’ 85 Blue Jays believe in this year’s club
Thirty years after winning Toronto’s first division championship, George Bell, Lloyd Moseby and Jesse Barfield — the Blue Jays’ outfield, in that order from left to right, through most of the 1980s — returned to town to celebrate their feat, and to fawn over a club trying to follow them.
“Who do you pitch to? You don’t pitch to anyone,” Moseby said, referencing Troy Tulowitzki, Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista, and how frightening a pecking order that is atop the Jays’ new lineup.
“This is their time to shine. I hope it happens this year, for sure.”
By “it,” Moseby meant the only two things that eluded the Jays in 1985: a trip to the World Series and a World Series title. The ’ 85 Jays ended the regular season with baseball’s best record, but surrendered a 3- 1 lead in the American League Championship Series to the Kansas City Royals.
The ’ 85 Jays overtook the AL East on May 14, for two games, then again on May 20, and never relinquished control. Their longest win streak was nine, in late July. They led by 9.5 games from Aug. 2- 4. They played the Yankees in the last series of the season, and lost two of three, but won the division by two games.
Bell socked a team- high 28 home runs that year; Barfield hit 27. Moseby, the speedy centre- fielder, stole 37 bases. They manned the outfield for a decade, and were among baseball’s very best in that regard.
Their team’s other lasting legacy, though, is that they lost — not often, but when it counted. They fell in seven games to Kansas City in the ALCS, dropping Games 6 and 7 at home.
“I need some therapy because of that. That was probably one of our best teams ever,” Moseby said. “But you know what? That’s baseball. We hit some balls hard right at people ( in the ALCS). That’s the nature of the beast.”
The Royals won the World Series that year, and from then until last year, they suffered through MLB’s longest playoff drought. That distinction now belongs to Toronto.
Regardless of the playoff loss, the ’ 85 Jays showed Toronto something new. In 38 seasons before this one, the Blue Jays have had a total of five playoff appearances, starting with Bell, Moseby and Barfield.
The 1992 and 1993 seasons, which culminated with World Series titles, were the pinnacle. Now, they have a chance to get their again.
Repeating as division champs 30 years later would mean holding off the Yankees: the top two teams in the AL East have seven more games remaining against each other this season.
Moseby believes they have history on their side.
“The Yankees have always been a team that the Blue Jays — and I could go way back, I could go back to ’ 80, when we were awful — beat. When we needed that win, we beat the Yankees. Even when we were mediocre, we beat the Yankees, and when we got really good, we beat the Yankees,” Moseby said.
“I got a feeling that this is going to happen — the Blue Jays are going to beat the Yankees without a problem. It’s time.”