TOUCHING THEM ALL AGAIN, JOE
LAURA ARMSTRONG Not a day goes by that Joe Carter isn’t asked about his World Series-winning home run back in 1993.
“Especially in Toronto,” Carter says. “They’ll talk about it every day, which is kind of what you’d expect.”
Despite baseball’s long history, the walkoff homer during Game 6 of the 1993 World Series remains one of only two home runs to clinch a championship, the Blue Jays’ second title in as many years. And while Carter playfully reminds that he did, in fact, hit more than one home run in his career and jokes that the three-run winner on Oct. 23, 1993 is his cross to bear, he remembers the night pitch for pitch, and step by step.
“CBS gave me a tape that evening of every camera that was on that night so I saw it from nine to 10 different angles,” he says.
The best angle, in his mind, was from the Blue Jays’ dugout: pinch runner Alfredo Griffin thrusting his hands in the air in celebration as the ball dropped over the wall in left field, the bench erupting, the fans erupting. To Carter, that look at those around him was “priceless” and gave him more joy than the scenes of himself running the bases.
“The epitome (for) every athlete is to be able to come through for their team in those moments, when all eyes are on you,” he says.
Soon, Carter will have a new team to come through for. He and Roberto Alomar have partnered with Budweiser Canada to play in an adult recreational league.
It is up to baseball fans to recruit Carter and Alomar by making an offer on why they deserve to play with the former Jays, using the hashtag #BudHomeRunContest and following Budweiser Canada and tagging Blue Jays on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. The winning submission, which will be selected based on creativity, originality, quality and showing how far a team would go to sign a Toronto baseball idol, will be announced on July 25. Submissions will be accepted until July 20.
Carter likens adding himself and Alo- mar to a rec league baseball team to adding Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan to a rec league basketball team, even though he’s now age “29 times two.”
“You’re team’s going to be pretty good, pretty stoked, pretty excited,” Carter predicts.
As for who would be more valuable to their new team, he or Alomar, Carter gave himself the edge.
“In (rec league), you need home runs. Robbie can’t hit any home runs,” he says. “I’m going to give myself the advantage.”
While he was available, the Star got Carter’s thoughts on some other baseball topics. On where Jose Bautista ranks when it comes to the Jays’ all-time hitters: “Just below me,” Carter says with a laugh.
Bautista’s 54 home run season in 2010 is a number Carter says he “never even thought about reaching.” The 37-yearold veteran’s three-run home run in the game that clinched the 2015 American League Divisional Series — complete with that iconic bat flip — was monumental, Carter says. While Carter said it’s tough to rank Bautista because the Jays have had so many great players and hitters, he puts him somewhere in the top 10 after a “tremendous” career in Toronto. On whose home-run celebration was better, his in 1993 or Bautista’s in 2015: “The thing about Jose’s is, he knew it was gone. I didn’t know it was gone,” he says. It took Carter five or six steps up the base path before the run was confirmed. All the while, he was thinking, “Is it? Yes, no, maybe? To see it got out, what a great feeling.” On speeding up the game: “Why is everyone talking about speeding the game up?,” he asks. “Are we in a society where you have to go through the drive through, everything has to be done quick?”
The longer the games go, the more fans get their money’s worth, Carter says, and the more time the people in the stands — fathers and sons, mothers and daughters — have to bond over the game. “I don’t want to go some place that’s like, ‘How quick can I get out of here?’ ” On the defensive shift: It’s up to hitters to be willing to change their approach at the plate to break up the shift, Carter says.
“The players don’t want to make adjustments. Baseball is a chess game and when you make a move, the other team has to counter that move by doing something different. If they don’t make a move, they’re going to get beat every time. If they’re going to keep hitting into it, might as well keep playing the shift.” On getting into coaching or managing: “It takes too much time,” says Carter, who previously worked as a special assistant to Arizona Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart. On bringing up top prospects and the excitement surrounding Vladimir Guerrero Jr: Carter is an advocate for bringing young players like Guerrero up with as little pressure on them as possible. That means telling the youngsters they’re going to be everyday players and line up in a certain spot, and stick with those plans whether they’re hitting .100 or .400.
It’s a rare approach, but one former Jays manager Cito Gaston took with Carter; he said it took a lot off pressure off of him and allowed him to relax as he learned the ropes.
“Then they’re not worried about catching that train back to Buffalo if they have a bad start.”
Carter, like many others, can’t wait for Guerrero’s arrival in the big leagues. “You want to see those guys come up because it adds some excitement.”