in early december, the story about bj birdy's two replacements made the news. shanahan commented that "there's not a great deal of pain in this. i had a good run. but it bothers me that the jays talked about it before my contract was up. they gave their word they'd wait until december 31." general manager gord ash contested that "there was no intent to reveal that. we were confronted with the story, it was out from another source and there was no sense having a bunker mentality and denying it."