These were the keys to Blue Jays' 1992 title run

TORONTO -- A quick snapshot of the Blue Jays’ first World Series championship in 1992 brings back the big moments you remember and the radio calls you can still recite.

There was Dave Winfield’s game-winning double in Game 6, Roberto Alomar’s home run in the American League Championship Series, Ed Sprague’s pinch-hit heroics and Devon White’s leaping catch against the wall to start the triple play that never was.

Step back for a wider look, though, and you’ll see what those moments stand upon. Before 1992 was their World Series year, it was the Blue Jays’ 10th consecutive winning season. It was a slow, steady rise, but general manager Pat Gillick finally had all of the right pieces in the right places.

The Blue Jays were one of baseball’s most consistent teams in the decade leading up to 1992 and ’93, and though they’d knocked on the door, nobody would take Canada’s team seriously until they kicked it down.

A lineup led by future Hall of Famers and sprinkled with superstars was a fine start, but those players don’t put Toronto over the top without a little help from their friends.

Here's what else went into it.

Inside the clubhouse
There’s a sweet spot for a big league clubhouse.

Under .500, and a clubhouse can be too serious, too focused on each night’s thin line between winning and losing. On the other end of the spectrum, dominant teams can fly too close to the sun.

The Blue Jays found the sweet spot, where they were winning enough that, even after losses, there was room for a joke, a player-driven meeting to break down the night’s game, or some combination of the two. Between the veterans in the room and the longtime Toronto players whose memories of the close calls in the 1980s were still fresh, the '92 crew stayed in the middle.

“It was one family,” said Duane Ward, who posted an incredible 1.95 ERA over 101 1/3 innings in 1992. “We would fight for one another and we would fight against each other. When it came game time, it was all for one and one for all.”

To a man, the 1992 Blue Jays point to the clubhouse as the heart of that club. When a Major League clubhouse is right, suddenly moving a runner over or picking up a struggling starter gets a bit easier.

“We knew our jobs, we stayed in our lane and we complemented each other,” said Joe Carter, who put up 34 home runs and 119 RBIs in 1992. “That’s what good ballclubs do. We had the pitching, a great reliever in Duane Ward. That’s what 25 guys do, they come together. You need that karma, that charisma inside the locker room and the accountability we had for one another.”

Never was that loose 1992 clubhouse better on display than the final game of the regular season. The club had clinched the East, and it was Fan Appreciation Day at SkyDome.

“They were going to give a car away and Derek Bell couldn’t believe it,” Ward said, laughing at the memory of the wide-eyed rookie outfielder. “He said, ‘Wow, they do that here? They’re actually going to give a fan a car?’”

With Bell looking on, Carter drove out of the left-field bullpen as the PA announcer read off the seat number of the lucky winner. There was just one problem … Carter was driving Bell’s Kelly green SUV. In the passenger seat, laughing? Clubhouse vet Winfield.

“The shock on Derek’s face was unbelievable,” Ward said. “It was classic. Classic!”

The other guys
Whether they’re showing up in a big moment or doing the dirty work when no one’s watching, the lesser-known names on Toronto’s roster helped fuel the World Series run.

“You can start with the World Series MVP in 1992, Pat Borders,” said Jerry Howarth, the great radio broadcaster and 36-year voice of the Blue Jays. “I would talk to Pat, and it was never about him. Any time I would go up to Pat on the field or in the clubhouse, if his name even came up from me, he would defer the conversation to other people. His pitchers, the defense.”

Howarth is quick to remember one in-season roster decision, too, that showed not just the club’s depth, but the value of its decision-making process through manager Cito Gaston and up to Gillick. Bell had started the season in left field but, in April, broke his hamate bone. In came Candy Maldonado, the veteran Puerto Rican with playoff experience from his time with the Giants.

Maldonado didn’t hit, though, at least not right away. His average sat at just .167 at the end of April with a .455 OPS. Right around that time, Howarth was chatting with Winfield in the dugout prior to a game.

“He said to me, ‘Jerry, we’re not going to win a World Series here with a rookie making mistakes in left field. For me, I hope Pat Gillick stays with Candy Maldonado, even though he’s hitting .167,’” Howarth said. “Sure enough, Cito lobbied Pat to keep Candy in the lineup.”

From May 1 on, Maldonado hit .292 with 20 home runs and an .888 OPS. Good call.

Shortstop Manuel Lee is another name you’ll hear from those around the 1992 Blue Jays, his glove forming a formidable combo with Alomar up the middle.

Toronto’s rotation was rock steady, especially with the addition of David Cone late in the season. The great Dave Stieb was finally human, though, as he was shelved in August with arm issues after posting a 5.04 ERA. Young arms like Pat Hentgen and Doug Linton helped to fill those voids along the way.

“Missing Dave Stieb is like missing your right arm,” Ward said, “but guys came in and filled in for that. They did a fantastic job.”

Cito steers the ship
Under Gaston, players knew where they stood. Starters weren’t peeking to the bullpen when a runner reached second base, and hitters in the on-deck circle weren’t waiting for the lasso to wrap around them and yank them back in for a pinch-hitter.

Did this always lead to the perfect decision in each individual moment? Maybe not, but Gaston was thinking big picture.

“I always say that I’ll lose one game but win three games down the road by giving somebody some rest or not changing a pitcher, not changing this or that,” Gaston said. “These guys would run through a wall to beat you.”

For players whose performance relied on some level of predictability, like Ward coming out of the bullpen to bridge the gap to closer Tom Henke, this was welcome. He knew that if the Blue Jays were up by a few runs, as they often were, his time was coming.

“It was a situation where you didn’t have to look over your shoulder and say, ‘Gosh, I gave up a hit, here comes so-and-so behind me,’” Ward said. “No. Not at all. He would let you battle out of it.”

A good manager in the right situation quickly becomes a great manager. Gaston trusted his veterans and, in the end, Toronto won those “three games down the road” that he’d been eyeing.

Closing time
Ward called it a prelude to modern bullpens, and he’s right.

“Ward with the hold, Henke with the save” is chiseled into Blue Jays history, and their performance in their final year together was simply exceptional. Ward’s 1.95 ERA with 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings was matched by Henke, who posted a 2.26 ERA with 34 saves.

Having two capable, shutdown closers at the back end of a bullpen is to be expected in 2020, but not 1992. It’s easy to expect some friction between the two, but Ward is quick to note that was never the case.

“Me and Tom got along great. We didn’t have any animosity towards each other, none of that at all,” Ward said. “I always joked that I couldn’t stand him, he couldn’t stand me, but we were -- it’s a corny phrase -- but two peas in a pod.”

Gaston didn’t have a quick hook for his starters, but once he did go to his bullpen, he knew he could get two, maybe three, clean innings out of his elite duo. Hentgen, David Wells, Mike Timlin, Mark Eichhorn and others played valuable roles in that ‘pen -- and it was Timlin who recorded the final out on Oct. 24, 1992 -- but the classic duo of Henke and Ward was unmatched.

“Henke and Ward, for me, were two of the most valuable pitchers in Blue Jays history,” Howarth said.

After serving primarily as Henke’s setup man in 1992, Ward moved into the closer’s role in '93 and saved 45 games, a club record that still stands. The Blue Jays would need it, too, because '92's run, a perfect combination of star power, complementary pieces and circumstance, was just the beginning.