Symptomatic of the proliferation of Interleague scheduling, the Mets opened their home season against the Toronto Blue Jays this past April, winning three straight. It was fun in the moment, even if the moment didn’t portend anything special for the 2025 Mets in the long run. It also didn’t indicate there were any obstacles the Blue Jays couldn’t overcome as necessary in New York. Slightly more than six months later, the Jays returned to the city needing to win at least one game to close out somebody else’s postseason, and that they did.
As a result, Elimination Day is in full effect…as if the bright sunshine casting a glow about the New York Metropolitan Area this lovely morning didn’t reveal that a festive annual occasion was underway. The Jays ousted the Yankees, 5-2, in the fourth and final game of their ALDS Wednesday night, and with that joyous piece of business taken care of, the playoffs can continue glorious and free without threat of a municipal nuisance parade. The current autumn included, New York has now avoided MNPs for 24 of the past 25 falls, so on this one very specific count, you’d have to say it’s been a pretty decent quarter-century.
Whatever we contributed to the Blue Jays’ cause by preparing them in April to return to town better equipped in October we were happy to provide. For that matter, we can be proud that we helped the Jays take flight on March 11, 1977, visiting Dunedin for Toronto’s very first Spring Training game. The Mets were thoughtful opponents that Friday afternoon, bowing to their new Florida Suncoast neighbors, 3-1. As you can imagine, the exhibition counted a lot more in the minds of the upstart expansioneers than it did for the blasé veteran assemblage that had bused over from St. Pete. For that one day, the head start on life the Mets enjoyed over the Blue Jays didn’t count at all.
Toronto GM Peter Bavasi: “How can a club two-and-a-half hours old beat an established club sixteen years old?”
Rookie Blue Jays first baseman Doug Ault: “We came out here today to win. We have a lot of young players here who are really hungry.”
Mets starting pitcher Jerry Koosman: “I’ve only heard of three guys on their team.”
The largely unknown Jays migrated to their regular season pretty much as expected, going 54-107 and finishing last. But they were on the major league map, even if they remained stuck in the AL East basement for a half-dozen seasons. They didn’t begin to peek out from down below until 1983, a year before Koosman’s old club — which had descended down the stairs itself in ’77 — emerged from a lengthy hibernation. By the mid-1980s, the forlorn Jays and Mets of yore had evolved into baseball powerhouses, and nobody asked to see their birth certificates. The Mets won a World Series in 1986. The Blue Jays won two, in 1992 and 1993. In between, we loaned them Mookie Wilson and Lee Mazzilli. After both franchises had sunk from contention, the Jays reciprocated by sending us John Olerud.
How it started.
We’ve shared more than a little cross-pollination across the decades. Perhaps my favorite repository of Immaculate Grid arcana resides within the composition of the 1981 Toronto Blue Jays pitching staff. The Jays used fourteen pitchers in that strike-shortened season, and nearly half of them had been Mets:
Juan Berenguer
Mark Bomback
Nino Espinosa
Roy Lee Jackson
Dale Murray
Jackson Todd
Toronto’s decision to scoop up arms the Mets had given up on during this era might explain why the Jays took a while to become competitive, but the link between the franchises went back even further. Coaching Blue Jays pitchers during their very first Spring was none other than Original Met Bob L. Miller, the same Bob L. Miller who went 1-12 for us in 1962. “This has brought back old memories,” the Bob Miller who wasn’t the other Bob Miller told Joe Donnelly of Newsday. “Just walking around and seeing guys introduce themselves to each other reminds you what it was like.” Miller correctly predicted his 1977 Jays, despite their youth and relative anonymity, would exceed the victory total posted by the initial 40-120 Met edition, which boasted its share of recognizable names from seasons gone by, if not a lot left in their collective tank. “There are so many more ballclubs now,” Bob assessed. “The talent has to have thinned out.”
How it’s going.
Forty-eight years later, there are four more ballclubs, and eight more teams make the playoffs than was the case in 1977. The Jays were one of them in 2025. They are the only one thus far to have guaranteed themselves a spot in the League Championship Series round. One of their positional mainstays is a former Met, Andrés Giménez, and two former Met pitchers, Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt, helped them pluck a division title. A few other recent Mets wore Toronto garb in the course of the season, none of whom it’s likely Jerry Koosman has heard of, even if he’s paying close attention these days. The Jays have enough famous stars at the top of their game, and their next game will be the first of those that will determine whether they will appear in the upcoming World Series.
That’s a World Series that won’t take place in New York, which would have sounded like a bummer to us in early April, but today seems just fine.
One of their positional mainstays is a former Met, Andrés Giménez, and two former Met pitchers, Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt, helped them pluck a division title.
(sigh)
Scherzer…
(spits)
(longer sigh)
Your knowledge of Mets trivia has always been impressive Greg, and pulling up a spring training game from March 1977 doesn’t diminish that one bit!
Thank you so much for this (what should be annual) celebration! Here’s to a joyous Elimination Day to Mets fans everywhere.
If the Dodgers can do the same to the Phillies tonight this season will be marginally less depressing. I have no strong feelings, pro or con, about any of the other 4 teams.
If the Dodgers can do the same to the Phillies tonight this season will be marginally less depressing.
TESTIFY.
Enjoyed the Spring ’77 Flashback. Nice quote from Doug Ault, future Blue Jay Hero of Day One for Real.
Although I don’t specifically remember the spring game, I was surely aware of it that day. I do remember being optimistic, they had closed out the ’76 season finishing strong. Wrong once again, many more to come…
Last night, right before Pages’ at bat, I said to my wife that I wanted a wild pitch, catcher’s interference, maybe a ball right thru Harper’s legs.
I wanted them to lose in the most embarrassing fashion possible.
Sometimes, wishes come true.
It is nice to know we’re not the only team to self-destruct their entire season.
That was awesome, bye bye Phillies. But — what is the deal with so many pitchers’ inability to throw to bases? How many times have we seen that this season? I know it’s harder than it looks, but throwing is literally their job!
I felt a twinge of pain for Kerkering (throw it to first! your catcher was literally pointing over there!) but moreso that I felt like we were robbed of an all-time epic. Who was going to pitch the 12th? We were into the back ends of both bullpens and I was getting some ’86 NLCS vibes (specifically Game 5). Alas. The Phillies are home. The Yankees are home. Hopefully the Cubs will go home on Saturday and we can appreciate all the schadenfraude.
Based on his body position, it looks like he started off meaning to throw to 1st, but once Kerkering booted the grounder, his body position got out of wack and base runner clock was thrown off, and that’s why he opted to flip the ball home instead. A good throw would have had Kim, and Kim might have missed home plate on his first cross (or maybe tagged the corner with his toe, it was really close). Realmuto didn’t help his pitcher by posting his left foot on home plate, so he couldn’t stretch for the ball with his glove hand, although it’s hard to tell if the ball was reachable with a full stretch.
Anyway, I’ve been there. Routine sequence unfolding but something suddenly goes off-kilter—surprise!—and now you have to adjust on the fly with unexpected variables bursting, all in a moment. I’ve screwed up in humiliating manner too. I can empathize.
I still look upon Seattle and Toronto as the new teams in the league (I was almost 12). In my baseball card collection, I had to remember to put the BLUE JAYS ahead of the BRAVES, and the MARINERS after the INDIANS and ahead of the ORIOLES. (I always put the METS first.) BTW, I always put the A’s ahead of the ANGELS due to the apostrophe.
And as for Arizona and Colorado, not sure I will ever recognize them, and still consider them as bores.
Heh.
Just think, there are people around – maybe even readers here – who think of the Mets and Astros as new teams.
And I’m going back even farther than that, and refusing to recognize the Florida Marlins, or whatever they’re called these days.
And of course, Tampa Bay as well. :)
When will these analytics dumbells ever learn? Statistics are built for the long run, not a winner-take-all single game (or any *individual* game, for that matter).
If something works 60-40, for example, in any game the 40 could win out. It warms my heart to see that as soon as these numbskulls took Kirby and Skubal out of the game, their replacements got beat.
As Kevin Cash can attest, these dumb moves can cost you the World Series.
On the other hand, Collins let Harvey go back out for the 9th and kept him out there.
Still the right move, though.
Well, I can’t really see myself watching a whole lot of Dodgers/Mariners, not least because all those games will start at 9:20 Eastern or something.
All the WS games will start around 8pm Eastern Time, no matter who is playing, due to TV ratings.