1985 Toronto Blue Jays

[Maine Jays]

I remember being in junior high and all my Red Sox fan classmates punching me because they thought my team was going to win a world series before theirs. Of course, they did (in'92) but I was in college by then.

[Spanky99]

I guess you don't care. I thought it was interesting. Ed Delahanty died in Canada following a Tigers game after getting drunk and falling off of a train bridge into Niagara Falls.

 

1985 >>>>>> 1895 bro. Suxxxxxxx to be that guy, lol.

[Grant77]

1985 >>>>>> 1895 bro. Suxxxxxxx to be that guy, lol.

 

If you say so

[The Iceman]

Remember it well as there was so much excitement in the city that year. Backdrop to the whole thing, I starting watching the Jays as an expansion team in ‘77 which was made up of mostly other teams rejects. For the first 6 years, they were dreadful but ‘83 is when we actually had very good players for the first time, Steib, Fernandez, Bell, Whitt, Upshaw, Moseby, Barfield, Clancy and they became very competitive winning 89 games. ‘84 was a washout with the Tigers incredible 35-5 start, although the Jays again won 89 that year as well.

 

So 1985 was to be the Jay’syear. The team won 99 games and the Jays were all over the news and the talk at every workplace. I watched every game but when I couldn’t, I would record games on VHS and watch later. A vivid memory is George Bell catching that fly ball in left field and going to his knees in celebration to end the final game of the regular season which signaled the team’s first AL East pennant.

 

In the ALCS against the Royals, the Jays went up 3 games to 1 and looked like they would be going to the first World Series that would be played in Canada. That was the pinnacle of the season. It was disappointing to see the Jays lose the series 4 ganes to 3. Still remember watching the wind carry Jim Sundberg’s fly ball to the top of the right field fence to clear the bases in game 7, but the atmosphere was still very upbeat as folks were so happy that they made the playoffs. The Jays were so good that they were expected to be back in the playoffs the next year. Took a little longer with the heart breaking last weekend collapse in ‘87 to the Tigers, but that made the two WS victories 6 & 7 years later that much sweeter.

 

The Royals were an awesome team that year powered by George Brett and Brett Saberhagen.

And the worst part about blowing the series lead was that year was the first year the series was a best of 7. It had always been a best of 5 before that.