'92 Blue Jays On What It Takes to Bring World Series to Toronto
Saturday was a day for looking back.
With former players, executives, and coaches filing onto the field for a pregame ceremony at Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays celebrated the 30th anniversary of Toronto's first World Series title in 1992.
But it was also a day to look forward, pondering the chances of a third Toronto title coming sometime soon.
While Pat Borders talked about his contributions to the '92 victory, he was just as eager to celebrate Alejandro Kirk's role for the 2022 team. Cito Gaston made comparisons between the eras of Jays baseball and Joe Carter discussed the lessons the current team must learn to get to the top. From the group who first brought a World Series to Canada, the '92 team reflected on what it will take for the 2022 version to do the same.
"They're playing great," former manager Gaston said of the 2022 Jays. "I think they got a chance to go right to the World Series."
The two teams, 30 years apart, don't share perfect parallels—the 1992 club was proceeded by a decade of winning, had three of the top six AL MVP candidates, handily won the AL East, and had the highest payroll in baseball. The differences are clear, but the '92 and '22 squads share some certain similarities, too.
For Borders, that link comes from the core. While both teams were elevated with major trade and free agent additions, the centerpiece was homegrown. For the World Series team, it was Borders, Manny Lee, Jimmy Key, and more. For the current Jays it's Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, and Alek Manoah.
"I think partially what's equivalent to the team here is I think you have a core segment of the team that came up through the organization, that was products of the Blue Jays," Borders said. "And then the front office showed you the desire to win by going out and getting any missing piece."
Gaston said the current Jays remind him of the 1985 team he was the hitting coach for, what he called the foundation of Toronto's World Series teams that followed. During those pre-title years, the Jays won at least 85 games from 1985 through until the championships in '92 and '93.
Despite the winning records, that half-decade was filled with defeats and tribulations. Three ALCS losses, four missed playoffs, and no finals appearance to show from eight-straight winning campaigns. Joe Carter was on the 1991 Blue Jays team that fell short in the ALCS against the Twins, and the team entered the next season vowing to be better. Carter sees a similar building opportunity for these Jays, who fell a game short of the postseason in 2021 and "learned that every game matters" last year.
"They know how important every game is," Carter said.
But even with the talented core and momentum toward the playoffs, a banner is no guarantee. There were 15 seasons of falling short before Toronto won in 1992, and the 29 years since the back-to-back rings have produced just three playoff appearances.
This current Blue Jays team is capable of reaching the same heights as the World champions who watched Saturday's game from a left-field suite—Borders, Carter, Gaston, and Dave Stieb all said as much in their own ways. But, it's on these Jays, 30 years later, to get there.
"When you have the opportunity, you have to take advantage of it," Carter said. "Because in any game and especially in baseball, you have maybe a five to six year window. You have a chance to really elevate yourself as a team to become a champion. So you take advantage of that."
Mitch Bannon is a baseball reporter for Sports Illustrated covering the Toronto Blue Jays and their minor league affiliates.Twitter: @MitchBannon