About the Toronto Blue Jays

Major League Baseball debuted in Toronto in 1977. In the first month of the next season, the Toronto Blue Jays turned a triple play. This was the year that the Toronto Blue Jays had the first of many quick outfielders with rookie Rick Bosetti in center field. Following that season, the Toronto Blue Jays had Rookie of the Year shortstop Alfredo Griffin hitting .287 with 179 hits plus 21 stolen bases. Dave Stieb got the first winning record for a Toronto Blue Jays pitcher in 1981 when the team had its worst start followed by its strongest finish ever. Stieb went on to lead the league in innings pitched and complete games the following season. Their first season above .500 was in 1983 when the Toronto Blue Jays led the league in batting average, and became the second team to ever have the player of the week for three straight weeks (Lloyd Moseby, Luis Leal, and Stieb). With strong pitching from Stieb and Dale Alexander backed by strong offense from George Bell, Jesse Barfield, and Damaso Garcia the Toronto Blue Jays got 99 wins in 1985 and played in the ALCS for the first time.

The club's deep 1985 starting pitchers became inconsistent in their follow up next season, but the team did not fall far and in 1987 pushed for the pennant with a finish that included 7 one run games in the last 10. That year, the Toronto Blue Jays hit the MLB's all time sixth highest number of homers in a season with 215, 10 coming from one game, with Bell hitting 47 home runs for the season winning the AL MVP. He started next season with a bang as he became the first MLB player to hit three home runs on opening day, a year where Fred McGriff led the league with 34 and the team, after suffering injuries and a bad start, had the best second half in their division, leading the league in several offense categories. Their play continued right through next season when they earned another AL East championship. Lack of winning streaks in 1990 kept the club from doing it again, but Stieb still pitched the Toronto Blue Jays first no hitter. Adding Devon White, Joe Carter, and Roberto Alomar for the 1991 season helped the club take their division while setting one of their many attendance records by being the first team in history to sell over 4 million tickets in a season.

The Toronto Blue Jays team added more players including Dave Winfield who set a record as the oldest man in the MLB to ever record more than 100 RBIs in a season. This set them up for another division title, their first ALCS win, and the first international World Series which the team took in 6 games. Next year was even better, as the Toronto Blue Jays tied a record with seven Toronto Blue Jays jerseys in the all star game. Joe Carter got his fifth 3 home run game for his career-an AL record, while John Olerud, Paul Molitor, and Alomar finished 1-2-3, respectively, in the batting race-the first time teammates have done it in 100 years, and the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays were also the first team in about 25 years to win the World Series back to back.

Unfortunately, the Toronto Blue Jays slumped in May and June 1994 and the season was ended early just as they were getting things going. Sadly, they did not win much in 1995, despite Alomar's MLB record 484 consecutive errorless chances. After another poor season in 1996, despite Juan Guzman leading the AL in ERA and Pat Hentgen named for the Cy Young, the team made a nine player deal to try and get results. Roger Clemmens started playing for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1997, winning Cy Young right away, and again in 1998 as the team started winning again in the second half with Clemmens' 3,000th career strike and Jose Canseco's 380th home run, the most for a non-American. Clemmens was then traded in 1999 as the Toronto Blue Jays set club records in offensive categories. They kept up the offense in 2000, Raul Mondesi straight stealing home and Delgado becoming the club's all time home run king, but lost their all time best hitter, Tony Fernandez, to retirement. 2002 Eric Hinske won an AL Rookie of the year, and in 2003 they finally broke .500 with Vernon Wells having a break out year in hitting.