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.

The post Flashback Friday: A Toronto Blue Jays Cameo in ‘Big Daddy’ appeared first on Blue Jay Hunter.

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

The post A List of All the Fifth Deck Home Runs at Rogers Centre appeared first on Blue Jay Hunter.

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

The post Which Blue Jays team was better: 1992 or 1993? appeared first on Blue Jay Hunter.

As a new Baseball-Reference and Stathead Ambassador, I am proud to say this new partnership can save you 20% off your new Stathead or Sports-Reference yearly subscription.

Just use the coupon code HUNTER at checkout to save 20% off your new Stathead subscription. This is for new annual subscriptions only and not for renewals, unfortunately.

By using the coupon code HUNTER, you can save a bit and also help me out, too. It’s a win-win. Happy searching!

The post How to save 20% off your new Stathead subscription appeared first on Blue Jay Hunter.

Joseph’s debut with the Blue Jays was a long time coming. The Blue Jays signed him to a minor league deal back in January, and although he was the third-string catcher on Toronto’s depth chart, he waited for his opportunity.

He travelled with the team to summer camp at Rogers Centre in July and was a member of the Blue Jays taxi squad, laying in wait in Buffalo. The 34-year-old got the call over the weekend when the club optioned Reese McGuire to their training site and promoted Joseph.

When he wasn’t on the active roster, Joseph worked behind the scenes in Buffalo trying to replicate real-game scenarios by hitting high velocity pitches in the cage, a tip he picked up from former teammate Mark Trumbo.

Joseph also worked with hitting coach Guillermo Martinez, adjusting swing paths and altering his thoughts at the plate. The seven-year veteran wasn’t planning to go yard in his first at bat as a Blue Jay, but he felt a sense of belonging by contributing to the team in his first game.

“It’s something special about this club,” Joseph said. “They said the right things, they did the right things, and I really felt special today. It’s something that I hope is reciprocated back, I hope they feel my genuineness and my love towards them, because I really do love this team and I’m so happy to be on it.”

As his teammates suited up for games and took the field, Joseph was on the outside looking in for the last six weeks. He knows what it feels like to be a spectator for the first half of the season. When he hit his first home run of 2020, he acknowledged his brethren down in the bullpen.

When he rounded second base, Joseph pointed his first in the air and looked to where his teammates were stations in the bullpen beyond the right field fence. He also made a celebratory shout that echoed throughout Fenway Park, and he stuck out the devil horns for good measure.

Missed this from earlier today, but Caleb Joseph's salute to the Blue Jays bullpen and his shout while rounding third base was a cool moment. pic.twitter.com/ePNrKWSifB

— Ian Hunter (@BlueJayHunter) September 7, 2020

“I tried to tell the bullpen: ‘If I ever get a home run, I want to acknowledge you because you guys are out there all by yourself.’ Everybody gets to cheer, clap hands, and hooray and hoorah in the dugout, but a lot of those guys get forgotten,” Joseph said.

“I’ve seen Mitch Garver do it and I thought: ‘Man, I would love to do that.’ I mentioned that not thinking that it would happen so quickly. So, just being able to acknowledge them and coming into the dugout and seeing how happy everybody was, it was really special. It was a moment I’ll never forget.”

Joseph isn’t a Canadian citizen, but he may as well be. His flawless air drumming performance from Spring Training caught fire on Twitter, and his Twitter handle @YYZBackstop is another ode to “Rush”.

Neil Peart would be proud

@CamelBackstop x @RushTheBand pic.twitter.com/4VTqW8e2bb

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) February 20, 2020

Last year, Ken Giles and Luke Maile awarded celebratory tag team wrestling belts to a position player and pitcher after every Blue Jays win. This season, Joseph took it one step further by picking three stars from the game, a beloved Canadian hockey tradition.

Rather than pass out a replica wrestling belt, he pays homage to the Canadian roots of the club by selecting the top three plays or performers (and in the words of Joseph, some “not so cool plays”) to not only keep the players accountable, but to have fun.

As a player with seven big league seasons under his belt, Joseph brings some veteran savvy to the roster, but he also brings a great deal of advice for this young core. The end game is always to finish the day with a win, but he preaches to his teammates to sit back and enjoy the game, too.

“Winning games in the big league is hard,” Joseph said. “With such a young core and such a young group here, you really want to make sure they understand that winning is expected, but it is so difficult that you’ve really got to enjoy it.

“I made the playoffs in 2014 with the Orioles and I thought: ‘Man, this is great. We’ll just do this every year.’ And it took another two years to get back there just as a Wild Card [team] in 2016 when Toronto spanked us. But I haven’t been back since.

“You get the feeling that, man, this is a special moment. Let’s make sure we enjoy it. Having that kind of post-game celebration, I feel like everybody’s relishing in the win, and more times than not, they’re team wins. We get to really savour the moment and go into the night feeling really good about ourselves, just trying to build some momentum for the next day.”

The post Caleb Joseph relishing his opportunity with the Blue Jays appeared first on Blue Jay Hunter.

When the Toronto Blue Jays traded Marcus Stroman last summer, the consensus reaction to the return seemed to be: “That’s it?” The New York Mets parted with two prospects, Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson, which, at the time, was deemed to be a light return for the Blue Jays.

Marcus Stroman was pitching like a top-ten pitcher in the American League at the time, and he wasn’t a mere rental for a contender. With an additional year of team control, Stroman was an attractive trade chip for a team with a two-year window of contention.

There was a belief that the Blue Jays would net at least a top 100 prospect in exchange for their veteran right-hander, but the Blue Jays pulled the trigger on a pair of prospects with very little pedigree.

My, how things have changed since the 2019 trade deadline. As he battles for a spot in the Blue Jays rotation, Kay has been one of the most impressive arms in spring training camp for Toronto.

Meanwhile, Woods Richardson landed inside Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus and MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects list, ranking as high as 61. The 19-year-old finished his second season of pro ball in the Blue Jays organization, pitching to a 3.80 ERA with 126 strikeouts in 26 games split between single-A and high-A ball.

The Blue Jays did in fact land their top 100 prospect in exchange for Stroman. It just took six months for Woods Richardson to cross the threshold into that illustrious top prospects list. And now he’s the organization’s number three ranked prospect, behind Nate Pearson and Jordan Groshans.

Kay was a depth starter for the Blue Jays down the stretch, appearing in three games in September for the big club. His MLB debut on September 7, 2019 against the Rays was one of the most impressive rookie pitching performances in recent Blue Jays memory, as Kay fanned eight batters over 5.2 innings.

The 24-year-old’s peripheral spring training numbers this year don’t look great, but his 7.36 ERA and 7 walks across four games don’t tell the entire story for Kay. Nearly half of those walks came in a disastrous outing when he failed to escape the first inning and walked four batters.

At the time of the trade, the Blue Jays got raked over the coals for the light return they received for Stroman, but in retrospect, it was a smart move to make. If the Blue Jays weren’t keen on extending Stroman anyway, it made sense to trade him at his high point and gamble on a young, high upside arm with Woods Richardson, and someone who was on the doorstep of the big leagues like Kay.

The team that used 21 starting pitchers last year suddenly has a wealth of starting pitching depth, to the point where Kay and Pearson will be one of the first arms called into battle.

Some folks might not see it this way, but the Blue Jays also pulled off a savvy piece of business by making the Stroman trade and following that up by signing Hyun-Jin Ryu to a four-year, $80 million dollar contract. The Blue Jays essentially signed Ryu to the dollar figure they would have earmarked for a Stroman extension, plus the team got a bonus in the form of Kay and Woods-Richardson.

Even though he didn’t crack the opening day starting rotation, Kay will impact the Blue Jays roster in some fashion in 2020 and he will be called upon to eat some innings for the big club this season.

At 20-years-old, Woods Richardson is at least two more years away from climbing the organizational ladder and earning a promotion with the Blue Jays. Due to his sudden rise through the prospect rankings, Woods Richardson even might be worth more to the Blue Jays as a trade chip soon, rather than as star pitching prospect.

It’s only been one year since the Stroman trade, but in retrospect, it was a tidy piece of business for the Blue Jays. They have a back-end starter in the form of Kay, a top-end prospect with Woods Richardson, and they freed up some money to ink Ryu long term.

The post The Marcus Stroman trade is already paying off for the Blue Jays appeared first on Blue Jay Hunter.