1977 Toronto Blue Jays season

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The 1977 Toronto Blue Jays season was the first year of Major League Baseball played by the Toronto-based expansion franchise. The Blue Jays finished 7th in the American League East with a record of 54 wins and 107 losses.

[edit] Spring Training

The Blue Jays spring training was held in Dunedin, Florida. In their first pre-season game on March 11, the Jays beat the New York Mets by a score of 3-1. The first two times that they played the Montreal Expos, the Jays were triumphant as well. Perhaps the highlight of spring training was a match against the defending World Series champion Cincinnati Reds. The Blue Jays defeated the defending world champions as the Reds were missing only one regular starter from their lineup. ^[1] After spring training, the Blue Jays 25-man roster was set. Ron Fairly, who had previously played for the Montreal Expos was one of the most recognizable players on the nascent team. The only marquee name was Bill Singer. Pat Gillick had a deal with the New York Yankees to trade Singer for a promising, young left-hander named Ron Guidry. ^[1] Blue Jays president Peter Bavasi vetoed the deal as Singer was part of his plan to market and promote the team. ^[1]

[edit] The First Game

On April 7, 1977, 44,649 fans were in attendance to watch the first game in Blue Jays history as the Blue Jays played the Chicago White Sox. ^[2] In attendance that day included Paul Godfrey, Toronto mayor David Crombie, legendary broadcaster Foster Hewitt, and country singer Anne Murray. ^[3] Besides the snow that adorned the field, there were hundreds of fans who missed the first pitch due to many traffic jams that day.

The umpires for the game included crew chief Nestor Chylak, Joe Brinkman, Rich Garcia, and 27-year old Steve Palermo, who was making his major league debut. ^[4] The game was broadcast on the CBC with Don Chevrier and New York Yankee legend Whitey Ford providing the commentary. The Blue Jays would only appear on the CBC sixteen times that first season. ^[3]

As the snow was squeegeed off the field, the 48th Highlanders marched onto the field to perform the Star Spangled Banner. Country music star Anne Murray arrived to sing O Canada while wearing a red parka. ^[4] The fans chanted “We Want Beer’’, because Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium was the only stadium in the Major Leagues to not serve beer. ^[5]

Bill Singer took to the mound and threw the first pitch in Toronto Blue Jays history against Ralph Garr of the White Sox. The pitch was a high fastball called for a strike. ^[5] From an 0-2 count, Garr battled back to get the count at 3-2, and then he drew a walk. Afterwards, Garr stole second base, and advanced to third base because Blue Jays catcher Rick Cerone's throw went into centerfield. ^[5] The next batter was shortstop Alan Bannister who hit a fly ball for the first out of the game. Jorge Orta batted third and he hit a sacrifice fly which scored Garr, the first run at Exhibition Stadium. ^[5] Richie Zisk followed and hit the first home run in the history of the stadium. The score was now 2-0 in favour of the White Sox.

Blue Jays manager Roy Hartsfield went to the mound to talk to Singer. As Hartsfield went to the mound, reliever Jerry Johnson started warming up in the bullpen. Singer was able to compose himself and he got Eric Soderholm to hit into a fielder's choice as the inning ended. ^[5]

John Scott was the first Blue Jay to take an at-bat for the team. He would face White Sox pitcher Ken Brett. Scott took a strike on the first pitch thrown to him. ^[3] He would strike out, along with the next Jays batter, Hector Torres. The third batter in the game was Doug Ault. He was a 27 year old career minor leaguer with only nine games experience in the major leagues. He was the Jays sixteenth pick in the 1977 Expansion Draft. ^[3]

On a 1-1 pitch, Doug Ault hit the first home run in Blue Jays history. The score was now 2-1 in favour of Chicago, and after the second inning, it was 4-1 for Chicago. ^[3] In the bottom of the second, Gary Woods bunted for a single, stole second, and scored on a hit by Pedro Garcia.

In the third inning, Torres had a single and Ault was back at bat. With the count 1-1, the ball went down the right field line and the game was tied at 4 as Ault hit his second home run. ^[3] Heading into the fourth inning, Toronto got the lead as McKay singled in Garcia from second base. ^[6]

Singer was still in the game at the top of the fifth inning. Singer struck out Chet Lemon, but Brian Downing and Ralph Garr singled off him. ^[6] Hartsfield came up to the mound and pulled Singer out of the game. Singer left to a standing ovation as Jerry Johnson entered the game. ^[6] Johnson got the final two outs of the fifth inning.

Alvis Woods came up to pinch hit for Steve Bowling in the bottom of the fifth inning. ^[6] With Otto Velez on the basepads, Woods homered to right field. ^[6] The score was 7-4 in favour of the Jays. The Jays had scored in every inning of the game.

The Sox scored a run in the sixth inning and it was 7-5. Heading into the eighth inning, Pete Vukovich started the inning. He struck out two batters, gave up a walk and a single, but he got a ground ball to end the inning. ^[7] In the bottom of the inning, Ault returned to the plate and singled in another run to make the score 8-5. Another run was scored on a double play to make the score 9-5 in favour of the Jays.

In the top of the ninth inning, Vukovich retired Jorge Orta on a ground ball. Vukovich then struck out Richie Zisk. For the day, Zisk had four hits in five at-bats. ^[7] With one out to go for the win, Jim Spencer hit a line drive to left field but Scott dropped the ball for a two-base error. Oscar Gamble was up at the plate and he grounded out to the shortstop. ^[7] The Jays won their first game in franchise history. Jerry Johnson picked up the win while Vukovich got the save. ^[7]

The heroes of opening day would not have a future with the Jays. Jerry Johnson would end up in Hollywood working as a stuntman. At the 1977 Winter Meetings, the Jays traded Vukovich to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for Tom Underwood. ^[7] Doug Ault was back in the minors in 1979. ^[8]

[edit] Scorecard

April 7, Exhibition Stadium, Toronto, Ontario

[edit] Batting

[edit] Pitching

[edit] Opening Day Starters

• Doug Ault, First Base
• Pedro Garcia, Second Base
• Dave McKay, Third Base
• Hector Torres, Shortstop
• Steve Bowling, Rightfield
• Gary Woods, Centerfield
• John Scott, Leftfield
• Rick Cerone, Catcher
• Bill Singer, Pitcher
• Otto Velez, Designated Hitter

[edit] Regular season

[edit] Highs

• April 7: Amid blowing snow, Toronto joins the Major Leagues in style by whipping the Chicago White Sox 9-5.
• June 27: Yankees starter Ron Guidry carries a no-hitter into the fifth inning when he walks the bases loaded and gives up a grand slam to light hitting Hector Torres.
• August 9: The Jays defeat the Minnesota Twins 6-2 in front of a home crowd that breaks the old expansion team first year attendance record. Their record setting grand total was 1,701,052.
• September 10: Roy Howell drives in a franchise record 9 runs as the Jays pound the New York Yankees 19-3 giving them their worst home beating in over 50 years. Howell registered 454 career RBIs in an eleven year career that began with Texas in 1974 and ended in Milwaukee.
• September 15: The Blue Jays were awarded 9-0 forfeit win over Baltimore Orioles on September 15, as Orioles' manager Earl Weaver removed the team from field in fifth inning. ^[9]

[edit] Lows

• July 4- The Boston Red Sox set a major league record by hitting seven solo home runs off Blue Jay pitching.
• The team finishes 45.5 games out of first and 9.5 back of expansion cousins Seattle.

[edit] Season standings

[edit] Transactions

December 6, 1976: Rick Cerone was traded by the Cleveland Indians with John Lowenstein to the Toronto Blue Jays for Rico Carty. ^[10]

[edit] Roster

[edit] Game log

[edit] Player stats

[edit] Batting

Note: G = Games played; AB = At Bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting Average; HR = Home Runs; RBI = Runs Batted In

[edit] Other Batters

[edit] Starting pitchers

[edit] Other pitchers

[edit] Relief pitchers

[edit] Franchise Firsts

• Game & Win: April 7, 1977 - Toronto 9, Chicago (White Sox) 5 (at Exhibition Stadium)
• Batter: John Scott - Apr. 7, 1977
• Pitcher: Bill Singer - Apr. 7, 1977
• Home Run: Doug Ault vs. Chicago (AL) - Apr. 7, 1977
• Grand Slam: Hector Torres vs. New York (AL) - Jun. 27, 1977
• Save: Pete Vuckovich vs. Chicago (AL) - Apr. 7, 1977
• Walk Off Win: Jul. 15, 1977 - Toronto 8, Detroit 6 (13 innings)

[edit] Trades

This is an incomplete list

• November 5, 1976

Toronto trades SP AL Fitzmorris to Cleveland for C Alan Ashby and 1B/OF Doug Howard.

• December 6, 1976

Toronto trades DH Rico Carty to Cleveland for C Rick Cerone and OF John Lowenstein.

• February 17, 1977

Toronto trades C Dave Roberts to San Diego for P Jerry Johnson.

• February 24, 1977

Toronto trades Mike Weathers to Oakland for DH Ron Fairly.

• March 29, 1977

Toronto trades OF John Lowenstein to Cleveland for SS Hector Torres.

• May 9, 1977

Toronto trades RP Steve Hargan and SS Jim Mason to Texas for 3B Roy Howell.

[edit] Award Winners

• Otto Velez, OF-DH, Player of the Month Award, April

All-Star Game

• Ron Fairly First Base Reserve

[edit] Quotes

• There's an opportunity here in Toronto to put my mark on something and make it go. You always want to use your ingenuity, your mind and your development skills to try to put a club together and make it successful.- Pat Gillick after the Jays hired him away from the Yankees in August 1976.^{[citation needed]}

• The first thing I want to do is make everyone here aware of just how excited the people up in Toronto are about major league baseball arriving in their city.- Roy Hartsfield addressing the team for the first time as a group at the start of spring training in Dunedin, Florida.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

• 1977 Toronto Blue Jays team page at Baseball Reference
• 1977 Toronto Blue Jays team page at www.baseball-almanac.com