Long before the playoffs, the Jays laid the groundwork for a second championship
The Toronto Blue Jays had done the impossible in 1992, bringing a World Series championship north of the border for the first time in the history of big-league baseball. The win had been the culmination of 10 seasons of plus-.500 play, a decade of effort that had seen the Jays reach the ALCS three times only to be turned away. It was a relief, a release and the ultimate validation for the franchise and its fans. But the Jays werenât done making history. They had their sights set on an even loftier goal, one that had last been accomplished by the 1978 New York Yankees. The Blue Jays wanted to repeat.
Joe Carter RF
People tend to relax a little bit when they win a World Series. That was not the case with us. We immediately said, âHey, letâs look at repeating.â
Todd Stottlemyre SP
When we came back for spring training, we were proud of the title and we werenât willing to give it up.
Buck Martinez TV
I think everyone kind of expected them to do it again. But we all realized how challenging that could be. You never anticipate being able to do that because everyone is out for you.
In addition to the target painted on their backs, the Jays had to overcome an off-season that had seen them lose 10 members of the â92 World Series roster. Included in that group were starting pitchers Jimmy Key and David Cone, designated hitter Dave Winfield and closer Tom Henke, all of whom had been crucial to the World Series win.
Paul Beeston President
Jimmy Key was a player we wanted to keep, but we were going to have problems because he was after a long-term contract. We knew Dave Winfield wanted a long-term contractâhe had been the leader of the team in many ways in 1992.
Pat Gillick gm
Payroll-wise we couldnât afford to keep them. Thatâs one of the reasons we let them walk. Not just payroll but length. Cone and Key and Winfield and Henke, they were looking for longer-term contracts that we werenât interested in giving. The difficult thing wasnât letting them go. It was deciding who to keep. You kept who you thought were the nucleus and the right people.
At the top of Torontoâs list of keepers was Joe Carter, whoâd led the â92 team in home runs and RBI.
paul Beeston
We were one of the large-revenue teams, so it wasnât an issue of moneyâit was about sensibilities as to who we were going to sign. Joe was a guy who could steal a base, hit a home run and every year he seemed to drive in 100 runs. And he was a fun guy to be around.
joe Carter
I was a free agent and I had told any teams interested: âItâs only going to be between the Kansas City Royals and the Toronto Blue Jays.â It was a very difficult situation. Iâve lived in Leewood, Kansas, since 1986, so a lot of my roots are here.
Bob Elliott journalist
[Carter] was all set to go to Kansas City. I mean, it was home and the money was basically the same.
pat Gillick
To be frank, we were very confident about our proposal. I was a little bit surprised to hear that he was that close to leaving.
joe Carter
My agent and I had a talk with the late Ewing Kauffman, the owner of the Royals, and he told me to sit down because the Royals had made a tremendous offer. But it wasnât because of the money. If it was the money, I would have taken the offer in Kansas City. The terms were a little bit better.
pat Gillick
It was kind of touch-and-go until the night before he signed. But then [Carter] had a dream and that kind of turned his mind for sure and he came back with us.
joe Carter
The night [after I met with Kauffman] I had a dream. I was walking to the ballpark with Devon White. It was kind of dark and we came up on the stadium. When I looked up, the lights lit up and it said, âWelcome to the SkyDome.â The next day I signed with the Blue Jays. I can remember the day before there were blue jays all around the house, everywhere in my backyardâactual blue jays, the bird. Thatâs how I came back.
bob Elliott
About two days later, I get a phone call from Devon White and he says, âHey, tell Gillick and [assistant GM Gord] Ash that I should get an extension.â I say, âWhy?â He says, âWell, I showed up in Joeâs dream.â So, the first guy I saw was Ash and I told himâI thought it was funnyâand Ash said, âI think Iâve had enough talk about agents and extensions for that to be funny right now, Robert.â
With Carter locked down, the Jays turned their attention to plugging the remaining spots in the roster.
pat Gillick
We had tremendous scouting and player development so, consequently, a lot of the holes that we had we filled internally.
paul Beeston
The key was, who could we get? We had some preliminary discussions with Paul Molitor, weâd had some preliminary discussions with Dave Stewart, who was going to leave Oakland, and so we felt if we lost the other guys, we could replace them with players of equal calibre.
Dave Stewart SP
As soon as we were available to speak with other teams, we got a call from Pat Gillick and he explained the situation. David Cone was possibly leaving, Jimmy Key was possibly leaving and he said that if either one of those two players left that I was the top name on their list. Paul Molitor was the final decision for me. When he signed to play here that sealed the deal for me.
Paul Molitor DH
I was hoping to be one of those guys who played in one uniform his whole career. So after 15 years, it was a difficult decision to make.
pat Gillick
Molitor had been in Milwaukee his whole career. They had a good team and won but they never got close to the World Series. We just had to present to him exactly what our plan was and where we were going and let him make a decision.
paul Molitor
When Paul and Pat came to Milwaukee and laid out their plans for me, that really did it. I understood that while they were ecstatic about what they had done in â92, I remember them talking about how they wanted to be the first team since the â70s to win back-to-back titles. It was very convincing and they were very likeable men with a lot of passion for winning and it became clear to me that if I was going to make a change, it was now and this was the place that I wanted to go.
Mike Timlin RP
We were losing Winfieldâs big bat, but having him replaced with a guy who could drive in a lot of runs like Molitor was exciting.
Jack Morris SP
[Molitor and I] literally played against each other since we were about 12 years old. The first time we were ever teammates, the only time, was â93. He pretty much filled in for what Dave did the year before.
paul Molitor
The irony of replacing Dave was that our careers ended up having so many parallels. We were born in Minnesota, played for the university, spent a long time playing for one team and ended up having to go to Toronto to win our only world championship. And then to continue, we both ended up going back to Minnesota. We both got our 3,000th hit on the exact same date. It was just a lot of strange things.
joe Carter
We acquired Paul, and it was like, âOK, letâs win one for Molitor.â We had two things going for us: The back-to-back and also trying to win a championship for Paul Molitor.
paul Molitor
I donât remember them telling me that directly. I do remember reading that a couple of times in articles. I was never really comfortable with the idea of that being in the forefront as motivation. I think things were a lot bigger than that, but if your teammates and the organization and your fans were behind you and wanted to see that happen, it was a good feeling.
buck Martinez
Molitor was a very intense, very focused, hard-driven player. He came to Toronto when he was 36 years old, but still played every single game. He had a remarkable presence that just kind of calmed everything down for the Blue Jays and validated again that they were doing whatever they could to win a World Series.
paul Molitor
I was never overly verbal. I always did feel the freedom to speak up if I thought we were losing focus or losing sight of our goals. But I always thought that how you carried yourself and how you prepared for gamesâthe respect that you gave the game and your teammates and your performanceâwas something that you could set a tone with. Simple things like running balls out and being early and just showing the right way to be professional. A lot of guys knew all this, but I think they kind of wanted to have someone around to instill the idea that that was the right way to do things.
jack Morris
Paul was a lot quieter guy than Dave. But the quiet influence was still an influence. A lot of young players migrated toward Paul because he carried himself well and he had the knowledge of the game.
todd Stottlemyre
All of the guys in that locker room, from playing against [Molitor and Stewart], already had this massive amount of respect for them.
The warm welcome from teammates helped the new arrivals ease into the clubhouse.
paul Molitor
[I had] always played spring training in Arizona and now I was in Florida. I remember my flight heading down there couldnât even land. There was fog, so we landed in Tallahasee and I had to rent a car and drive down. It gave me that much more time to think about what it was going to be like to step into a new clubhouse.
Darren Kritzer Bat Boy
When a new guy would come on, everyone just gelled and it had a lot to do with the way the clubhouse was situated.
paul Molitor
I didnât really have any specific message to the team when I met them because I still wasnât sure how Cito was going to use me. I wasnât sure if he wanted to use me as top-of-the-lineup guy or as a three hitter. I wasnât sure even how much I was going to DH or play first base. I remember some of the guys like Eddie Sprague saying they were looking for more leadership from within the clubhouse and they said that they respected veteran players who could step up and help keep things cohesive. It gave me an opportunity to feel comfortable as the new guy taking on a leadership role in the team.
mike Timlin
Dave Stewart came in as an established force in the rotation. It was amazing what he could do on a constant basis. Very seldom did you see him go out and really get beat up. And he just stayed steady all year long.
todd Stottlemyre
I remember Dave, first day of pitchersâ camp, puts his arm around me and says, âWhat kind of year are ya gonna have?â And I was like, âWow. Havenât even thought about it.â He goes, âIâm gonna have a great year. Youâre gonna have a big year, right?â This is the first day of spring training and Iâm thinking, who am I playing golf with that afternoon? Heâs talking about what kind of year heâs going to have. And then that day after the workout he says, âHey, you wanna run with me?â
dave Stewart
I fought my battles in between starts and so when Iâm running, I have a visual of the hitters that Iâm going to be facing and what the guys have done to me in the past and what I want to accomplish if certain situations happen. I use my running as preparation.
todd Stottlemyre
Iâm like, âI get to go run with Dave Stewart? Great!â So, we take off running, right? And weâre in our shorts and T-shirts and we leave the stadium and Iâm thinking, âHey weâre getting a long ways from the stadium.â And Daveâs not saying a word. All I can think about is, âI hope heâs gonna turn around sometime soon.â
dave Stewart
He wasnât saying much but he was thinking, âStew-dog, when we getting back?â I asked him, âWhat were you thinking about when we were doing our run?â And he said, âI wasnât thinking anything. I was just thinking about running.â
todd Stottlemyre
We get back from the run and Dave looks at me and sweatâs just pouring out. And he says, âI threw a lot of shutouts on that run. You see, when I run Iâm not just getting my legs and heart in shape, Iâm getting my mind in shape.â I started to gravitate toward that. And of course the next day, after camp Dave says to me, âWanna go for a run?â And what am I gonna say, âNoâ? And all I can think about is, âHope itâs shorter than yesterdayâs.â He took me on. There was a mentorship there.
dave Stewart
When I had the opportunity to speak to Stott about the mental approach to the game, I used those opportunities because I wanted him to be better than I was. I wanted him to be one of the best in the game.
todd Stottlemyre
He began talking to me about responsibility and about, as a starting pitcher, youâre not just responsible for your day. Youâre responsible for everybody in that uniform, the general manager, everybody who works at that stadium and everybody who bought a ticket to come and root for that team. And itâs really a lot bigger than I ever thought about. At that moment I started falling in love with being a starting pitcher.
The defending champs had lost some of the pitching and defence that had carried them during the â92 season, but theyâd made up for it by doubling down on offence. The Jays lineup that started the seasonâand was quickly nicknamed âWAMCOâ for White, Alomar, Molitor, Carter and Olerudâwas the most feared in baseball. But despite the hype, the season didnât get off to the most auspicious start.
Jerry Howarth radio
The Blue Jays opened in Seattle, Jack Morris on the mound, and they got beat 8â1. And this is a team that in spring training they thought, âWhoa, this is a great team.â
paul Molitor
We were sort of struggling at the beginning to establish our identity because we had some interchangeable parts, even though they had the core from â92. Even when youâve got a lot of returning players, each year takes on its own identity. It took us a while to figure out who we were going to be.
With Stewart sidelined with an injury to his throwing arm at the start of the season, it took Gaston a little while to sort out the starting rotation.
Al Leiter rP
I started about half the games that year, then Cito went with Stottlemyre and I got pushed to the pen. I never really got the warming-up thing in the pen. [Bullpen coach] John Sullivan used to get so pissed off at me because I was a starter and I would throw a shitload of pitches to get ready. And Sully, man, heâs a great old-time coach, and he was like, âStop it! Youâre done, youâre done!â And heâd have the catcher, Randy Knorr or whoever, hold the ball, âcause Iâd just keep on throwing.
The Blue Jays finished the month of April fourth in the AL Eastern Division with a 13-10 record. A May 12 loss at home against Detroit saw them fall below .500. It also cost them starting shortstop Dick Schofield, who broke his left arm in an eighth-inning collision at second base.
jerry Howarth
[Tigers centre-fielder] Milt Cuyler tried to steal second, which he did, and on the throw down, Dick Schofield came over from short, took the throw and Cuyler accidentally slid in and broke his forearm. Cito went through Alfredo Griffin, Domingo Cedeno, Luis Sojo and finally by the middle of June when the team was in Detroit, who shows up for the second time of what turned out to be four? Tony Fernandez. Tonyâs at shortstop and now the team starts to gel around him. He hit very well. He was hitting, like, seventh in the lineup, so he headed up the bottom third of the orderâswitch hitter. He had a great finish to the season, from mid-June on.
pat Gillick
We had heard that Tony was dissatisfied playing in New York and that he would be open to coming back to Toronto. So we started scouting more intensely and finally we were able to make a deal with the Mets.
paul Beeston
Weâd known Tony since we signed him in 1979. Heâd been with us and might well have led us to the World Series in 1987 had he not gotten hurt, so bringing him back, you had a veteran you could count on who worked hard, who could still play defence.
jack Morris
We got Tony Fernandez back and I think that was a welcome sight for a lot of guys because they had known him from his early daysâhe was a calming influence. He had something left. He had something left to prove, too, and he really stepped it up.
The loss of Schofield and eventual addition of Fernandez sparked something in the Jays. Between May 13 and June 30 the team went on a tear, going 32-14, climbing to the top of the division. But things started to unravel again in July. The club began the month by dropping 10 of 11 games but miraculously maintained a half-game lead on the Detroit Tigers heading into the All-Star break.
Nick Leyva 3b coach
Cito, because he won the World Series, was the manager of the All-Star team that year. The All-Star Game was in Baltimore and Cito didnât use one of [the Oriolesâ] starting pitchers, Mike Mussina. Supposedly, they had an understanding before the gameâMike knew it, Cito knew it, the Orioles knew itâthat he wasnât going to pitch. Starting pitchers have a routine between starts, they do a certain thing, so [Mussina] went down and did his routine in the bullpen. And here all these people in Baltimore think Citoâs going to put him in the game and that was never the intention. So every time we went in to play the Orioles, boy, Cito got some kind of booed. The players really stuck behind him, they actually got mad because he was getting something he truly didnât deserve, and I remember Paul Molitor bringing the team together and saying, âLook at the way theyâre treating our manager,â and from that day it was like we were on a mission to do it again.
Whatever the cause, the Jays did come out of the break revitalized. In the 16 days from the All-Star break to the July 31 trade deadline, the team went 11-5. Still, despite the turnaround, Gillick and the rest of the Jays front office felt the team needed one last piece to make it a real back-to-back threat. Would it be the Seattle Marinersâ 29-year-old strikeout machine Randy Johnson in an echo of the â92 trade for David Cone, or the Athleticsâ Rickey Henderson, the greatest leadoff hitter in baseball history?
Fighting spirit Gaston and Nick Levya restrain Alomar after the second baseman was thrown out of an August tilt at Yankee Stadium for arguing a strike call in the first inning
bob Elliott
The night of the trade deadline, [the Jays] strike an agreement with Oakland about 8:00 p.m. for Rickey. But itâs conditional upon [Henderson] approving the trade. So the deal was that Oakland would get him to waive [his no trade clause]. So they talked to Rickey and Rickey wanted $2 million to waive it. While theyâre going back and forth, Seattle calls [the Jays] back and says theyâll do the other deal, the deal for Randy Johnson.
pat Gillick
Yeah, we were talking to Seattle at that time. And right at the deadline we thought we were really close. And when it comes down to it, we preferred to have Randy Johnson over Rickey Henderson if it had to be one or the other.
bob Elliot
Gillick has to say, âWell, we canât do that because weâve already committed to something else. Weâre just waiting on something.â So, [the Jays] phone back Oakland and say, âLook, the deadline for this deal is not midnight. Now, itâs 11:30, âcause weâve got another deal in play and we need half an hour.â So, Mickey Morabito, heâs the Oakland travelling secretary, he goes up to Rickeyâs mumâs house. Itâs a really dark night and Mickey says, âRickey, youâve got to sign this thing.â He signs it on the hood of the Lexus or Bentley or whatever heâs driving, and Mickey grabs it, sticks it in his pocket and drives back to the stadium. [Aâs GM Sandy] Alderson phones Gillick and says, âWell, we got it done, Rickey signed it. But we got a problem.â Gillick says, âWhatâs the problem?â [Alderson] says, âWell, Rickey wrote on it: âRickey gets suite on the road.ââ Theyâve only got two months to go [in the season], right? So thatâs basically one month on the road. Alderson says, âWhat are we going to do? Do we have time to go back?â And Gillick says, âAh, weâll give him a suite. Weâll just take it off his pay. He wonât even notice it.â
pat Gillick
We felt we needed to infuse something into the club, be it Johnson or be it Henderson, and it ended up being Henderson. If he got a suite on the road he paid for it.
paul Beeston
Rickey Henderson was a no-brainer for me. Iâve always felt he was the most exciting player in baseball. When he was on first base, everybody knew he was going to second base and it made no difference. The catcher knew, the shortstop knew, the umpire knew, the pitcher knew. I always found it intriguing the way heâd dance around first base. The opportunity to get him from Oakland was one where we felt heâd be the final piece.
todd Stottlemyre
You always felt that when Pat was at the helm, something good was gonna happen. It was never, âWill he deliver at the right time?â We didnât even have to worry about that because he was so far ahead of us.
jack Morris
It was like it wasnât good enough that we won the World Series in â92, now they just wanted to pound it into people.
buck Martinez
Rickey had a press conference when he first got [to Toronto] and just said he wanted to make some history at the SkyDome.
Pat Hentgen sp
The confidence that just comes flying out of Rickeyâs whole character definitely helped our teamâjust the confidence that he brought to our clubhouse.
jack Morris
He talks about himself in the third person. âRickey did thisâ and âRickey did that.â Itâs like, arenât you right here?
al Leiter
He was always laughing, always having a good time, but yeah, definitely heâs in Rickeyâs world.
jack Morris
Rickey was one of those guys who, as a pitcher, you just canât stand him because he creates chaos. I mean, for all those years, he was one of my least favourite guys. And then he becomes your teammate and all of a sudden you understand all his antics, and you understand that Rickey being Rickey is not offensive in any way. Heâs just being himself.
paul Molitor
When Henderson came over, [Gaston] had a decision to make about how he was going to juggle the lineup to make it work. He went through the five of us [White, Alomar, Molitor, Carter and Olerud] and asked us to write up a batting lineup. What would we do knowing that Rickey was coming over? I donât know how much he used playersâ input but it was kind of a sign that he was aware that this was going to change our offence. From the time that Rickey came over through the World Series, when we were up against a left-handed pitcher, I would bat third and I think it went Rickey, Robbie, me. And when it was a right-handed pitcher I ended up dropping down to sixth. So, I hit sixth a lot in September and the post-season against right-handed pitchers.
The Jays may have acquired Henderson in hopes of unleashing a little chaos on the basepaths, but he brought a measure of it into the locker room as well. Henderson had been a Blue Jay for less than two weeks when he suffered an injury during a game at Fenway Park in Boston on Aug. 13.
bob Elliott
We were in Boston and Rickey fouled a ball off his foot. [Trainer] Tommy Craig had this new thing heâd never tried, this ice that came in a packet. It was this state-of-the-art prototype sample heâd been sent. Rickey wakes up at three or four in the morning, and heâs got second-degree burns on his foot. They take him to the hospital. I donât know if Tommy told him the wrong amount of time to leave it on or Rickey screwed up and fell asleep. But here the Jays make this trade, they get this leadoff guy and now he canât play. Itâs one thing if a guy gets hurt, but the training staff made it worse.
Henderson returned to the lineup in fairly short order but was something of a bust to close out the season. He hit .215/.356/.319 in 44 regular season games, down from the .327/.469/.553 heâd notched in 90 games with the Aâs. Fortunately for Toronto, the rest of the lineup was putting bat to ball at a record-breaking clip. John Olerud flirted with .400 as late as Aug. 2 before slipping to an AL-leading .363. Hot on his heels was Molitor, who had ably filled Winfieldâs shoes en route to a .332 average. Entering the last game of the season, Alomar was locked in a dead heat with Clevelandâs Kenny Lofton for third place in the AL batting race with a .323 average. With Olerud and Molitor sitting first and second, Alomar was swinging for history. The last team to boast the top three hitters in a league batting race was the 1893 Philadelphia Phillies.
Roberto Alomar 2B
Cito came to me and said, âDo you want to play?â And I said, âYeah, I want to play.â If Iâm going to finish third, I want to earn it. I donât just want to sit on the bench and earn it that way. So, I went out there and I kept getting hit after hit. Lofton got one hit. I think somebody was listening on the radio or something and they were telling me when he got a hit. So, it was even more pressure. But I just went out there and played the game. I thought, âIf it happens, it happens.â And I got three hits. It was great.
paul Molitor
You know, I asked Olerud in spring training that year if he ever thought of winning a batting title and he said something like, âReally? You really think I can? I canât run, I canât do this, I canât do that.â And I said, âYeah, I really do think you can.â And sure enough, he goes out and wins a batting title. And I thought, âMan, if I knew I was going to finish second I would have waited another year to tell him.â
roberto Alomar
I believe that I came to this world to play the game of baseball. This is all I know. I just felt like I needed a big game to finish third. I went out there and lucky enough, I did it. To finish one, two, three in the batting title, weâll always be remembered for that. It hadnât happened in 100 years.
Heading into September, the Jays had been a healthy 20 games above .500. But theyâd held just a game and a half lead over the Yankees. But late in the month the determination and experience of the club shone. Beginning with a 10â4 pasting of the California Angels on Sept. 10, the Jays strung together a nine-game winning streak and took 17 of their final 21 games to finish 95-67. They won the division by seven games and for the third straight season were headed to the American League Championship Series.
PART ONE: “Going for Two”
Long before the playoffs, the Jays laid the groundwork for a second championship
PART TWO: “Down and Dirty”
With the prelude out of the way, the Jays were ready for their real season to start
PART THREE: “Never Say Die”
Against a tough-as-nails Phillies team, the Jays showed the hearts of champions
PART FOUR: “Touch âem All, Joe”
Game six, bottom of the ninth, two on. Up steps Joe Carter. History ensues.
This story originally appeared in Sportsnet magazine.
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