1989 Toronto Blue Jays Season
Get 1989 Toronto Blue Jays Season essential facts below. View Videos or join the 1989 Toronto Blue Jays Season discussion. Add 1989 Toronto Blue Jays Season to your PopFlock.com topic list for future reference or share this resource on social media.
1989 Toronto Blue Jays Season

1989 Toronto Blue Jays
1989 AL East Champions
Major League affiliations
Location
Results
Record89-73 (.549)
Divisional place1st
Other information
Owner(s)Labatt Breweries,
Imperial Trust,
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
General manager(s)Pat Gillick
Manager(s)Jimy Williams, Cito Gaston
Local televisionCFTO-TV
(Don Chevrier, Tony Kubek, Fergie Olver)
The Sports Network
(Fergie Olver, Buck Martinez)
Local radioCJCL (AM)
(Jerry Howarth, Tom Cheek)
< Previous season     Next season >

The 1989 Toronto Blue Jays season was the franchise's 13th season of Major League Baseball. It resulted in the Blue Jays finishing first in the American League East with a record of 89 wins and 73 losses. They lost the ALCS in five games to the eventual World Series champion Oakland Athletics. It was the team's last season at Exhibition Stadium, before moving to SkyDome halfway into the season. The Blue Jays hit eight grand slams, the most in MLB in 1989.[1]

Offseason

  • October 9, 1988: Carlos Delgado was signed as an amateur free agent by the Blue Jays.[2]
  • December 6, 1988: Mauro Gozzo was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays from the Kansas City Royals in the 1988 minor league draft.[3]
  • December 22, 1988: Cecil Fielder was purchased from the Blue Jays by the Hanshin Tigers (Japan Central).[4]
  • December 24, 1988: Mike Flanagan was signed as a free agent by the Blue Jays.[5]
  • January 18, 1989: Bob Brenly was signed as a free agent by the Blue Jays.[6]
  • March 9, 1989: DeWayne Buice was traded by the California Angels to the Toronto Blue Jays for Cliff Young.[7]

Regular season

The regular season would represent a turning point for the Blue Jays in many different ways. The Blue Jays started the 1989 season in Kansas City against the Royals. Behind the pitching of Jimmy Key, the Jays won the first game of the season 4-3.[8] The rest of the month would result in a losing record for the Jays. After the first month of the season, the Blue Jays had 10 wins and 20 losses and sat 6.5 games behind the Baltimore Orioles in the standings. The result was that Pat Gillick made his first trade in 605 days.[8] On April 30, Gillick sent Jesse Barfield to the New York Yankees in exchange for Al Leiter.[8] The reason for the deal was that management was convinced that Rob Ducey was ready to be an everyday outfielder. The spot eventually went to the surprising Junior Felix that year, and Ducey never became the everyday player the Jays imagined him to be.

The Blue Jays had never fired a manager in the middle of the season. After the Jays were swept by the Minnesota Twins in a three-game series, including a 13-1 loss in the final game of the series, the Jays had 12 wins and 24 losses.[9] The Jays had also lost 15 of their last 19 games. Gillick decided that a change was needed. On Monday, May 15, Jimy Williams had become the first Jays manager to be fired in mid-season.[10] Williams would be replaced by Cito Gaston, the first black manager in the history of the franchise.

The Blue Jays' last game at Exhibition Stadium was against the first team they played there, the Chicago White Sox. From there, the Blue Jays opened the new Skydome with a loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. On September 30, they clinched the American League East division title at the new ballpark.

Notable games

  • April 16, 1989 – Blue Jays third baseman Kelly Gruber hits for the cycle in a 15-8 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
  • May 4, 1989 – In a game versus the California Angels, Junior Felix hits a home run in his first Major League at-bat, becoming only the 60th Major Leaguer to achieve the feat.[11]
  • May 28, 1989 – The Blue Jays play their final game at Exhibition Stadium, a 7-5 10-inning win over the Chicago White Sox. Coincidentally, the White Sox had been the Jays' opponents in their first game at Exhibition Stadium (also the first game in franchise history) twelve years before.
  • June 4, 1989 – The Blue Jays stage a remarkable comeback in a game against the Red Sox in Boston. Trailing 10-0 after six innings, they slowly close the gap, finally taking an 11-10 lead on a ninth-inning grand slam by Ernie Whitt. Boston ties the score in the bottom half of the inning, but Junior Felix smokes a two-run home run in the top of the 12th inning, giving Toronto a 13-11 victory.[12][13]
  • June 5, 1989 – The Blue Jays play their first game in the brand-new SkyDome, a 5-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.[14]
  • August 4, 1989 – With the Blue Jays leading the New York Yankees 2-0, Dave Stieb comes one out away from pitching a perfect game, but the Yankees' Roberto Kelly cracks a double into left field to break it up. Steve Sax then singles Kelly home to cut the lead to 2-1, but the Blue Jays ace holds on for the victory. It marks the third time in two seasons that Stieb has lost a no-hitter with two out in the ninth inning.[15]
  • September 30, 1989 – In the next-to-last game of the regular season (and the last edition of NBC Sports' Saturday afternoon Game of the Week before the series moved to CBS the following season), the Blue Jays clinch their second American League East division title. Tom Henke strikes out the Baltimore Orioles' Larry Sheets for the final out.[16]

Opening Day starters

Season standings

AL East 		W L Pct. GB Home Road
Toronto Blue Jays 89 73 0.549 -- 46-35 43-38
Baltimore Orioles 87 75 0.537 2 47-34 40-41
Boston Red Sox 83 79 0.512 6 46-35 37-44
Milwaukee Brewers 81 81 0.500 8 45-36 36-45
New York Yankees 74 87 0.460 14½ 41-40 33-47
Cleveland Indians 73 89 0.451 16 41-40 32-49
Detroit Tigers 59 103 0.364 30 38-43 21-60

Record vs. opponents

1989 American League Records

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR
Baltimore -- 6-7 6-6 6-6 7-6 10-3 6-6 7-6 4-8 8-5 5-7 6-6 9-3 7-6
Boston 7-6 -- 4-8 7-5 8-5 11-2 4-8 6-7 6-6 7-6 7-5 5-7 6-6 5-8
California 6-6 8-4 -- 8-5 5-7 11-1 4-9 7-5 11-2 6-6 5-8 7-6 6-7 7-5
Chicago 6-6 5-7 5-8 -- 7-5 4-8 6-7 10-2 5-8 5-6 5-8 7-6 3-10 1-11
Cleveland 6-7 5-8 7-5 5-7 -- 5-8 8-4 3-10 5-7 9-4 2-10 6-6 7-5 5-8
Detroit 3-10 2-11 1-11 8-4 8-5 -- 6-6 6-7 5-7 6-7 4-8 4-8 4-8 2-11
Kansas City 6-6 8-4 9-4 7-6 4-8 6-6 -- 8-4 7-6 6-6 7-6 9-4 8-5 7-5
Milwaukee 6-7 7-6 5-7 2-10 10-3 7-6 4-8 -- 9-3 8-5 5-7 7-5 5-7 6-7
Minnesota 8-4 6-6 2-11 8-5 7-5 7-5 6-7 3-9 -- 6-6 6-7 7-6 5-8 9-3
New York 5-8 6-7 6-6 6-5 4-9 7-6 6-6 5-8 6-6 -- 3-9 8-4 5-7 7-6
Oakland 7-5 5-7 8-5 8-5 10-2 8-4 6-7 7-5 7-6 9-3 -- 9-4 8-5 7-5
Seattle 6-6 7-5 6-7 6-7 6-6 8-4 4-9 5-7 6-7 4-8 4-9 -- 6-7 5-7
Texas 3-9 6-6 7-6 10-3 5-7 8-4 5-8 7-5 8-5 7-5 5-8 7-6 -- 5-7
Toronto 6-7 8-5 5-7 11-1 8-5 11-2 5-7 7-6 3-9 6-7 5-7 7-5 7-5 --


Notable transactions

Draft picks

  • June 5, 1989: John Olerud was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 3rd round of the 1989 amateur draft. Player signed August 26, 1989.[23]
  • June 5, 1989: Aaron Small was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 22nd round of the 1989 amateur draft. Player signed June 8, 1989.[24]

Roster

Game log

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

= Indicates team leader
Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Ernie Whitt 129 385 101 .262 11 53
1B Fred McGriff 161 551 148 .269 36 92
2B Nelson Liriano 132 418 110 .263 5 53
3B Kelly Gruber 135 545 158 .290 18 73
SS Tony Fernández 140 573 147 .257 11 64
LF George Bell 153 613 182 .297 18 104
CF Lloyd Moseby 135 502 111 .221 11 43
RF Junior Félix 110 415 107 .258 9 46
DH Rance Mulliniks 103 273 65 .238 3 29

[25]

Other batters

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Manuel Lee 99 300 78 .260 3 34
Pat Borders 94 241 62 .257 3 29
Mookie Wilson 54 238 71 .298 2 17
Bob Brenly 48 88 15 .170 1 6
Jesse Barfield 21 80 16 .200 5 11
Rob Ducey 41 76 16 .211 0 7
Tom Lawless 59 70 16 .229 0 3
Lee Mazzilli 28 66 15 .227 4 11
Glenallen Hill 19 52 15 .288 1 7
Greg Myers 17 44 5 .114 0 1
Ozzie Virgil 9 11 2 .182 1 2
Alexis Infante 20 12 2 .167 0 0
Francisco Cabrera 3 12 2 .167 0 0
Kevin Batiste 6 8 2 .250 0 0
John Olerud 6 8 3 .375 0 0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Jimmy Key 33 216 13 14 3.88 118
Dave Stieb 33 206 2/3 17 8 3.35 101
John Cerutti 33 205 1/3 11 11 3.07 69
Mike Flanagan 30 171 2/3 8 10 3.93 47
Todd Stottlemyre 27 127 2/3 7 7 3.88 63
Al Leiter 1 6 2/3 0 0 4.05 4

Other pitchers

Player G IP W L ERA
Frank Wills 24 71 1/3 1 0 3.66
Mauro Gozzo 9 31 2/3 4 1 4.83
Steve Cummings 5 21 2 0 3.00
Alex Sanchez 4 11 2/3 0 1 10.03
Jeff Musselman 5 11 0 1 10.64
José Núñez 6 10 2/3 0 0 2.53

Relief pitchers

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Tom Henke 64 8 3 20 1.92 116
Duane Ward 66 4 10 15 3.77 122
David Wells 54 7 4 2 2.40 78
Tony Castillo 17 1 1 1 6.11 10
Jim Acker 14 2 1 0 1.59 24
Xavier Hernandez 7 1 0 0 4.76 7
DeWayne Buice 7 1 0 0 5.82 10

[25]

ALCS

Game 1

October 3, 1989, at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Toronto 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 5 1
Oakland 0 1 0 0 1 3 0 2 X 7 11 0
W: Dave Stewart (1-0)   L: Dave Stieb (0-1)  
HR: TOR – Ernie Whitt (1)  OAK – Dave Henderson (1), Mark McGwire (1)

Game 2

October 4, 1989, at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Toronto 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 3 5 1
Oakland 0 0 0 2 0 3 1 0 X 6 9 1
W: Mike Moore (1-0)   L: Todd Stottlemyre (0-1)   S: Dennis Eckersley (1)   
HR: OAK – Dave Parker (1)

Game 3

October 6, 1989, at SkyDome

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Oakland 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 1
Toronto 0 0 0 4 0 0 3 0 X 7 8 0
W: Jimmy Key (1-0)   L: Storm Davis (0-1)   
HR: OAK – Dave Parker (2)

Game 4

October 7, 1989, at SkyDome

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Oakland 0 0 3 0 2 0 1 0 0 6 11 1
Toronto 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 2 0 5 13 0
W: Bob Welch (1-0)   L: Mike Flanagan (0-1)   S: Dennis Eckersley (2)   
HR: OAK – Rickey Henderson 2 (2), José Canseco (1)

Game 5

October 8, 1989, at SkyDome

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Oakland 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 4 4 0
Toronto 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 9 0
W: Dave Stewart (2-0)   L: Dave Stieb (0-2)   S: Dennis Eckersley (3)   
HR: TOR – Lloyd Moseby (1), George Bell (1)

Award winners

All-Star Game

Farm system

Level Team League Manager
AAA Syracuse Chiefs International League Bob Bailor
AA Knoxville Blue Jays Southern League Barry Foote
A Dunedin Blue Jays Florida State League Doug Ault
A Myrtle Beach Blue Jays South Atlantic League Mike Fischlin
A-Short Season St. Catharines Blue Jays New York-Penn League Bob Shirley
Rookie Medicine Hat Blue Jays Pioneer League Rocket Wheeler

[27]

References

  1. ^ "Team Batting Event Finder: 1989, All Teams, Home Runs, With Runners on 123". Baseball Reference. Retrieved 2018.
  2. ^ Carlos Delgado at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gozzoma01.shtml
  4. ^ Cecil Fielder at Baseball Reference
  5. ^ Mike Flanagan at Baseball Reference
  6. ^ Bob Brenly at Baseball Reference
  7. ^ https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/buicede01.shtml
  8. ^ a b c Diamond Dreams: 20 Years of Blue Jays Baseball, Stephen Brunt, p.230, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-023978-2
  9. ^ Diamond Dreams: 20 Years of Blue Jays Baseball, Stephen Brunt, p.231, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-023978-2
  10. ^ Diamond Dreams: 20 Years of Blue Jays Baseball, Stephen Brunt, p.232, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-023978-2
  11. ^ "Home Run in First At-Bat". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved 2011.
  12. ^ Kelly, Cathal (August 18, 2008). "Red-hot Jays burn hole in Bosox". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on May 8, 2009. Retrieved 2009.
  13. ^ "Jays, Down by 10-0, Stun Red Sox, 13-11". The New York Times. Associated Press. June 5, 1989. Retrieved 2009.
  14. ^ "Blue Jays Open the SkyDome but Lose". The New York Times. Associated Press. June 6, 1989. Retrieved 2009.
  15. ^ Martinez, Michael (August 5, 1989). "A Perfect Night for Stieb Is Ruined by Kelly". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009.
  16. ^ Gammons, Peter (October 9, 1989). "Oh, What A Relief It Is". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 2009.
  17. ^ Al Leiter at Baseball Reference
  18. ^ Dane Johnson at Baseball Reference
  19. ^ Jeff Musselman at Baseball Reference
  20. ^ Lee Mazzilli at Baseball Reference
  21. ^ Jim Acker at Baseball Reference
  22. ^ Paul Spoljaric at Baseball Reference
  23. ^ John Olerud at Baseball Reference
  24. ^ https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/smallaa01.shtml
  25. ^ a b "Archived copy". Archived from the original on April 11, 2009. Retrieved .CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  26. ^ Blue Jays All-Stars | bluejays.com: History
  27. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007

External links


  This article uses material from the Wikipedia page available here. It is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

1989_Toronto_Blue_Jays_season
 



 



Popular Products
 
Music Scenes
Popular Artists