it took 7 years for the jays to lift themselves out of last place in the seven-team american league east. for 5 years they had the cellar all to themselves, never finishing closer than 11 games behind the sixth-place club.
in their first season, the jays' 107 losses left them 45.5 games out of first, as the team performed at the bottom of the division in hitting, fielding, and pitching. in 1978 their fielding improved dramatically, but the jays still lost over 100 games, and there was little doubt after april who would finish last. the team's worst year ever was 1979. while every other eastern division club was compiling a winning record, toronto plunged relentlessly downward and, despite a brief rally in september, finished 28.5 games out of sixth place (50.0 out of first), with 109 losses.
the club's turnaround began in 1980. it was late june before the jays began their drop away from the rest of the division, and for the first time they finished with fewer the 100 losses. pitcher jim clancy and dave stieb lowered their eras below 4.00 for the first time, and newly acquired second baseman damaso garcia combined with shortstop alfredo griffin to form the league's best double-play combination. there were still two more seasons in the cellar; but in strike-divided 1981 the jays played a creditable second half for the first time, and in 1982 they spurted in september to tie the indians for sixth. garcia became a .300 hitter and a leading base stealer, clancy put together his first winning season and stieb his second, and stieb's five shutouts led the league.
in 1983, with 7 of the blue jays' eight principal pitchers enjoying winning seasons and the jays' hitters leading the league in team batting and slugging, toronto recorded its first winning season, taking fourth place, only 9 games out of first. their balanced pitching and offence carried them to a repeat 89-73 record in 1984, good enough for second place (though they finished a distant 15 games behind detroit).
in 1985 the blue jays topped their division with 99 victories, edging the yankees by 2 games. their pitching was better than ever. doyle alexander won 17 games, jimmy key and dave stieb contributed 14 each, and reliever dennis lamp compiled an impressive 11-0 record. stieb led the league in era, with key fourth. tony ferandez, in his first full big league season, shone as expected at short, but also proved unexpectedly solid at the bat. eight jays drove in more than 50 runs, with outfielders george bell (95), jesse barfield (84), and lloyd moseby (71) pacing the club's balanced attack.
the
jays lose the pennant
in the
alcs the jays won 3 of their first four games against kansas city, but
lost the next three - and the pennant. equally discouraging was their drop
to fourth place in 1986. barfield, bell, and fernandez all improved at
the plate, but the league-leading pitchers of 1985 dropped back to the
middle of the pack in 1986 (though rookie mark eichhorn sparkled in long
relief).
toronto sprang back stronger than ever in 1987. jim clancy (15-11,3.54 era) enjoyed his best season yet, as did jimmy key (17-8), whose 2.76 era led the league. once again, as in 1985, the team era was the league's lowest. and the offense remained strong, with george bell, league rbi leader with 134, being named the american league mvp at season's end. The Jays led their division going into the season's final series against second-place detroit, though four straight losses had reduced the lead to just one game. needing to win two of the three games to take the al east title, or one to tie the tigers and force a playoff, the jays' slumping bats remained quiet, and toronto lost the first two games. in the season finale, jimmy key hurled a three-hitter, striking out eight. but one of the hits was a home run - the only run of the game, as it turned out. toronto's seven-game losing streak had cost them what would have been their second title in three years.
In 1988, a rocky season made worse by george bell's feud with manager jimy William's ( who wanted the unwilling outfielder to serve as designated hitter), the jays surged at the end with 6 straight wins to tie for third place, only 2 games out of first. the season was highlighted by the emergence of fred mcgriff as one of the game's most powerful batsmen, and by ace dave stieb's 2 successive one-hitters in late september - both of which were no-hitters until the last out of the eighth inning.
when toronto's front office replaced manager William's with batting coach cito gaston in mid-may 1989, the jays were drowning near the bottom of the al east with a record of 12-24. by mid-august they had bobbed above .500 to stay, and on september 1 they unseated first place baltimore. with a pair of one-run victories over the orioles at the end of september, the jays preserved their narrow lead and clinched the division title. but oakland outplayed them in the lcs, taking the pennant in 5 games.
from mid-june 1990 to the final day of the season, the blue jays battled boston for the division lead before settling for second. dave stieb (after 2 more one-hitters in 1989) at last hurled a no-hitter, and third baseman kelly gruber confirmed a place with bell and mcgriff among toronto's power elite. but the brightest toronto star of 1989-90 was the new skydome, with its 11,000-ton retractable roof and its restaurants and hotel rooms above the outfield wall. after the jays moved into the dome on june 5, 1989, attendance zoomed, and by season's end the club set a new american league home attendance record of nearly 3.4 million. in 1990, with a full season in the dome, the jays attracted over a half million more fans than the year before, for a new major league record of 3,885,284.
skydome attendance continued to set new records in 1991 and 1992 as it rose above 4 million. mcgriff and bell had departed by 1991, but an improved devon white, plus newly acquired slugger joe carter and second baseman roberto alomar, led an offense that along with the league's stingiest pitching staff brought the jays through a tight race to their third division title. for the third time, though, they crashed in the lcs, this time trampled by minnesota in 5 games. with the addition of a pair of free-agent veterans - pitcher jack morris (who went 21-6) and dh-outfielder dave winfield (108 rbi's) - toronto finally completed the puzzle in 1992. the jays sported a balanced offense (6 players drove in 60 runs or more) and outstanding pitching from starter juan guzman (16-5, 2.64 era) and relievers tom henke and duane ward.
the jays fended off baltimore's challenge for the lead through much of the summer, and resisted milwaukee's late-season surge to repeat as al east titlists. they then felled oakland in 6 games to bring canada its first major league baseball pennant, and stooped stubborn atlanta in 6 games to carry home the championship of the world.
nearly half the team was new in 1993, but after a tight battle with several clubs through most of the season the blue jays pulled away to capture their fourth division title in 5 years by a comfortable seven-game margin.John olerud, in his first full .300 season at the plate, hit over .400 through the first half of the season and finished with a league-high .363. paul molitor, signed from milwaukee as a free agent, hit better than anyone else in the league from midseason on and finished second overall. roberto alomar, olerud, and molitor became the first teammates since 1893 to take the top 3 spots in a major league batting race. in postseason play the jays repeated their success of the previous year, with six-game victories over the chicago white sox for the al pennant and over philadelphia for the world title.
the glory faded in 1994. at the july all-star break the blue jays lay at the bottom of the al east. while they pulled themselves up to third before players' strike ended the season in august, they remained sixteen games out of first, their most distant finish and first losing season in a dozen years. the losing continued in 1995 as the jays stripped their roster of most of the veterans of its world championship squad. toronto tied minnesota for the dubious honor of posting mlb's worst won-lost record (56-88).
with
the world series years a distant memory, toronto posted a 74-88 record,
finishing in 4th place, 18 games out of first place. despite criticism
that manager cito gaston needed to tighten the reigns on his young ball
club, the coach coaxed fine performances out of some inconsistent superstars.
juan guzman won the era title with a minuscule 2.93 era, while pat hentgen
and his 20 victories took home cy young honors.
