The Toronto Blue Jays are heading back to the World Series for the first time in over three decades. And, the team’s success upon reaching the October Classic is pretty darn good. They are one of the only teams to have an unblemished record in World Series championship series, including their last win in 1993 punctured by the Joltin’ Joe Carter home run that won the Blue Jays the World Series.
How did it feel to win a World Series with a swing of the bat? We asked Carter just that in this blast from the past when the legend was in town for a charity golf tournament.
Is there anything else left to say about that memorable home run to win the World Series?
There’s nothing left because it is just that big a moment. Like I say, every time I go to Toronto and I’m speaking, I tell the people I’ve been milking this home run now for 25 years. It’s great that something like that happened, and for it to happen to me was definitely a blessing from the good Lord above and a blessing for Toronto. It is etched forever in the history of the baseball laurels.
I bet you remember every moment of that historic hit.
Yeah, my wife tells me I’ve forgotten a lot of things, but I’ll never forget that. It is a big moment, but also I’ve talked about it so many times. It’s that big a moment to think, in the history of the game, over 140 years, it’s only happened twice in the history of the game. That’s special.
View this post on Instagram
What do you miss most about baseball?
It’s the camaraderie of the players. Jumping on the plane, going from city to city, in that dugout, in the clubhouse. Those are the things that you miss the most. Funny, we had this 15-year reunion of the back-to-back wins, and I think almost every player returned. And as soon as we had the golf tournament, everybody got on the bus, and you know what? It was like, everybody sat in the same seat from when we were playing: “Oh no, don’t sit there, that’s Joe’s seat, that’s Jimmy Key’s seat, Duane Ward sits in the back, Winfield sits there.” Baseball is a great sport because you get a chance to spend a lot of time together and get to know a lot about each other. That, to me, that’s family.
Where was your favourite place to play?
Well, you know, your adrenaline gets pumping when you go in to Yankee Stadium or into Fenway Park when Roger Clemens was on the mound. And you’re thinking, “OK, this is going to be good,” because Fenway was one of my favourite parks to hit in, and you’ve got one of the best pitchers ever, so you knew it was going to be a blast. I enjoyed those slug fests.
