Sometimes you get lucky and get Tom Henke

You can reasonably argue that the Blue Jays wouldn’t have won the World’s Championship in 1992 without Tom Henke.

What I didn’t know until just now was how the Blue Jays got Henke. The latest issue of Memories and Dreams, the Hall of Fame’s members’ magazine, is mostly devoted to scouts and includes an article about Pat Gillick, who went into the Hall of Fame a couple of years ago.

So what about Tom Henke?

“That was all Moose Johnson,” said Gillick. “We were at the (1985) compensation draft and all set to take Donnie Moore from Atlanta, but the Angels grabbed him first.”

Then the Jays were going to select Expos right-hander Bill Cutshall, who was Mattick’s pick, but Argenis Salazar was taken from the Montreal roster by St. Louis. The rule was a team could not lose more than one player.

The Toronto table found itself in a state of panic.

“Moose said there’s this big tall guy, he wears glasses, with the Rangers who can pitch ... of course he couldn’t pronounce his name,” said Gillick.

The Jays selected Henke. He saved 217 games and had a 2.48 ERA in eight seasons in Toronto.

I never get tired of stories like this. Just think how things would have been different if the Angels didn’t get Donnie Moore and the Jays didn’t get Tom Henke.