{"id":656596,"date":"2026-04-01T12:56:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/656596\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T12:56:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:56:24","slug":"50-seasons-of-big-league-hardball-maple-leaf-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/656596\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Seasons of Big League Hardball, Maple Leaf Style"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Blue<\/p>\n

Blue Jays Championship Banners, Photo by Dave Cottenie, Stadium Journey<\/p>\n

The 2026 season will mark the 50th season of the Toronto Blue Jays. During their 50 seasons, the Jays have experienced their share of baseball\u2019s memorable moments, most notably their back-to-back World Championships in 1992 and 1993.<\/p>\n

\"Exhibition<\/p>\n

Exhibition Stadium. Home of the Toronto Blue Jays 1977-1989. Photo: Toronto Blue Jays<\/p>\n

For over their first 12 seasons as an MLB franchise, the Toronto Blue Jays would play their home games at Exhibition Stadium<\/a>, all starting on one snowy afternoon on April 7, 1977<\/a>.\u00a0 The Blue Jays played 968 games from April 7, 1977 – May 28,1989 at Exhibition Stadium with a record of 492-476\u00a0and posting their first American\u00a0League Division triumph in 1985.<\/p>\n

\"Skydome.<\/p>\n

Skydome. 1989-2005. Photo: New York Times<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is magic,\u201d says Paul Beeston, then the club\u2019s president. \u201cYou had to be here back in 1989, when the roof opened, to watch people stand up and applaud. When we opened it during games, you could see players looking up there, like, \u2018Is this really happening?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays would waste no time creating memorable moments in their new yard as they would capture their second AL East crown on the final weekend of the season against the surprising Baltimore Orioles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays would return to the post season in 1991, winning three straight division titles, culminating with back-to-back World Series triumphs in \u201892 and \u201893, both being memorable in their own right.<\/p>\n

The \u201892 series would not only be the franchise\u2019s first World Series triumph, but the first World Series Champion to belong north of the border.<\/p>\n

\"Rogers<\/p>\n

Rogers Centre, 2005-Present. Photo: Dave Cottenie, Stadium Journey<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Though 2025 brought a bitter ending for Jays fans in Toronto and throughout Canada, in no way does it diminish what they\u2019ve achieved in their 50 seasons of existence<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Championship Banners, Photo by Dave Cottenie, Stadium Journey The 2026 season will mark the 50th season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[5,377,2554,4,282,70,2553],"class_list":{"0":"post-656596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-blue-jays","10":"tag-bluejays","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-toronto","13":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","14":"tag-torontobluejays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116329564823303072","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}