TORONTO — Joe Carter stood in the visitors’ dugout on a cool day in Kansas City, leaning on a bat with a wide smile plastered on his face. He wore an outfit fitting for retirement — a loose golf shirt and athletic shorts. Carter didn’t move. People came to him.
Members of the 2025 Toronto Blue Jays, a month before pulling themselves to within just one win of the World Series, slid out to the field for that late-September batting practice, stopping to shake Carter’s hand or share a brief moment of conversation. None lingered longer than Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
That’s what happens when you become synonymous with greatness. That’s what every member of these Blue Jays came closer to achieving with a 6-2 triumph over the Seattle Mariners on Sunday night to force a deciding Game 7 in the American League Championship Series. They’ve pushed the closest this franchise has come to the ultimate glory of October since Carter etched his name in Toronto immortality.
“This team,” manager John Schneider said. “This group of men are special. You never know where the journey’s going to lead. It leads to a Game 7 in the ALCS and that’s frickin’ awesome.”
No Blue Jays fan under the age of 31 has ever felt this feeling. They’ve never been this close. Many who stayed up late for one more Carlos Delgado at-bat, checked the probable pitchers for when Roy Halladay would start, or believed the magic of 2015 would never end, they did not know until now what it was like to cheer this late into fall. And until now, they’ve never attempted to breathe before one game to decide entry onto baseball’s biggest stage. Even for those who witnessed 1992 and 1993, it’s been decades.
José Bautista kept his head down, a baseball gripped tightly in his hand as 44,764 worshippers roared on before Game 6 on Sunday. He threw a perfect strike as the crowd swelled. His name, in blocky white letters, rests permanently on the facade of the 500 level at Rogers Centre, nine years after Bautista’s final ALCS exit with the Jays.
José Bautista throws out the ceremonial first pitch prior to Game 6. (Thomas Skrlj / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
His 2015 Blue Jays lost in six games. The 2016 team lost in five. Before this year, those are the only Blue Jays teams since 1993 to win in the postseason. Highlights of their runs still flash across Toronto televisions. Flipped bats and mad dashes home still linger in the city’s baseball subconscious. The heroes of those teams return like the champions that their fans so badly wanted them to become. Yet, this version of the Jays has progressed even deeper. It’s late October and they still could become those champions. The Blue Jays stand five wins away from adding one more trophy to the daunting case outside their home clubhouse.
One day, years from now, George Springer, Max Scherzer or Kevin Gausman could march to the mound before an October game. They, too, could throw a crowd-sparking strike for the ceremonial first pitch. Their postseason moments — Scherzer’s mound madness, Gausman’s strikeout of Aaron Judge and Springer’s toughness for playing through a busted knee — could flash on screens for future generations. They’ve already lifted the Blue Jays beyond the heights of 2015 and 2016. They will be remembered. But they have more to achieve to reach Carter.
Weeks into the 2025 season, Gausman’s neighbour shared a prediction. She foresaw a Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Blue Jays World Series.
“All right,” Gausman said. “Let’s make it happen.”
Entering Sunday, the match-up seemed distant. Down 3-2 in the series against the Mariners, coming off a crushing Game 5 loss, the Jays sent a rookie starter to the mound. Yet Yesavage delivered 5 2/3 innings, striking out seven Seattle batters and leaving to thunderous applause. Guerrero homered, further solidifying himself as a postseason hero. Addison Barger drove in three and Jeff Hoffman delivered a two-inning save. With Shane Bieber getting the ball in Game 7, the Dodgers now sit a win away.
Gausman chuckled as he admitted that his neighbour knows essentially nothing about baseball. She couldn’t have known for sure that in a few months her neighbour would be stopped at red lights around the city, fans rolling down car windows to cheer him on, begging for a few more October victories. She didn’t know the Jays, fresh off a last place finish in the American League East, would author an improbable turnaround to the top of the division. Yet her prophecy is now one win away from being fulfilled.
“One game to win,” Gausman said. “To go to the World Series. Like, it fires me up just talking about it.”
Ernie Clement runs during the Blue Jays’ Game 6 victory. (Michael Chisholm / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
The right-hander, in his fourth year with the Jays, looked across the clubhouse as he recalled the prediction. He locked at the long-vacated lockers of Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette. That’s the pair he believed in when he signed with the Jays in 2021. Alongside them, Gausman could arrive here, on the precipice of a title.
“This is why I came here,” Gausman said. “I came here because I thought they had a group of young guys. Looking at these guys’ names, I thought they would be part of something. Now they are.”
Gausman shared the feeling with many Jays fans back then. The pair of top prospects that quickly turned All-Stars and MVP candidates ushered in new hope. They could anchor a team to match Bautista’s. They, perhaps, could reach even higher. It took years, and three postseason sweeps, but the hope is being fulfilled. The new heights have been reached. Now they want more.
Even as Bichette watches from the sidelines, as he attempts to claw back from his sprained knee, Guerrero has provided memorable moments. As he launched a no-doubt blast to left field on Sunday, tying the franchise record for postseason homers, the building that worshipped Bautista hours before celebrated once again.
A fan in left field turned to the strangers behind him. He left no hand un-slapped and embraced each as if they were family. He wore a pristine blue jersey, not showing the age it must hold. The name carefully stitched on the back: Carter.
That’s what happens when you reach greatness. Your jersey gets spotted in the crowd for decades. Your highlights live endlessly. Future stars, 32 years later, stop to shake your hand. That’s what these Jays, nearer than any group since 1993, have pushed closer toward attaining. That’s what five more wins would bring, starting with Monday’s Game 7. At stake is the American League pennant, and the privilege of chasing immortality.