SIMMONS: After winning MLB championships, Gillick understands why Epstein needs time off

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“I think there’s only three of us,” said Gillick, who is still doing part-time work for the Phillies. “Just one of us still working.” He said that laughing.

“Dombrowski is in Nashville, trying to get a big league team for that city. Epstein is out for the year, I think. And there’s me.” Gillick still doing some work for the Phillies.

Gillick doesn’t really know Epstein, although they’ve met a few times. Gillick was close to Kevin Towers, when he was running the San Diego Padres. Towers told him about this bright kid he had working for him brought in my Larry Lucchino. Epstein had worked in media relations for the Baltimore Orioles while going to Yale and moved from there to San Diego to Boston to Chicago. And winning seemed to follow him.

Here in Toronto we think a lot about winning a Stanley Cup after all these years and what it will mean to Maple Leafs fans everywhere. But in big league terms, it’s just another drought. The Red Sox went 86 years between championships. The Cubs 108 years. The Cleveland Indians are on the clock now at 62 years. The New York Rangers have won once in the past 79 seasons. The Leafs are now oh-for-the expansion years, the season that will eventually start will be Year 54 of the Cup chase.

“I don’t think most people realize how difficult it is to win the World Series,” Pat Gillick said. “And to do it, in two different leagues, with different teams, that’s says something.

Gillick did it in two leagues, so did Epstein and Dombrowski. The short list of baseball’s most accomplished executives.