.
“As I read it,” Schneider told The Athletic, “I was like, ‘holy s—.'”
“I don’t know you,” Kerr wrote, according to The Athletic, “but I felt compelled to reach out after watching your incredible leadership on display during the World Series.”
In the letter, Kerr compared Schneider’s loss to the Warriors’ Game 7 defeat in the 2016 NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“The pain [in 2016] was real,” Kerr wrote. “But what always survives through the tough losses is the character and connection of the group. The loss won’t define you, but the way you and your guys carried themselves afterwards will.”
Schneider, who was signed to a two-year extension through the 2028 season last week, took Kerr’s words to heart.
“It was the message we’ve been preaching all offseason and in spring,” Schneider told The Athletic. “The run was great, and the heartbreak was real, but it’s not going to define who we are. We all went through it together. What we’re going to be defined by is how we persevere through it.
“… If he can see the good in what we did, it kind of gives you a little bit of reassurance that you’re preaching the right things.”