Dunedin, Fla. – In baseball, it’s usually the closer who makes the save. In this case, the manager got the work done.
Blue Jays captain John Schneider recently helped save a woman who was choking at a local restaurant by successfully applying the Heimlich maneuver to remove a splinter that was blocking her airflow.
“Right place, right time,” Schneider said Sunday. “I was just enjoying lunch with (wife) Jess. You either help or you don’t and I decided I’d go and see if I could help.
The incident took place about two weeks ago at an establishment on the city’s main road, about three kilometers from the Blue Jays’ player development complex.
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Others at the woman’s table were slow to react, Schneider said, so she asked if she could help. The 43-year-old then thought back to his first aid training from his younger days.
“I learned it in sixth grade and haven’t done it since,” he said of the procedure, which involves applying strong pressure to the abdomen.
“So it was just like, ‘I think I remember how to do this.’ I’m a big guy so I guess that helped a little.
The six-foot-three 250-pound captain, who is entering his first full season as Blue Jays manager, said the woman did not recognize him.
“She said, ‘thank you,’ and continued to eat with her friends,” Schneider said. “I think I was a little more nervous than he was.”
A complimentary beer helped calm his nerves.
Nicholas Christakos, general manager of Clear Sky Draft Haus, said that employees on duty that day told him what had happened. He said that Schneider walked about three tables away to help the older woman.
“I heard he was really humble and really gentle, and then helped him with the Heimlich,” Christakos said. “He was very nonchalant and went back.”
For the discarded shrimp, Schneider said that its exit “wasn’t like a movie.”
“I think it came naturally,” he said. “But it wasn’t like popping a bottle of champagne.”
Schneider was promoted from bench coach to interim manager last July.
He had the interim tag removed last fall and signed a three-year deal with a team option for the 2026 season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on February 19, 2023.
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