Blue Jays’ John Schneider receives support from Steve Kerr

After several months, Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider received valuable advice on coping with his World Series Game 7 disappointment from Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

The delay in communication was not due to Kerr’s lack of initiative; rather, it was because his handwritten note, dated the day following the Blue Jays’ defeat to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series finale, had remained on Schneider’s desk at Rogers Centre throughout the offseason without his awareness.

Schneider mentioned that he discovered the letter and read it after the Blue Jays returned to Toronto post-spring training.

“As I read it,” Schneider shared with The Athletic, “I was like ‘holy s—.’

“I don’t know you,” Kerr expressed in the letter, as reported by The Athletic, “but I felt the urge to reach out after witnessing your remarkable leadership during the World Series.”

In his correspondence, Kerr drew parallels between Schneider’s experience and his own following the Warriors’ loss in Game 7 of the 2006 NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“The pain [in 2006] was genuine,” Kerr noted in the letter. “However, what endures through difficult defeats is the character and unity of the team. The loss will not define you, but the manner in which you and your team conducted yourselves afterward will.”

Schneider, who recently signed a two-year extension that runs through the 2028 season, took Kerr’s message to heart.

“It was the message we’ve been promoting all offseason and during spring,” Schneider told The Athletic. “The journey was remarkable, and the disappointment was significant, but it will not define who we are. We experienced it together. What will define us is how we overcome it.”

“… If he can recognize the positives in what we accomplished, it provides a bit of reassurance that we are conveying the right messages.”