Dave Stewart, who had been the ace of the Oakland Athletics' quasi-dynasty that the Jays had ended in the previous season's ALCS, outpitched Alex Fernandez, and Devon White, a center fielder much better known for his fielding, showed he could hit, too, hitting a home run.
The Jays would go on to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series, also in 6 games, clinching on a home run by Joe Carter that turned a 6-5 deficit into an 8-6 win.
The Jays did not make the Playoffs again until 2015. In that span, only in 2006 did they even finish as high as 2nd, as the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox dominated the AL Eastern Division. The Jays won the AL East in 2015, but lost the ALCS to the Kansas City Royals, just as they had in 1985. They won a Wild Card berth in 2016, but lost the ALCS to the Cleveland Indians. They did not make the Playoffs, or even have a winning season, in 2017 or 2018.
So it's now been 25 years, a quarter of a century, since the Toronto Blue Jays won a Pennant. It was on October 12, 1993. How long has that been?
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The Jays had 4 future Hall-of-Famers: Rickey Henderson, Roberto Alomar, Paul Molitor and Jack Morris, although only Alomar can really be said to have gotten into the Hall based on his contributions from his Toronto days. They had 4 others who aren't far from HOF worthiness: John Olerud, Joe Carter, Dave Stewart, and a rookie named Carlos Delgado. Plus All-Stars (not necessarily that season) like Alfredo Griffin, Tony Fernandez, Devon White, rookie Shawn Green, Juan Guzman, Pat Hentgen and Duane Ward.
The Tampa Bay Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks did not exist yet. They, the 1st-year expansion Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies, the team then known as the California Angels, the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers had yet to win a Pennant. The Braves since they moved to Atlanta, the Marlins, the Diamondbacks, the Angels, had yet to win a World Series. All of those facts have now changed.
Of the 28 teams then in Major League Baseball, 19 have moved into new ballparks; the only ones that haven't are the Jays, the Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, the Kansas City Royals, the Oakland Athletics, the 2 Chicago teams (the Cubs and the White Sox) and the 2 Los Angeles area teams (the Dodgers and the Angels).
There were 9 teams playing home games on artificial turf: The Jays, the Astros, the Cincinnati Reds, the Minnesota Twins, the Montreal Expos, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Seattle Mariners. Today, only 2 teams do so: The Jays, and the Rays, who didn't start play until 1998.
Baseball had been integrated with black and Hispanic players, but, as yet, there were no Asian players, save for the 1964-65 instance of San Francisco Giants pitcher Masanori Murakami.
Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Stan Musial and Bob Feller were still alive. Most of the defining baseball figures of my childhood were now in the Hall of Fame: Reggie Jackson, Tom Seaver, Rod Carew, Johnny Bench, Carl Yastrzemski, Willie Stargell. Mike Schmidt would be elected a couple of years later. (Pete Rose, of course, was ineligible.) A few were wrapping up their careers: 1993 saw the retirements of Nolan Ryan, Robin Yount, Carlton Fisk and George Brett.
Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera had been their journeys up through the Yankee minor-league system. Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz were in the Mariners' farm system. Paul Konerko and Jimmy Rollins were in high school. Jose Bautsita and Albert Pujols were 13 years old, Josh Hamilton was 12, Robinson Cano was 11, David Wright and Dustin Pedroia were 10, Tim Linecum was 9, David Price was 7, Buster Posey was 6, Clayton Kershaw was 4, Jose Altuve was 3, Mike Trout was 2, and Mookie Betts and Bryce Harper were about to have their 1st birthdays. Carlos Correa and Gleyber Torres weren't born yet.
The Jays' manager was Cito Gaston. He is now 74 and retired from an active role in baseball. Current Jays manager John Gibbons was managing in the Mets' minor-league system. Current Yankee manager Aaron Boone was in the Cincinnati Reds' farm system. Mickey Callaway of the Mets had just entered the University of Mississippi.
Barry Trotz of the Islanders was head coach of the Maine-based minor-league Portland Pirates. Pat Shurmur of the Giants was an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Eagles. Domenec Torrent of NYCFC was an assistant coach at Palafrugell in Spain. David Quinn of the Rangers was an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Todd Bowles of the Jets was playing as a cornerback for the Washington Redskins. Kenny Atkinson of the Nets was playing in the Spanish basketball league. David Fizdale of the Knicks was at the University of San Diego. Katie Smith of the Liberty was at The... Ohio State University. John Hynes of the Devils had just entered Boston University. Chris Armas of the Red Bulls was playing at Adelphi University on Long Island.
The Jays succeeded themselves as World Champions. The other defending World Champions at that point were the Dallas Cowboys, the Chicago Bulls and the Montreal Canadiens. Riddick Bowe was the Heavyweight Champion of the World, although he was about to lose it to the man from whom he took it, Evander Holyfield.
The Olympic Games have since been held in America twice, Norway, Japan, Australia, Greece, Italy, China, Canada, Britain and Russia. Soccer's World Cup has since been held in America, France, Japan, Korea, Germany, South Africa and Brazil.
The President of the United States was Bill Clinton -- who, of course, was married to Hillary Clinton. Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, their wives, and the widows of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were all still alive. George W. Bush was 47, failing as owner of the Texas Rangers, already a 3-times-failed businessman and a once-failed candidate for Congress, and was wondering what he was going to do with his life. Barack Obama was a civil rights attorney in Chicago, who had not yet run for public office. His wife Michelle was running a nonprofit organization.
The Governor of the State of New York was Mario Cuomo; his son, Andrew, now Governor himself, was then Assistant Secretary of Housing & Urban Development. The Mayor of the City of New York was David Dinkins, but he was about to lose the office to Rudy Giuliani; the current Mayor, Bill de Blasio, was then an aide to Dinkins.
The Mayor of Toronto when the Blue Jays last played a postseason game was June Rowlands; the Premier of Ontario was Bob Rae. The Prime Minister of Canada was Kim Campbell, who was left, 2 days after the Carter homer, to take the battering in a federal election because outgoing PM Brian Mulroney was a coward. Jean Chretien would soon be Prime Minister.
The monarch of Canada, and of Great Britain, was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed -- but the Prime Minister was John Major. Manchester United had won England's Premier League the previous spring, while Arsenal became the 1st team ever to take both domestic cup competitions: The FA Cup and the League Cup.
Donald Trump was about to marry Marla Maples. Guests at the wedding included Rosie O'Donnell and O.J. Simpson. That's how long ago this was: Not only did The Donald have only 1 wife by this point, but he was still friends with both Rosie and O.J.
Major novels of 1993 included Honor Among Thieves by Jeffrey Archer, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, The Client by John Grisham, Death In the Andes by Maria Vargas Llosa, and Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. Historian Stephen Ambrose published Band of Brothers, immortalizing a U.S. Army unit marching through Europe in World War II.
Major films premiering in the Autumn of 1993 included the college football-themed film The Program, the 1976 nostalgia piece Dazed and Confused, the 1960s nostalgia piece A Bronx Tale, Martin Scorcese's film of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, the Jamaican bobsled story Cool Runnings, the sci-fi tale Demolition Man, the Civil War picture Gettysburg, the Notre Dame football story Rudy. a film version of the 1960s sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, and yet another Al Pacino gangster film, Carlito's Way. River Phoenix died of a drug overdose, just 23 years old.
The X-Files, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Animaniacs, The Ricki Lake Show, Frasier, NYPD Blue, Boy Meets World and Grace Under Fire had all just premiered on television. Two days after the Joe Carter homer, The Jon Stewart Show would premiere on MTV. (This is not the same show that Stewart just wrapped up; this one lasted only 2 seasons.) Within days, Diagnosis: Murder and The Nanny would premiere. David Letterman had just moved over from the 12:30 slot at NBC, which was given to Conan O'Brien, to the 11:30 slot at CBS.
The Number 1 song in America was "Dreamlover" by Mariah Carey. Pearl Jam had just released their album Vs. Wu-Tang Clan were about to release their 1st album. Frank Sinatra was just about to release his last great recording, Duets. Elvis Presley's stamp was newly-released. Michael Jackson, in the middle of a world tour, had just been sued, giving us the first public suggestion that his private life was scandalous. The most notable thing any of the ex-Beatles were doing was Paul McCartney releasing a live album titled Paul Is Live -- a play on the "Paul Is Dead" story, complete with a cover photo of him walking a dog on the Abbey Road crosswalk, and a Volkswagen (ahem) Beetle in the same spot as on the 1969 Abbey Road cover, only instead of saying "28 IF," meaning Paul (incorrectly) would have been 28 years old if he had lived to be in the photo, it had a license plate that read, "51 IS," his correct age at the time.
Inflation has been such that what $1.00 bought then, $1.74 buys now. Or, more to the point of the country in question, in Canadian dollars, what $1.00 bought then, $1.57 buys now.
Personal computers were now everywhere, but most people still hadn't heard of the Internet. There was America Online, but no Netscape, no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram. There were mobile telephones, but they were still of the flip-open variety, and roughly the size of the original Star Trek series' communicators.
In the Autumn of 1993, Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat signed the Gaza-Jericho First Accord on the White House lawn, in the presence of President Clinton, and shook hands -- a false dawn, as it turned out. Russia withdrew its last troops from Poland, after 54 years of occupation. A coup in Moscow was turned back by Russian troops, enabling President Boris Yeltsin to stay in power. The Maastricht Treaty took effect, establishing the European Union.
U.S. Army Rangers, assisting the food-relief effort in Somalia, engaged Somali terrorists, killing over 1,000 but losing 2 helicopters and 19 men, inspiring the book and film Black Hawk Down. A civil war began in Burundi, and continued to rage in Bosnia and Sri Lanka. The U.S. Congress ratified the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
General Jimmy Doolittle, and Vincent Price, and Bill Dickey died. Niall Horan of One Direction, and Molly C. Quinn of Castle, and Lance McCullers Jr., who has now followed his father as a major league pitcher, were born.
October 23, 1993: The Toronto Blue Jays win the World Series. It's been almost 22 years, and they have never played another postseason game.
When will they win another? Given the current state of the American League, it looks like, for some time to come, they will be on the outside looking in. Stay tuned.
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