Today in Blue Jays History: Jays win their first World Series

28 years ago today

The Blue Jays won their first World Series.

It always seems that our first World Series win isn’t as celebrated as our second one, likely because it didn’t end in a walk-off homer.

But it did end with Joe Carter jumping up and down.

Game 6 was a 4-3 win 11 inning win.

We were up 2-1 going into the bottom of the 9th, and Cito brought Tom Henke into the game. We had high hopes. Henke had pitched in 8 playoff games that year and hadn’t given up a run. This time he gave up a leadoff single to Jeff Blauser. Damon Berryhill bunted him to second, and Lonnie Smith walked. Next, Francisco Cabrera lined one to left (which Candy Maldonado misjudged). Candy made a last-second leaping catch. Unfortunately, next, Otis Nixon lined a single to left again, and Maldonado airmailed the throw into the plate over everyone, allowing the tying run to score and putting the winning run on third. Fortunately, Ron Gant made the last out of the inning.

Henke got the first out of the 10th inning, and Jimmy Key came in (on short rest, after starting game 4) to get the last two outs of the inning.

In the top of the 11th, Key led off and popped out. But Devon White was hit by pitch, and Roberto Alomar singled. With Joe Carter up, the whole baseball world figured Braves manager Bobby Cox would bring Jeff Reardon, the closer they picked up in an August 30th deal with the Red Sox, into the game. But Jeff had had a tough time in his two appearances of the series, giving up a game-winning home run to Ed Sprague in game 2, and a game-winning single to Maldonado in game 3. So, Cox stuck with the tiring Charlie Leibrandt. Carter hit a fly ball to deep center (we were excited for a moment). But next up, Dave Winfield doubled home both White and Alomar, giving us a 2 run lead.

The bottom of the 11th was pretty intense.

Jimmy Key gave up a leadoff single, and then Alfredo Griffin made an error at short, putting the tying run on first. A bunt moved the tying run to second, and a ground out scored a run and put the tying run on 3rd.

Mike Timlin came in to face Otis Nixon. Nixon tried for a bunt single, but Timlin jumped on the ball and threw over to Carter at first to win the series. Carter set a new world’s record for vertical jump (which he would beat a year later).

It was the 4th one-run game of the series. It was a very tight series. There was only one blow out. We lost game 5 by a score of 7-2.

If you wanted to watch the game, Sportsnet has it up on their website.

a few years ago, Sportsnet replayed the entire series. I had the following observations:

• One of the things I noticed was that people didn’t wear team colors as much as they do now. Even during the regular season, many (most?) people in the stands wear team colors, at very least a cap. Today you see more fans with Blue Jay jerseys in one section at Rogers than in a full stadium in 1992. My memory says that jerseys ever very expensive back then. Of course, they are costly now too, and we all own them. My parents would have never spent the money on a team jersey for me, but I’ve bought several jerseys for each of my kids. When I was a kid, I bought myself an Expos jersey when I got my first part-time job. It had Gary Carter’s number on the back. People looked at it as an extravagance. Baseball caps were more common out here in the ‘west’ than in Ontario back then.
• The graphics sure were different back then. I guess we paid more attention to the game then and didn’t need to have the score facing us every moment, and we had to follow the count for ourselves. It would have made it a lot harder to follow the game and a game thread simultaneously.
• Pat Borders was an interesting choice as MVP. He had good series with the bat, hitting .450/.500/.750, with a home run and 3 RBI. But then, on defense, he had a more challenging time. The Braves stole 15 bases in the 6 games. He did manage to throw out 3 guys trying to steal, but it was a track meet out there. I don’t know who would have been a better choice.
• Joe Carter had a good series too, hitting .273/.346/.636, with 2 home runs, 3 RBI and a stolen base.
• Jimmy Key had 2 wins and a 1.00 ERA in 9 innings. He got the win his game 4 start, going 7.2 inning, allowing just 1 run, 5 hits, 0 walks, and 6 strikeouts. Key also was the winner in relief in game 6.
• I don’t know who I would have picked. It just seems like Borders’ defense was so bad, it should have disqualified him.
• Cito was likely the perfect manager for the time. Cito, especially back then, was a minimalist as manager. He wasn’t going to wow you with strategy. No one would watch the series and call him a genius, in the way that folks watch a Tony LaRussa team and call him a genius, but for the time, Cito was the right guy. It was a team of veterans, in their prime, that didn’t need a lot of strategy.
• The big mistake of the series was starting Jack Morris in games 1 and 5. Morris had a good season, winning 21 games, with a 4.04 ERA, and ended the season well, going 9-2 with a 3.26 ERA over the last two months of the season. And the reason the Jays signed him was for his ‘clutch’ ability. Before 1992 Morris was 7-1 in playoff starts. He was 0-3 in the with a 6.19 ERA for us in 1992 playoffs and didn’t pitch in the 1993 playoffs.
• Tim McCarver was the worse commentator in baseball history.
• Having Gruber guard the line in the 9th cost us the lead. If he was playing straightaway Blauser’s leadoff single would have been an easy out. But then if Pendleton had been guarding the line when Winfield was up in the 11th, he wouldn’t have had that 2-run double.
• Candy Maldonado was a terrible outfielder.
• My personal game 6 story? I had to work that night. I taped the game (VHS for those of you old enough to remember). I told my wife about my plan. I made sure not to hear the score. Drove home with the radio off, very careful not to give it away. I got home, and my wife told me the Jays won. They still haven’t found her body.