Cito Gaston must have thought he had travelled back in time.

It was opening day and a Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher was carrying a no-hitter and a three-run lead into the seventh inning. Gaston probably thought this was opening day 2009 and that was Roy Halladay dominating the Texas Rangers with a no-no through six scoreless innings, not Shaun Marcum, the default 2010 Jays ace who hadn’t thrown a major league pitch since 2008.

Gaston must have figured he could just sit on his hands and let Halladay do what he does best — give the manager a day off. All that was left to do was stroll to the post-game press conference to pump Halladay’s tires and regurgitate the same old clichés about the best pitcher in baseball.

Of course, this is 2010 and Gaston was clearly confused. So we can excuse the 66-year-old’s incredible lapses of judgment that directly lead to the Blue Jays 4-3 loss at the hands of the Rangers in their season opener on Monday.

But any other mismanagement and Gaston should be stripped of his duties and given a comfy office at the Roger’s Centre with a figurehead title and a corporate expense account.

Let Gaston remain affiliated with the organization and transfer to one of these glorified pension positions that storied franchise legends take on after their contributions at field level dissipate.

Like the Advisor for Team Baseball Operations role Bobby Cox will mail in for the Atlanta Braves when he retires from managing at the end of this season or the Special Consultant job Scotty Bowman took with the Detroit Red Wings after he left coaching.

Then let someone who gives a damn have a chance to manage this ball club.

In fact, Rogers Communications should be encouraged to pay Gaston inordinate amounts of money not to manage the Toronto Blue Jays. Stay away from the players, keep out of the dugout, don’t whisper in any ears — just go away and pick up your cheque every other Friday.

Gaston has proven time and again that his managerial chops are mediocre at best and Monday’s season opener was no exception. It’s not what he does — it’s what he doesn’t do.

It started in the top of the eighth inning. After Travis Snider strikes out — he looked overmatched all afternoon — to begin the inning, Jose Bautista walks and Aaron Hill doubles, pushing Bautista to third. Adam Lind, who was three for three with a home run on the day, is then intentionally walked to load the bases and set up a force out at any bag.

Vernon Wells comes to the plate and singles on a line drive to left field, scoring Bautista and advancing the other runners. The Rangers immediately go to their bullpen and call on their sole left-handed pitcher, Darren Oliver, to face the next Jay, Lyle Overbay, who last season hit just .190 against left-handed pitching.

It’s a shrewd managerial move, but certainly far from rocket science. In fact, expect most teams to take this strategy when Overbay comes to the plate with runners in scoring position late in a game.

Of course, this ploy is easily negated by pinch hitting a right handed hitter like, oh, let’s just say Randy Ruiz who not only plays Overbay’s position but is also a career .279 hitter against left-handed pitching.

This is why you have your bench. Baseball is a game of matchups and despite old guard managers like Gaston who prefer instinct over statistics — the numbers rarely lie.

Overbay, of course, struck out looking on three pitches. Which made way for Jays catcher John Buck and his career .244 average against left handers. Ruiz again watched from the bench as Buck — at least he made contact — flew out to left field, stranding three runners and killing the momentum that the top of the Jays lineup had worked so hard to create.

I’ll admit, baseball is hard to predict — Ruiz could have just as easily struck out or popped out like Overbay and Buck did. But the role of the manager is to put your team in the best possible position for success. Gaston’s inaction left the Jays behind the eight-ball instead of giving them a fighting chance.

This isn’t to say that a player should be pinch hit for in the second inning because of an unfavourable matchup. But in the eighth inning of a one-run ball game with the bases loaded? There isn’t a more ideal time than that to play the matchups game.

Not convinced?

Consider the bottom of the ninth inning. Clinging to a one-run lead, Gaston turns to his closer, Jason Frasor, to get the final three outs. After a Michael Young double, a Josh Hamilton strike out and a Vladimir Guerrero single which moved Young to third, outfielder Nelson Cruz doubled to right field, scoring Young, pushing Guerrero to third base and tying the game.

At this point, Frasor has already blown the save and in the four batters he’s faced, he’s given up a single and two doubles. Gaston has two other closers in the bullpen, Kevin Gregg, who saved 23 games for the Chicago Cubs last season, and Scott Downs who saved nine for the Jays.

But Gaston did not so much as even warm one of them up. Nor did he visit the mound to talk things over with Frasor or send the pitching coach out to give instructions. Again, he did nothing.

Well, he did do one thing. He ordered Frasor to intentionally walk Rangers first baseman Chris Davis to load the bases. The same Chris Davis who last year struck out in 150 of his 391 at bats, giving him the honour of tying Arizona’s Mark Reynolds for the league lead in per cent of at bats that result in strike outs. Long story short — the guy strikes out 38 per cent of the time.

The least Gaston could have done was let Frasor pitch to the strikeout-king Davis instead of loading the bases for Jarrod Saltalamacchia — a career .357 hitter with the bases loaded — who fought off two pitches before sailing a 2-2 curveball into centre field, over the head of Vernon Wells to cash Guerrero and win the game.

Those were the moments when Gaston could have made a move in Monday’s game and possibly changed the outcome. Those precious, fleeting moments are when good managers like Mike Scioscia, Ron Gardenhire and Terry Francona make adjustments to their squads to put them in the best possible position for success. And those are moments that may become all too familiar for fans of this year’s team.

Gaston, it seems, feels his job is done when he submits the lineup card before the opening pitch. Sure, he’ll replace an injured player or yank a pitcher who is getting particularly pasteurized by the opposition batters, but asking for much more past that is a lot for Gaston.

This could be one of the reasons why the clubhouse literally revolted against him at the end of last season, with several members of the team telling the media Gaston’s negative, passionless approach was falling out of favour with the players.

It’s a wonder Gaston is even back behind the helm in a year when the Jays plan on developing their youth — past Adam Lind, Gaston has shown little understanding of how to spur success in young ball players.

Travis Snider’s hitting against left-handed pitching has hardly improved over the past years because Gaston simply doesn’t let him face left-handers. Ricky Romero — once thought of as a rookie-of-the-year candidate — fell apart in the second half of last season after Gaston over-worked him. Jeremy Accardo, who saved 30 games for the Jays in 2007, has seen just five save opportunities since and has enjoyed permanent residence in the manager’s dog house for no apparent reason.

Look, I get it. Gaston is more than just a manager. He’s a symbol — a constant reminder of the years when this team was living in the penthouse of the AL East, not the basement. But now, almost 20 years removed from those back-to-back World Series titles, it’s time to move on and pass the torch to someone with some passion for this job.

In ’92 and ’93 Gaston had exceptional players like Roberto Alomar, Devon White and John Olerud to make him look capable as a manager. Today’s Blue Jays don’t provide that luxury and Gaston’s reality — a passive, archaic and ineffective manager — is clearer than ever.

Clarence “Cito” Gaston

Born March 17, 1944

San Antonio, Texas

Playing Statistics

11 Seasons with San Diego, Atlanta and Pittsburgh (1967-1978)

799 hits

91 home runs

387 RBIs

.256 batting average

1 All star selection (1970)

Managing statistics

12 seasons with Toronto (1989-1997, 2008-2010)

809 wins

761 losses

.515 winning percentage

Four American League East division titles (1989, 1991, 1992, 1993)

Two AL pennants

Two World Series titles (1992, 1993)

Two time AL all star team manager (1993, 1994)