DUNEDIN, Fla. — In baseball, the closest usually makes the save. In this case, the director did the work.
Blue Jays skipper John Schneider recently helped save a choking woman at a local restaurant, successfully applying the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge a shrimp that was blocking her airflow.
“Right place, right time,” Schneider said Sunday. “I was just having lunch with (his wife) Jess. Either you help me or you don’t and I decided to go see if I could help.
The incident happened about two weeks ago at a facility on the city’s main thoroughfare, about two miles from the Blue Jays’ player development complex.
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Others at the women’s table were slow to respond, Schneider said, so he asked if he could help. The 43-year-old then thought back to the first aid training of his youth.
“I learned it in sixth grade and haven’t done it since,” he said of the procedure, which involves applying heavy pressure to the abdomen.
“So it was just like, ‘I think I remember how to do this.’ I’m a taller guy, so I think that helped a bit.
The six-foot-three, 250-pound skipper, entering his first full season as Blue Jays manager, said the woman did not recognize him.
“She said ‘Thank you’ and continued her meal with her friends,” Schneider said. “I think I was a little more shaken up than she was.”
A free beer helped calm his nerves.
Nicholas Christakos, general manager of the Clear Sky Draft Haus, said the service staff that day told him what happened. He said Schneider moved about three tables away to help the older woman.
“I heard he was really polite and very nice, then helped her with the Heimlich,” Christakos said. “He was very nonchalant and came back.”
As for the dislodged shrimp, Schneider said its release “wasn’t like a movie.”
“It came naturally, I guess,” he said. “But it wasn’t like popping a bottle of champagne.”
Schneider was promoted from bench coach to interim coach last July.
He had the interim tag removed last fall and signed a three-year contract with a team option for the 2026 season.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on February 19, 2023.
Follow @GregoryStrongCP on Twitter.
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