Hi everyone:
I am back again with another posting designed to offer some fun. And funny you should ask – just like a number of my more recent postings here on this blog, my entry today was also inspired by something I wrote on Facebook. One of my favourite radio shows is “Sunday Morning Trivia” which runs from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m on Newstalk 1010 – CFRB Radio Toronto, one of Toronto’s most popular radio stations. October 9, 2016 was a day when the city was gripped by Blue Jays Fever. That’s right, our city’s baseball team capped its 40th anniversary season by qualifying for the post-season for the second year in a row. But by a slightly different route than in 2015. Last year our gallant boys in blue won the American League Eastern Division crown, their first since 1993 (the second of two consecutive years when Toronto won the World Series and ruled the baseball world). But in 2016,the Boston Red Sox proved a wee bit too strong for the Jays, so Toronto had to settle for one of the “wild card” playoff spots. They would defeat the Baltimore Orioles in that playoff game, and eventually defeat the Western Division champions the Texas Rangers. Alas, it all came down with a thud on October 19 when the Cleveland Indians defeated Toronto in five games to advance to the World Series. As my beloved Dodgers used to say, especially back in their Brooklyn days before they moved west to Los Angeles in 1958: “Wait till next year!”
But that series with Cleveland was still in the future when Jason Agnew (the host of Sunday Morning Trivia) decided to devote the enitre October 9 show to the Blue Jays. That’s right. A full two hours of nothing but Blue Jays trivia. And after the show ended, I decided to take all this to a new level and offer a whole bunch of trivia. Consider this a 40th anniversary present to Jays fans worldwide. And while I am publishing this in October 2016, only a few days after their sad defeat at the hands of that noble team from Ohio, I just might revise this from time to time in future. Hmm – can you say “Toronto Blue Jays Trivia – part two?” Yeah, depending on what I find, this might be too much for one posting and I might need to go multiple. Oh well, that’s for another time. OK folks, put on your Blue Jays clothing, pick up the bat and let’s play ball. Oops, I mean trivia. Let’s get it started:
Anne Murray sang the Canadian national anthem at that first Blue Jays game on April 7, 1977, which was televised by CBC. I don’t know for sure, but I would not be surprised if the enchanting songstress from Springhill, Nova Scotia also did the American anthem. I’ll need to look into that one. Don Chevrier was the lead broadcaster, with the former great New York Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford doing the colour commentary. By the way, Whitey Ford wasn’t the only member of those great Yankee teams of the 1950’s and early 60’s to do commentary for the Jays. Their legendary shortstop Tony Kubek became an excellent broadcaster after his baseball career ended, and did many Toronto games in their early years. But not today. This one is the Don and Whitey Show. You can watch it again via the following YouTube link:
If that’s not enough, here’s a second link to that snowy April afternoon. When you combine both videos, that should give you a pretty good taste of what happened that day. Are we really talking about nearly 40 years ago? Toronto sure has changed a lot since then. Take a look at the skyline as the camera pans over downtown. Or the fact that old Exhibition Stadium, where the game was played and which served as the Jays home until June 1989 (more about that in a minute), no longer exists. Although in an interesting irony, there’s a brand new stadium on that site today. BMO Field is on that same site, and is the home of both the the Toronto FC Soccer Club and the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL. Here’s the link – enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85x6eY65B3A
If you just watched one or both of the above videos, then you know all too well that the Blue Jays first game was against the Chicago White Sox. Bill Singer threw the first pitch in team history to Ralph Garr, it was a strike. According to Chevrier’s call, the umpire immediately took that ball out of play and it was sent to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. Both men wore no. 48 for their respective teams. By coincidence, the White Sox and Blue Jays also played the final game at Exhibition Stadium on May 28, 1989 before the team moved over to the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre). To really come full circle, Toronto also won this game, this time by a final score of 7-5, thanks to a tenth inning walk-off home run from George Bell. As one might expect, everything is a “first” when it’s the first game in a franchise’s history. Al Woods really took it to a new level on that April day – he became only the 11th player in MLB history to hit a pinch-hit home run in his very first at bat.
There have been many songs associated with the team over the years. While some of you may disagree I think the best known and best loved of all those songs is the classic “OK Blue Jays”. It’s been a few years now since I went to a Jays game live, but I recall for many years fitness instructors would stand on the dug-outs and lead the fans in exercises during the 7th inning stretch while the song played in the background. And of course we all sang the “OK Blue Jays. Let’s play ball” chorus along with the recording. I hope that is still being done today. If not, if anyone from the team is reading this, please bring it back for the 2017 season and beyond. Keith Hampshire and the Bat Boys sang OK Blue Jays. Here’s a link if you want to watch a video of the song, complete with lyrics:
“OK Blue Jays” may be the most popular song in team history, but it may surprise some of you, especially my younger readers, to learn that it was NOT the original theme song for the team. A group named “Paul’s People” did an earlier song “Toronto Blue Jays – We’re With You All The Way”, which was used as an opening theme on the radio broadcasts during their early years. Watch it at:
Blue Jays knuckleballer Tom Candiotti played perhaps the most famous knuckleballer of them all, Hoyt Wilhelm, in Billy Crystal’s “*61” – his movie around the 1961 Yankees and in particular the Roger Maris – Mickey Mantle race to break Babe Ruth’s home run record. Wilhelm appears in the Yankees 154th game of the season, when Maris has a chance to break the record in Baltimore.
I noted earlier that when the Blue Jays won the 2015 American League Eastern Division title, it was their first one since 1993. That team was a juggernaut with an offence that was second to none. One of their hallmarks was that the top of the order from that 1993 team was called “WAMCO”. It stood for Devon White, Roberto Alomar, Paul Molitor, Joe Carter and John Olerud.
The longest game in team history was 18 innings against the Angels on July 28, 2005 in Toronto. Blue Jays won 2-1. The team also holds the record for the longest game ever played on Opening Day. This was on April 5, 2012 in Cleveland vs the Indians. Toronto won that one too, defeating the Indians 7-4 in 16 innings. The next day, it happened again, the Blue Jays defeated Cleveland by the same score in 12 innings.
One final observation before I go – well at least for now. As I said way back at the beginning, I just might add some more trivia over time. The team used the same logo and uniforms from 1977 to 1996. The logo was designed by a Toronto advertising firm (Savage Sloan Ltd). They may have also designed the famous “split” font used for the lettering and numbers on the uniforms. I’m phrasing it this way because I am not sure exactly where that font came from. I did some research and couldn’t find anything. Perhaps that same advertising firm designed the font too, but I don’t know for sure. If anyone reading this has the answer, let me know via the Comments area below and I will add that info as part of a future revision. For many Blue Jays fans that logo and those uniforms became iconic symbols of the franchise. As much a part of the team’s heritage as the classic Yankee pinstripes or that famous interlocking “NY” logo (by the way, did you know that “NY” logo was first designed by Louis Tiffany? Yes THAT Tiffany – of the famous New York jewellery store), the Old English script “D” used by the the Detroit Tigers or the Dodgers classic script on the front of their jerseys with a red number below. Those uniforms and logos haven’t changed in decades.
Sad to say, however, but after the 1996 season, the owners decided to go in another direction, which saddened me and many other long-time fans. The team went through a number of different logo and uniform designs from 1997 until the end of the 2011 season. Is it more than just coincidence that the “dark years” of the Blue Jays franchise, when they failed to come even close to their glory years took place during that time? I think so, but if you’re a Jays fan, decide for yourself. But the team finally saw the error of their ways, and returned home. On November 18, 2011, the team announced that they were returning to the original logo and a uniform very close to the original jersey (a small tweak of the letters and numbers, along with blue caps instead of the famous blue and white ones). Here’s a Web site that talks about the redesign of the logo and uniforms:
As I noted above, it seemed that the so called “dark years” seems to coincide with the departure from the original uniform and logo. Is it just coincidence that when the Jays went back to their roots, they started winning again? That they returned to the playoffs in both 2015 and 2016? That their merchandise sales have exploded in the five years since they returned to the original logo and uniforms, albeit with a slight update? And that even though I am writing this only days after their 2016 season ended, I really think the team has a bright future? Indeed, the Blue Jays merchandise is among the top sellers in Major League Baseball. Here’s a page from the team Web site that talks about their logos and uniforms through their history:
http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/tor/history/uniforms_logos.jsp
Well folks, that’s all for now. As always thanks so much for reading this blog entry. And be sure to watch for my next offering, coming soon to a computer near you. Enjoy your day everyone!
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