Sportsnet magazine presents “Memories of ’92,” the story of the 1992 Toronto Blue Jays in the words of the players, coaches and front office staff who lived a dream season. From off-season acquisitions to World Series glory, Canada’s only national general sports magazine takes you inside the locker room and on the field 20 years after our country’s greatest baseball triumph.
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Blue Jays president Paul Beeston on the off-season signing of starter Jack Morris.
“We were looking at a couple guys, one was Jack [Morris] and one was Frank Viola. Jack had just pitched that magnificent game against Atlanta that went 10 innings. Jack obviously wanted to be here; it didn’t look like he was going to go back to Minnesota, but he also wanted to go see what Boston had to offer. I remember saying to Jack, ‘Here’s the dollars, here’s where we are and if you go to Boston, by the time that plane lands at Logan [International Airport], Frank Viola will be a Toronto Blue Jay.’ We had to go a little higher than we intended, but we got him done that night.”
Closer Tom Henke on the Jays’ bench boss.
“Cito [Gaston] is the best manager I ever played for. I’d run through a brick wall to save a game for him. He could see things in a pitcher’s delivery almost any other manager would miss. There was a stretch where I was getting beat like a dog, every time. Cito said, ‘When you’re throwing your split finger, you’re wiggling your glove.’ It wasn’t a big wiggle, just enough for batters to pick up. He told me to do the wiggle on every pitch. Sure enough, guys were looking for something else.”
Right fielder Joe Carter on his little-known locker room role.
“I was the barber. I had my own professional equipment. I cut everybody’s hair, from Manny Lee to Dave Winfield to Pat Hentgen. I look back and they kind of used me-they never tipped. I never messed up anybody’s hair. When it’s free they can’t complain.”
First baseman John Olerud on missing a pickoff throw while chatting at first with Kirby Puckett of the Twins early in the season.
“That goes down as one of my most embarrassing moments in baseball. There was a story the next day by a guy who wrote, ‘John says he’s talking to Kirby, Kirby says he wasn’t talking to John; so who was John talking to?’ And he did this whole thing about, ‘Maybe he was talking to John’s imaginary friend,’ because I was a real quiet guy. Kirby was a great guy. He read the story and he was laughing the next day at batting practice: ‘John, are you ever going to talk to me again?'”
Second baseman Roberto Alomar on his game-tying, ninth-inning two-run shot in game four of the ALCS.
“I had a two-and-two count. I was dealing with sun and shadows. I could barely see the ball. I was only looking for an area. If he threw a slider, it was very tough to see. I was only concentrating on one little area and I lucked out, I got that pitch.”
David Wells, who worked out of the pen in the World Series.
“I was more nervous going into the World Series than I’ve ever been. You’re thinking, ‘If I get called upon, man, I do not want to be the goat.’ It was so intense, you couldn’t get a greased needle up my ass.”
Third baseman Rance Mulliniks on Ed Sprague’s game-winning two-run homer in game two of the Series.
“I had faced Jeff Reardon on a number of occasions. [Ed] asked me, ‘What do you look for?’ What Reardon tries to do is get you out with the fastball. He was very adept at throwing that fastball letter-high. I said, ‘Spraguey, if he flips you a little breaking ball early in the count, don’t let that get in your head. That’s not what he wants to get you out with. He’s going to show that to you to put that pitch in your mind. What he wants to get you out with is his fastball up in the strike zone. Stay with the fastball no matter what and think belt or down.'”
Centre-fielder Devon White on “The Catch” during game three of the Series.
“I knew [David] Justice was a gap hitter. He usually hit it to left- or right-centre and being a lefty, the ball was more likely to go to left-centre. So I got into the right position and made the catch at the exact moment I hit the wall. I made a good throw, we got two outs and then Gruber chased down Sanders.”
Gruber on the botched triple-play call.
“We got five outs, we’d have settled for three, and they only gave us two. [White] comes down and throws it in. Pendleton comes off of first, crosses second and crosses Sanders [on the bases, an automatic out]. That’s out No. 2. Sanders grabs him and pushes him back. The throw comes in, Alomar throws it over to Olerud and we get Pendleton out another time. He’s out twice, so that’s three. [Olerud’s] throw comes across to me and Sanders is running. I dive and hit him [on the outside of his foot] and my momentum carried through and I hit him [on the inside of his other foot]. Five outs.”
DH Dave Winfield on his 11th-inning RBI double that put the Jays ahead in the sixth and final game of the World Series.
“I just put a dagger in the opposition and I’m standing on second, in the middle of the stadium with 50,000 people looking down on me. There was maybe a pocket or two of Blue Jays fans on their feet, but it was a stadium that was hushed and in shock. That is still the highlight from my entire career.”
Gaston on the mound meeting that led to the final out of the World Series.
“Jimmy [Key] was very honest with me. He said, ‘You know what, Cito? I haven’t had a lot of luck with this guy.’ As soon as he said that I said, ‘Give me [Mike] Timlin.’ Joe Carter was playing first base and we started to break up at the mound and walk away and then Joe turned around and said, ‘Oh yeah, let’s look out for the bunt.'”
Carter on the hours after getting a bunting Otis Nixon out at first.
“We went back to our hotel and had the downstairs all to ourselves. Imagine guys like John Olerud and Dave Winfield going down the soul train line, dancing. We had a 5:00 a.m. wake-up call and no one went to bed.”
