Due to the recent resurgence of the club, the Blue Jays are more popular now than they’ve ever been. The Blue Jays logo is plastered on caps, jerseys, apparel, and any other merchandise you can think of.

To understand the identity of the Toronto Blue Jays logo, you have to go back to its roots. That means going all the way back to the mid-seventies; a time when the Blue Jays franchise was in its infancy.

As 45 percent stake owners in the club, Labatt Brewing Company took the lead role in marketing the ball club, and that began with the most prominent building block: a team name and a logo.

The person who oversaw this task? Richard Walker.

About four years ago, I met Richard by happenstance at a party. We chatted about baseball, and as he noticed my retro white panel Blue Jays cap, Richard spoke about his involvement creating the original Blue Jays logo as the former Director of Creative Services for Labatt.

In the late 1960s, Walker worked at Stewart Morrison, the firm responsible for designing the iconic Montreal Expo logo. Later in the 1970s, he joined Labatt and created world-renowned brands for the brewery and John Labatt.

Most people will remember one of his most famous projects: the Toronto Blue Jays logo. I caught up with Richard to reflect on his experience overseeing the creation of the famous bird everyone knows and loves.

I decided Savage Sloan would be a good firm to do the design. I set up the parameters of what I wanted from my knowledge of sports logos and colours. I insisted the logo had to be in a circle, because a baseball is a circle.

I figured red, white and blue would be good colours because they’re used globally, and blue was a good colour for Toronto. It was a good colour for Labatt’s beer, so it all came together.

Including a red maple leaf in the logo was a critical focal point of the design to ensure the Blue Jays portrayed firm roots in Canada. The Expos had once considered the maple leaf as a design element for their logo, but the concept was rejected.

Walker directed the conceptual development of several designs and worked with the late Paco Belsue – a draftsman at Savage Sloan – who put together all the detailed elements for the design finalists.

Even now, Savage Sloan is credited with creating the original Toronto Blue Jays logo, but there were many instrumental figures; the aforementioned Walker, Belsue, Dave Savage of Savage Sloan Ltd. and Don McDougall, the president of Labatt Brewing Company.

Walker collaborated with the design team at Savage Sloan as they refined and finessed the design details. Before the blue bird logo was signed off on, Walker and his team prepared multiple design options for consideration by the Toronto Blue Jays Board of Directors.

In his heart, Walker knew the design with the blue jay and the maple leaf was the superior design and the right choice for the team. That option was met with some resistance from Peter Bavasi, the first General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays.

For several reasons, [Bavasi] just didn’t think we should have a maple leaf on the logo and had asked that I generate a variation without the maple leaf. He also requested a version in two colours, and one in one colour — because it would be a lot less expensive for production.

I then told Don McDougall: “That three-colour design with the maple leaf has got to be the one. I don’t know how you do it. Get it approved.”

To his surprise, the design which received approval was the Blue Jay with a maple leaf prominently in the logo. Although the logo appears basic on the surface, Walker stresses a lot of work went into the design from behind the scenes.

We did spend a huge amount of time refining everything, down to the actual little piece that went in its eye. All the kerning, all the space between the letters, and this was all done before computers. We purposely made it a little cartoony and a ‘friendly’ bird.

In 2008, Paul Beeston re-emerged into a prominent role with the Blue Jays as President and CEO of the team, and in 2012, the club rolled out an homage to the original “glory days” Blue Jays logo and uniforms. 2016 marked the fifth anniversary of the latest version of the Blue Jays logo, which preserves the core elements from the past.

In speaking with Richard, the conversation naturally shifted to the different iterations of the Toronto Blue Jays logo over the years. The initial Blue Jay logo and typeface was used continuously from 1977 to 1996, and many rebrands followed from 1997 to 2010.

The team itself underwent a litany of changes, but distanced itself further away from its original identity. These alterations included a de-emphasis of the colour blue, abandoning the maple leaf altogether, an attempt at creating a more menacing blue jay, and an over-emphasis on the word “Jays”.

I like some of the stuff they did with the new logo, I like the colour shift; the colours are more intense. The new one is a bit angrier, but ours was designed to be good for the team and good for kids. But I still think the old one is stronger because there’s more density. There’s more area of illustration to it.

When I tell you that the new maple leaf on the new one is too large, I defy you not to see it. We made a purposeful exercise of having the maple leaf integrate with the red in the ball.

Richard has a valid point. When looking at both logos side-by-side, the maple leaf in the latest iteration of the Blue Jays logo is significantly bigger. It also doesn’t quite tie into the design as seamlessly as the original did, and the hues of blue are slightly different.

As great as the new Blue Jays logo is, it brings a new sense of appreciation for the old logo. The way they tied the maple leaf into the outline of the baseball, the split-letter font, the choice of colours; everything works seamlessly.

The original Toronto Blue Jays logo is one of the most impactful and flawless designs you’ll ever see in baseball. That’s why, to this day, it’s so universally recognizable.

Ultimately, the original Toronto Blue Jays logo is one which stood for nearly 20 years. There’s a reason the Blue Jays wore that logo and uniforms for so long; because they didn’t need to be changed.

However, change is something which is ever present in design. Walker explained his philosophy – not only when it pertains to sports logos – but artwork.

My theory is, if you aren’t making progress, don’t simply make design changes to appear like you are evolving. Heritage branding is worth preserving. Designing this logo was a piece of cake compared to doing a beer label in terms of detail. It was more of a creative exercise, not a difficult exercise.

A logo should be a great piece of art before it’s a good design. If it works as a great piece of art, it will stand the test of time.

Walker’s involvement with the Blue Jays logo only represents a small fraction of his work. He directed the design of thousands of brands, from Tim Hortons, to the B.C. Lions to Hockey Canada.

But when he tells people about his involvement with the Blue Jays, it always sparks lively interest about this internationally recognized symbol; the hallmark of “Canada’s team”.

The Blue Jays project represents one-one-hundredth of one percent of all the designs I’ve directed. But when I tell people I was involved with the design of the Blue Jays logo, it’s the one you can print in your obituary.

The post How the Toronto Blue Jays Got Their Iconic Logo appeared first on Blue Jay Hunter.

For this week’s Flashback Friday, we take a trip back to 1999 and a couple of references to the Toronto Blue Jays on the silver screen in the movie “Big Daddy”.

Most of you probably know of Jon Stewart’s character Kevin Gerrity’s moment of clarity at the end of the movie where he suddenly recalls his evening of sexual escapades that led to conceiving a child:

“6 years ago … Joe Carter. Toronto and the Phillies, you know … World Series! Mitch Williams … we flew up for the night! There was a girl. I’m an idiot. I was so hammered – chicken wings and Molson 3.0. You know Canadian beer’s like moonshine.”

However, that only scratched the surface of the Blue Jays mentions and appearances in the movie. If you look carefully, Joe Carter made a cameo in Big Daddy … sort of.

This is a screencap of the scene where Julian wets the bed, and don’t ask me how or why, but somehow I noticed there was some Blue Jays paraphernalia on the wall in the room.

There’s this identical picture of Joe Carter from the 1993 World Series, and a classic foam Blue Jays head. But then after brightening up the photo, I noticed the fabled foam letter “J” on the wall to the left.

When you think about it, the continuity featuring the Blue Jays in this movie is pretty incredible. These Blue Jays souvenirs were in the room of Sonny’s roommate Kevin Gerrity, who we discover at the end of the film was the biological father of Julian, and in attendance for the 1993 World Series.

Do you think it’s possible they were portraying Jon Stewart’s character as a Blue Jays fan? It certainly seems like it.

The Toronto Blue Jays don’t get mentioned all that often on the silver screen, but when they do … you can rest assured that borderline obsessive baseball nerds like myself will notice.

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For 16 years – from 1977 to mid-way through the 1993 season, the white panel cap and helmet were a staple in the Toronto Blue Jays uniform set. The white panel has been absent since 2010, but in 2017 the Jays’ white panel caps and helmets returned full-time and are officially part of the Blue Jays uniform rotation once again.

Players and fans alike could not be happier about the change. But what was the genesis behind bringing these beloved caps back? To learn a little more about the uniform change, I spoke with Sebastian Gatica: VP of Fan Engagement for the Toronto Blue Jays.

We brought back the white panel caps as a specialty cap last season for our three 40th anniversary celebration days. We also wore the white panel cap back on August 16th 2015 for one game as part of our “Turn Back the Clock” night.

We received a lot of positive feedback from our players and from our fans on social media, so we took that opportunity to discuss introducing it more frequently and approached the league to add it to our cap options.

Interestingly enough, what initially began as a “one night only” special back in 2015 opened the door for the Jays to bring back the cap back into the fold as a regular part of their uniform rotation. As of this season, the white panel cap and helmet are no longer worn on just “special occasions” – they are full-time alternates for the Blue Jays.

At any given batting practice session at the Rogers Centre the last two years, Josh Donaldson could usually be seen sporting the white panel cap; which could be construed as his unspoken approval for the cap. Not only are the Blue Jays themselves proponents of the white panel Gatica says the fans also responded extremely favourably:

The players love the white panel and so do the fans – they love the nostalgia of it. In fact, that one game back in 2015 when the players wore it for Turn Back the Clock night, we sold out of the caps in Jays Shop and had to quickly order some more. Today, the white panel cap continues to be a top seller.

The Blue Jays have been known to get a little superstitious about their uniform and cap choices. The reason why the team abandoned the white panel caps back in 1993? It was because of a brief five-game losing streak during the 1993 season.

Equipment manager Jeff Ross suggested the club change over to the solid blue cap, and the Blue Jays never looked back (hat tip to Bluebird Banter for sharing those details).

So who ultimately has the call on when and where the white panel caps can be worn? Gatica notes that decision is usually up to the game’s starting pitcher.

Now that it is a full-time alternate hat, we can wear it whenever we decide. Most of the time, it’s that day’s starting pitcher who can choose what cap is worn.

According to SportsLogos.net’s Uniform Tracker, the Blue Jays have worn the white panel caps and helmets during nine of the club’s home games this season.

If the decision is ultimately up to the starting pitcher, Francisco Liriano seemed to have an affinity for the set, as the club has wore the white panels during five of his ten home starts during his stint as a Blue Jay this season.

The Blue Jays also wore the white panels twice during Mike Bolsinger starts and once during J.A. Happ and Joe Biagini starts.

Perhaps these caps invoke some warm and fuzzy feelings from the Blue Jays’ early years in the seventies and eighties, or maybe people just really enjoy the aesthetic look of the white panel cap and helmet.

Either way, the white panel caps and helmets are here to stay as a part of the Toronto Blue Jays uniform set.

The post The Story Behind the Blue Jays White Panel Cap and Helmet Revival appeared first on Blue Jay Hunter.

Depending on who you talk to, it was either a great sign of disrespect or a simple mistake. Regardless of your stance, it still stands as one of the most memorable moments of the 1992 World Series, and it had nothing to do with anything that happened during the game.

For this Flashback Friday, we take a look back at the upside down Canadian flag from the 1992 World Series.

The date was October 18, 1992, and the series remained in Atlanta going into Game 2 against the Braves. Atlanta took the opener 3-1 on the back of a complete game four-hitter by Tom Glavine.

Spirits weren’t exactly flying high for the Blue Jays entering Game 2 at Turner Field, and their home flag wasn’t flying properly either. Due to a bit of miscommunication, the Canadian flag was flown upside down.

During the singing of the national anthems, the U.S. Marine Corps flew both the U.S. and Canadian Flags, but due to a gaffe by the flag holder, the Canadian maple leaf was upside down.

To add insult to injury, Canadian singer Tom Cochrane stumbled through signing the Canadian national anthem as he messed up a few lines. All in all, not a good night for Canada.

The explanation of the upside down flag was that the Marine Corps only had the standard issue American and Marine Corps flags prepared to fly, and that the Canadian flag was provided by stadium officials mere moments before the marines were to go on the field.

Interestingly enough, an upside down flag is an international sign of distress, but it didn’t seem to affect the Blue Jays as they won Game 2 of the World Series 5-4.

Image courtesy of Toronto Star Archives (hat tip to @Minor_Leaguer)

As the series turned to Toronto, vendors took to the streets selling t-shirts with upside down American flags.

In fact, it seemed as though it was an international concern as George Bush had to do a bit of damage control. He assured Canadians that the United States would never do anything to hurt the national Flag of Canada.

Bush Sr. issued two official apologies, and as a sign of goodwill, a New York Marine unit paraded a Canadian flag into the Skydome as the Royal Mounted Canadian Police carried in the American Flag.

Just to make sure that the Canadian flag was flow right side up for Game 3 of the World Series, baseball deputy commissioner Steve Greenberg received a fax of the Canadian flag with the word “TOP” across the top of the page.

It may have been an honest mistake, but the upside down Canadian flag is one thing I’ll always remember about the Blue Jays playing in Atlanta. That and winning a World Series.

Image courtesy of Getty Images

The post Flashback Friday: The Upside Down Canadian Flag at the 1992 World Series appeared first on Blue Jay Hunter.

In all the hitters who’ve come to the plate at the dome, only a handful of them have accomplished this impressive feat: muscling a ball into the upper deck at the Rogers Centre for a home run.

Josh Donaldson is the latest player to join the short list of hitters to park long bombs into the fifth deck at the Rogers Centre.

Just 22 home runs have ever landed in the stadium’s upper deck, 11 of them courtesy of Blue Jays players. Donaldson became the ninth Blue Jays player to accomplish the rare feat. Here’s the full list of fifth deck home runs below.

Fifth Deck Home Runs at Rogers Centre

And since these mammoth shots are worthy of reviewing, let’s look at the most recent bombs hit into the fifth deck at Rogers Centre.

Josh Donaldson – Distance: 435 Feet

Into the FIFTH deck!

Bring the rain, Josh. pic.twitter.com/9Kkw249HgC

— MLB (@MLB) May 31, 2017

Alex Dickerson – Distance: 446 Feet

Edwin Encarnacion – Distance: 463 Feet

Mike Napoli – Distance: 451 Feet

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The origin of the Blue Jays is a fascinating tale, but the rise of that team was precipitated by the fall of another. The Toronto Blue Jays would not exist if not for an unsuccessful bid to move the San Francisco Giants to Toronto in 1976.

Two of the figureheads involved in this venture were Paul Godfrey and Don McDougall. Godfrey, a former North York councillor, found himself in power as the chairman of Metro Toronto in 1973. McDougall was the President of Labatt Brewing Company during the 70s and 80s. Together, they were the political and financial muscle that gave Toronto its first professional baseball team.

“My desire to bring a Major League Baseball team to Toronto started when I woke up one day when I found out the mayor in Montreal, Mayor Drapeau, was successful in convincing Major League Baseball to give Montreal a team called the Expos,” Godfrey said. “I decided: ‘How come Montreal gets a baseball team and Toronto doesn’t have a baseball team?’ As a politician, I felt I was going to set my sights on bringing a baseball team to Toronto.”

On the day he was sworn in as the chair of Metropolitan Toronto, Godfrey made it his top priority to ensure Toronto would be awarded its baseball club. Under his own volition and on his own dime, he attended MLB’s winter meetings to network with baseball’s movers and shakers. Godfrey recalls a crucial conversation he had at those winter meetings with MLB commissioner, Bowie Kuhn.

“He put his arm around my shoulder and he said to me: ‘Son, where are you going to play in Toronto if we give you a team?’. I said: ‘You give me a team, and I’ll get you a stadium built’. Then he said to me: ‘Son, let me tell you how Major League Baseball works. First, you build a stadium and then we decide if we’re going to give you a team.’ So, I was totally deflated and walked out of there with my tail between my legs.”

The dream of professional baseball in Toronto was more or less dead. That was, until an opportunity came calling in the form of a high-profile, deep-pocketed brewer. Herb Solway contacted Godfrey on behalf of Labatt’s hoping to band together with Howard Webster and CIBC to shepherd a baseball team to Toronto.

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Godfrey was adamant in his quest to secure a professional baseball team, but Labatt’s motivation in this venture was completely different. Labatt Brewing Company wanted to increase its profile with beer drinkers in Canada, especially within Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area. McDougall and Labatt’s were convinced they could elevate their brand by hitching their wagon to a professional baseball team in Toronto.

“At the time, our competitors were big breweries,” McDougall said. “We were number three in the pecking order. We were losing market share nationally. We were losing in Ontario and further into it, we were losing in Ontario because we were losing in metro Toronto. We had a clear picture of what our problem was. It was to figure out how to turn the ship around in Ontario. It morphed into using sports as a vehicle to getting our name out there.

“We had done that very well in Manitoba with Labatt Pilsner and became associated with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The nickname became so popular that we changed the name of the brand to ‘Blue’. We were looking for a vehicle in Toronto to do for us what the Blue Bombers did for us in Winnipeg.”

Richard Walker — former director of creative services for Labatt’s — confirmed the club’s interest in associating the brewery with a professional baseball team as a marketing vehicle.

“They were trying to counter-balance Molson’s lock on hockey and come up with something that would boost community relations and a marketing tie,” Walker said. “It wasn’t Toronto trying to get a baseball team. It was Labatt’s trying to get a marketing and promotional program. To sell beer, that’s what it was all about.”

Labatt’s jumped at the chance to latch themselves onto a Major League Baseball team.

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As the years passed and Godfrey made his presence known to Major League Baseball owners, fate came calling in December 1975. Finally, a viable opportunity presented itself to the Toronto-based consortium in the form of a National League team in San Francisco.

“I got a call one day from a lawyer in New York named Jim Hunt,” Godfrey explained. “He said to me: ‘I understand you’re looking to buy a Major League team. I represent the San Francisco Giants and the owner of the team, Horace Stoneham. How about you guys come down to see me in New York and we can talk about the sale?’”

San Francisco was a fledgling baseball franchise in the mid-70s. Across the bay, the Oakland Athletics celebrated their third straight World Series title in 1974. The Athletics had a stranglehold on baseball in the Bay Area, making the Giants an afterthought.

The Giants posted baseball’s lowest attendance numbers for three consecutive seasons from 1974 to 1976. For a multitude of reasons, professional baseball wasn’t working in San Francisco. As attendance dwindled at Giants games, the possibility of a move looked more and more like an actuality.

McDougall recounted how Labatt’s became involved with Godfrey and Bill Davis.

“We saw that there was a group in Toronto trying to get a baseball team. Paul Godfrey and Bill Davis had made a commission to expand Exhibition Stadium to make it conform and be a home to a Major League franchise.

“We decided what they didn’t have was marketing, so why wouldn’t we try to line up with them and be a marketing partner with them? They could own the team and we could provide the money and the muscle to do a good job of marketing the baseball team. We would be associated with helping to bring a team to Toronto, and that would have a positive effect on our image and market share.”

Labatt’s couldn’t land the team themselves and the board of directors gave them some stipulations. The company couldn’t own more than 50 percent of the club and Labatt’s had to sell their interest within 5 years and agree to tie up the advertising rates for 20 years.

McDougall and Labatt’s started looking for partners and turned to CIBC and Howard Webster. Eventually, San Francisco became the most viable option for relocation, but it wasn’t the first location they scouted. McDougall said Labatt’s was involved in prior attempts to propel an MLB franchise north of the border.

An unsuccessful bid to move the Cleveland Indians to Toronto fell through, but a deal to move the Baltimore Orioles to Canada was much closer to materializing. If not for the owners changing mid-way through negotiations – owners which were also titans of the beer industry – perhaps the Toronto Orioles may have come to fruition in the mid-70s.

“We got into negotiations with moving the San Francisco Giants, and we went ahead with full negotiations in the fall of ’74. We didn’t have our partnership until the summer of ’75. In the fall of ’75, we got serious about San Francisco. We were at the stage of having to write cheques around the end of December of ’75.”

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As the days drew closer, a Major League Baseball franchise in Toronto became one step closer to reality. This had all been happening behind the scenes, but on January 9th 1976, McDougall says the Toronto Giants were ready to be unveiled to the public.

“We all gathered in Paul Godfrey’s office. We all told the press and then the board approved the sale of the team to Labatt’s, subject to approval of the team by the Major League owners. So, we made the announcement, January 9^th on TV, we had the logos and everything with the ‘Toronto Giants.’”

The consortium reached an official agreement to move the San Francisco Giants to the Toronto. The first hurdle had been cleared, but there would be many more obstacles to overcome for the ownership group.

Although a campaign spearheaded by Godfrey was set in motion, Major League Baseball was reluctant to upend the Giants and allow them to move north of the border. A ten-year lease at Candlestick Park was another obstacle.

The infrastructure was put in place in Toronto, hoping to attract a team. An upgrade to the baseball field at Exhibition Stadium was part of the plan to woo the owners to let the Giants move to Toronto. An $18 million investment to retrofit Exhibition Stadium was put forth to build a brand new retractable roof multi-use stadium.

Eventually, MLB relented and agreed to move the Giants to Toronto. However, behind the scenes, there was a new player in San Francisco. The new mayor of San Francisco — George Moscone — was elected the day before the Giants were sold to the group led by Labatt’s, CIBC and the Globe and Mail. He was dead set on keeping the Giants in the Bay Area.

Moscone would see to it that San Francisco’s beloved Giants wouldn’t become the “Toronto Giants”. Within his first few days in office, Moscone obtained an injunction to prevent the sale of the team.

“We announced it — the Giants were going to move to Toronto — and all hell broke loose in San Francisco,” Godfrey said. “I got calls from the mayor of San Francisco, George Moscone, and he says to me: ‘Mr. Chairman, I know you want to take my baseball team away, but you know I can’t let you do that without a fight.’”

As steadfast as Godfrey was in getting a baseball team in Toronto, Moscone was just as determined to keep the Giants in San Francisco. The courts allowed a temporary injunction to halt the sale of the Giants to the Toronto-based group.

The injunction bought enough time for a San Francisco businessman named Bob Lurie to play the role of white knight as he rescued the Giants’ franchise from moving to Canada. Despite the $13.5 million offer on the table from Labatt’s, the courts allowed Lurie to purchase the Giants for $8 million and keep them in the Bay Area.

“It was probably the biggest disappointment in my political life,” Godfrey said. “It’s like, you’re there to catch the ball at the end of the game, it’s an easy pop-up and you drop it. It was a major disappointment.”

It was a devastating loss for Godfrey, McDougall and company, to have an MLB team snatched away from their grasp. Fate had it they wouldn’t wait much longer for another opportunity to land a big league franchise. The hope of scoring a National League team had all but vanished, but on the horizon, Toronto had the chance to be awarded an expansion team in the American League.

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All those years of hounding owners at the winter meetings paid off as Godfrey had an American League owner in his corner; Ewing Kauffman of the Kansas City Royals.

“[Kauffmann] basically said: ‘Do you really care if you’re going to be in the American League or the National League? Don’t brood over that. You’re going to find out that the city of Seattle has to be happy’. I said: ‘How come you’re so interested in Toronto?’ He said: ‘Look, I married a lady from Toronto and she wants Toronto to have a team. That’s why I’m calling you to tell you that you have a good shot at the American League.’”

To the surprise of the Toronto consortium, the city of Seattle was in the process of suing Major League Baseball for breach of contract after Bud Selig bought the Seattle Pilots and moved them to Milwaukee and renamed them the “Brewers”.

Rather than wade through the red tape, Major League Baseball awarded Seattle its own expansion team, which left the American League with an uneven number of teams. Another club needed to be added to the league, and Toronto was the strongest suitor of all potential expansion markets.

After months of back-and-forth with the commissioner’s office, Toronto was awarded its expansion team, and the purchase was anchored by Labatt Brewing Company. Within one year, the consortium led by Godfrey and Labatt’s watched the Giants team slip through their fingers, only to have the Blue Jays franchise land delicately on their shoulder.

“For me, it was a dream come true,” Godfrey said. “I always take the position that if you want to be in politics, you should leave a legacy that people remember you for. If people want to remember me for bringing baseball to Toronto, I’m happy with that.”

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The Blue Jays were one of the last teams in baseball to “run it back”.

While their 1992 World Series title was a watershed moment for the franchise, their 1993 championship season was an impressive feat in its own right.

Of the 40 players who suited up for the 1992 Blue Jays, only 19 returned for the 1993 season. More than half of the Blue Jays’ 40-man roster turned over from year-over-year, and they still repeated as World Series champions.

One thought that’s crossed my mind (and surely yours as well): which team was better, the 1992 Blue Jays or the 1993 Blue Jays? It’s like asking someone to pick their favourite child and it would be unfair to pit each club against each other.

But in their separate context, which club was superior: 1992 or 1993?

Several years ago, I did a surface-level article about which team I posited was the better of the two, but with the 1992 and 1993 Blue Jays games getting some play in Sportsnet, I thought it would be fun to go back and re-evaluate which squad was the best.

Starting Lineup

The 1993 Toronto Blue Jays lineup was an absolute buzz saw. John Olerud, Paul Molitor and Roberto Alomar combined to finish 1-2-3 in the American League batting title race. They were also the best players in baseball at their respective positions that season.

“WAMCO” entered the Blue Jays lexicon as one of the most-feared one-through-fives in baseball. White, Alomar, Molitor, Carter and Olerud bulldozed opposing pitchers. And then the mid-season acquisition of Rickey Henderson only added to the Blue Jays’ juggernaut status.

The 1992 Blue Jays hit four more home runs than the 1993 Blue Jays, but the ’93 Blue Jays dominated every other offensive category in this head-to-head comparison.

In 1993, the Blue Jays were shut out once in 162 regular season games. Yes, once. They scored the third-most runs in baseball that year and their 847 runs scored still stands as the fifth-highest in Blue Jays franchise history.

The 1993 Blue Jays were the superior team on the base paths as they out-stole bases by a margin of 170 to 129, and that team carried four 20-plus base stealers, including 22 stolen bases from their 36-year-old designated hitter, Paul Molitor.

Despite these impressive numbers, the 1992 Blue Jays were no slouches at their respective positions. Here’s a position-by-position breakdown, comparing bWAR at each spot on the diamond year-over-year.

The 1993 Blue Jays had some monster seasons at first base, second base and DH, but the 1992 team’s contributions in the outfield and shortstop far eclipsed what the 1993 team accomplished.

The 1993 position players edged their 1992 counterparts by a count of 31.2 bWAR to 30.9 bWAR, but the fact that the 1993 Blue Jays had three elite hitters in their lineup gives them the edge in the starting lineup category.

Advantage: 1993 Blue Jays

Starting Rotation

Pat Gillick made two monumental free agent signings in back-to-back years by adding Jack Morris to the 1992 team and Dave Stewart to the 1993 team. Despite their top-tier salaries, both starters posted subpar regular season numbers as members of the Blue Jays.

If there was a fatal flaw of the 1993 team, it was their starting pitching. Only two starters posted a sub-4 ERA (Pat Hentgen and Juan Guzman) and Morris, Stewart and Stottlemyre posted an ERA+ of below 100.

Contrast that with the 1992 Blue Jays, who featured Guzman’s sparking 2.64 ERA, Jimmy Key’s 3.53 ERA and David Cone was lights-out down the stretch as a late-season acquisition.

Toronto’s starters ranked 13th in baseball with 12 bWAR in 1992, while their starters slipped to 20th with 8.1 bWAR in 1993.

While the 1993 Blue Jays had two big-game pitchers in Morris and Stewart, the lingering effects of their injuries decimated them into number four and five starters during the 1993 season. That gives the edge to the 1992 Blue Jays in the starting pitching department.

Advantage: 1992 Blue Jays

Bullpen

1992 was the last year of Tom Henke’s storied career with the Blue Jays, but come 1993, Duane Ward transitioned seamlessly into the closer’s role. It came as no surprise because Ward dominated the American League for the five previous seasons as a late-inning reliever.

Ward reached his pinnacle in the 1993 season, saving a franchise-high 45 games and posting a 2.13 ERA while finishing a league-leading 70 games. The Blue Jays’ closer also finished fifth in Cy Young voting in 1993.

The bullpen was the one category in this head-to-head comparison that surprised me the most. In my mind, I had the 1992 Blue Jays having the superior bullpen, but the regular season numbers said otherwise. Toronto’s bullpen in 1993 bested the 1992 in every category.

The one thing I’ll give to the 1992 relief corps is how dominant they were during the 1992 World Series. Seven relievers combined to surrender one earned run in the World Series against the Braves, and that sole earned run didn’t come until the eighth inning of Game 6 of the World Series.

Advantage: 1993 Blue Jays

Bench

It’s rare when a bench or utility players have a direct impact on a game, let alone a season, but in this case, the bench on the 1992 Blue Jays provided a dramatic swing in a World Series game.

Both Derek Bell and Ed Sprague came up clutch in Game 2 of the 1992 World Series and Sprague delivered one of the most impactful home runs in playoff history. Sprague’s home run off Jeff Reardon ranks as the second-highest WPA (win probability added) home run in the history of the World Series.

The 1992 bench included players like Jeff Kent, Turner Ward, Alfredo Griffin and Randy Knorr offering positive contributions towards their team. The 1993 bench consisted of Rob Butler, Dick Schofield, Woody Williams and Carlos Delgado.

During the regular season, Toronto’s pinch hitters in 1992 outperformed the 1993 team by a count of 0.4 bWAR to 0.1 bWAR, but the Blue Jays’ utility players earned their stripes in the 1992 postseason.

For my money, if I were Cito Gaston and had to call upon a hitter in a dire situation, I’d pluck somebody from the 1992 bench.

Advantage: 1992 Blue Jays

Overall

If we were pitting the 1992 and 1993 Blue Jays teams against each other, I think the starting lineup and the speed of the 1993 would be far too much for the 1992 team to handle in a seven-game series.

However, the question isn’t which team would beat the other, it’s which team was better overall. As much as the additions of Paul Molitor and Tony Fernandez helped to the 1993 team, I believe the 1992 Blue Jays were a better balanced ball club.

On the starting pitching side, the 1993 Blue Jays were far too unpredictable and riddled by the injuries. Players like Guzman and Hentgen carried the starting rotation in 1993 when Dave Stewart and Jack Morris battled injuries the entire season. (Stewart missed the first month of 1993 and Morris was shut down in September and didn’t pitch in the playoffs.)

The lineup on the 1993 team was a juggernaut, but the 1992 team wasn’t far behind their 1993 counterparts. The 1992 team produced a wRC+ of 108, while the 1992 produced a wRC+ of 109.

The 1992 team played better defence, they had better starting pitching, and the bench single-handedly won them a game in the 1992 World Series. The 1993 Blue Jays steamrolled the competition, but the 1992 iteration was a better top-to-bottom roster.

For that reason, I’m choosing the 1992 Blue Jays as the better team of the two.

Winner: 1992 Blue Jays

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