A moment 22 years in the making
Devoted Jays followers have spent ‘many yesterdays, todays and tomorrows, waiting’
Adio Edwards still remembers being at a party at his aunt’s house when the Jays won the World Series in 1993.
He was just 8 years old, and the song “Celebration” played on a loop.
“I’ve been a Blue Jays fan for basically my whole life,” said the now 30-year-old.
Edwards was one of a throng of elated Jays fans who gathered at the Loose Moose on Front Street, Wednesday evening, decked out in jerseys to loudly cheer on their home team in the first game of night against Baltimore.
The Jays won the game15-2, clinching the American League East division title for the first time since 1993, when they went on to win the World Series.
The win also guarantees the team a spot in the five-game AL Division Series.
For fans like Edwards, it’s even better this time.
“I’ve been watching the Jays for so long, through all the ups and downs, and to see them really become successful now is a great feeling,” he said.
At just 25, Jamie Cruickshank doesn’t have any memory of the Jays winning in ’93. But he does have a treasured VHS tape of their victorious 1992 World Series that he watched over and over as a child.
“It’s exciting to see it happening live,” Cruickshank said, flanked by equally excited friends gathered at the bar.
For some of them, 1993 doesn’t seem that long ago.
Cass Enright remembers watching the game with university classmates and then heading out to Yonge St. to celebrate. “I was only 18, I wasn’t actually even drinking,” he said with a laugh.
“I remember1993 like it was yester- day, and it’s been many yesterdays, todays and tomorrows, waiting.”
Dimitri Mazur, who grew up in Belgium, missed the 1992 and 1993 World Series. But he heard about them even on a different continent.
“The energy here is completely dif- ferent, it’s magnified by 10 hundred thousand. It’s just a crazy experience,” he said.
The 29-year-old said that as an immigrant he tries to follow all of Toronto’s big sports teams. “A lot of immigrants when they come to Can- ada they just start following the culture and the little things, here and there, that really matter,” he said.
“So now I’m proud of it. I’m a Canadian. Hopefully they win and that’s it, and they do it again, and again, and again.”