The 1992 Toronto Blue Jays will always be remembered as the first World Series-winning club based outside the United States and the first from Canada. Before that memorable season, the Blue Jays were respected as consistent contenders, the team never seemed able to win a championship. After winning the division in 1991, the 1992 club confidently adopted ‘We Are, We Can, We Will’ as their team motto, indicative of their unshakable belief that they were capable of winning the American League pennant and then the World Series.
They were right. When Joe Carter caught the final out of the World Series in Atlanta, he touched off a celebration in Toronto and across Canada for baseball fans who had waited many years for the Blue Jays to finally hoist the Commissioner’s Trophy.
‘We Are, We Can, We Will’ features biographies of every player who played for the 1992 Toronto Blue Jays including Hall of Famers Dave Winfield, Jack Morris, and Roberto Alomar. Manager Cito Gaston, Hall of Fame general manager Pat Gillick, and radio broadcaster Tom Cheek are also included, as well as a ‘ballpark biography’ of Sky Dome, Toronto’s home ballpark. Ten reports describe significant games from the 1992 season illustrating Toronto’s championship journey from Opening Day to the last game of the World Series. The book concludes with an essay on the Blue Jays celebratory visits to Washington, DC, and Ottawa, and an article on how team management deftly reshaped the roster in the winter to prepare Toronto for another successful championship drive in 1993.
This book is the result of a collaborative effort by 53 SABR members, many from the Hanlan’s Point (Toronto) SABR Chapter.
Зміст
We Are, We Can, We Will: The 1992 World Champion Toronto Blue Jays
Roberto Alomar by Chris Jones
Derek Bell by Joe Thompson
Pat Borders by Malcolm Allen
Joe Carter by Joseph Wancho
David Cone by Tara Krieger
Rob Ducey by Mark Davis
Mark Eichhorn by Tim Sitar
Alfredo Griffin by Justin Krueger
Kelly Gruber by Mark Davis
Juan Guzman by Malcolm Allen
Tom Henke by Eric Vickrey
Pat Hentgen by John Kennedy
Jeff Kent by J.P. Garrett
Jimmy Key by Sean Addis
Randy Knorr by Bob Le Moine
Manuel Lee by Malcolm Allen
Al Leiter by Thomas J. Brown Jr.
Doug Linton by Joel Rippel
Bob Mac Donald by Paul Sinclair
Mike Maksudian by David Fuller
Candy Maldonado by Tom Hawthorn
Domingo Martinez by Rich Bogovich
Jack Morris by Stew Thornley
Rance Mulliniks by Paul Hofmann
Greg Myers by Bob Webster
John Olerud by Steve Sisto
Tom Quinlan by Joel Rippel
Ed Sprague by Bill Nowlin
Dave Stieb by Joe Cox
Todd Stottlemyre by Alan Cohen
Pat Tabler by Harry Schoger
Mike Timlin by Bill Nowlin
Ricky Trlicek by David Fuller
Duane Ward by John Kennedy
Turner Ward by Warren Campbell
David Weathers by Adrian Fung
David Wells by Norm King
Devon White by Nick Malian
Dave Winfield by Doug Skipper
Eddie Zosky by Paul Sinclair
Sky Dome by Allen Tait
Pat Gillick, GM by Dan Levitt and Mark Armour
Cito Gaston, manager by Alfonso L Tusa C
Coaching staff
Bob Bailor, first base coach by Rory Costello
Galen Cisco, pitching coach by Les Masterson
Rich Hacker, third base coach by David Vincent with Sam Gazdziak
Larry Hisle, hitting coach by David E. Skelton
John Sullivan, bullpen coach by Bob Hurte
Gene Tenace, bench coach by Joseph Wancho
Broadcasters
Tom Cheek by Joe Thompson
Don Chevrier by Joe Marren
Jerry Howarth by Allen Tait
Buck Martinez by Curt Smith
Postlude
Epilogue: World Series champions feted at White House and Rideau Hall by Mark Davis
Quest for a Repeat in 1993 by Allen Tait
Selected games
April 6, 1992 by Brian M. Frank
August 13, 1992 by Sean Addis
September 6, 1992 by F. Timothy Deeth
October 3, 1992 by Rick Bush
October 11, 1992 by Adrian Fung
October 14, 1992 by Brian M. Frank
October 18, 1992 by Mark Sternman
October 20, 1992 by Tim Hannan
October 21, 1992 by David Matchett
October 24, 1992 by Adrian Fung
Contributors
Про автора
Adrian Fung lives and works in Toronto. He joined SABR (Hanlan’s Point Chapter – Toronto) in 2014 and has contributed several stories to the SABR Games Project, mostly about memorable games in Blue Jays history. Adrian attended the 2019 SABR Black Sox Scandal Centennial Symposium in Chicago and survived the Friday night deluge that washed away the scheduled doubleheader at Guaranteed Rate Field. In January 2020, at a Hanlan’s Point Chapter meeting, he presented cases for how the 1919 Reds could have won a ‘clean’ World Series and how Buck Weaver was unfairly treated.