Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Toronto Blue Jays 1992 ALCS Clincher on The Fan 1430

Episode Date: March 7, 2021

It's October 14, 1992, and the Toronto Blue Jays have clinched their very first ALCS and are on to their first World Series against the Atlanta Braves. Hear Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth call game six of the 1992 ALCS from Skydome where the Toronto Blue Jays faced the Oakland Athletics, as recorded live on The Fan 1430.

51,335 sitting in on baseball history this afternoon. The ALCS has never had a six-game series. It's about to. Canada has never had a World Series entry it's about to you're about to Walt Weiss the leadoff man here in the top of the ninth

Tom Hinckley is on the pitch not a save situation but Hinckley is where he was 34 times over the course of the year when the game was on the line and he saved 34 this is inside the Weiss ball one Henty with three saves in the series he's back with a strike one and one nine to two Blue Jays three outs away

three outs away. Here's a pitch on the way, a swing and a miss. It's one and two. The point has been made in jest many times over the years that if a Canadian team ever got to the World Series,

there would be bodies hurtling from tall buildings on Madison Avenue well in jest we say open those because it's about to happen the pitch comes in low two and two on the batter the Blue Jay bench to a man poised and ready and on that bench Juan Guzman, 2-2 pitch. Inside, 3-2. Guzman, who probably went to the clubhouse after his tenure on the mound this afternoon, came back to the bench, and then they had him on the jumbotron, and he flashed the fans the V for victory sign.

3-2 pitch. Popped back out of play. for victory sign. 3-2 pitch. Pop back out of play. Tom Henke has done yeoman's work, saving three of these six games. So Henke,

the third man up today, delivers inside to Weiss, and he will walk the leadoff man. Well, we have seen that on occasion from Tom Hinckley also. And on those occasions when he was compiling his 34 saves, Tom can sometimes make an adventure, as you well know. And here comes another roll of toilet paper from on high down onto the playing field now let's see if they just ignore it or if

they hold the game up for the moment they are ignoring it here is Randy ready he'll bat in Blankenship's spot. Right-handed hitter, and he takes a strike from Tom Henke. Randy Reddy getting his first taste of this playoff action in a pinch-hitting roll. He reaches for one. It's a slider away, 0-2 on the batter. action in a pinch hitting role. He reaches for one. It's a slider away 0 and 2 on the batter. The Blue Jays.

In a season in which they won 96 as did the Oakland A's matched up with Oakland. Swing and a miss. in a season in which they won 96, as did the Oakland A's, matched up with Oakland, swinging a miss. Randy Reddy is gone as he chases a pitch away. Henke struck him out with a forkball, and now there's one down, two outs to go.

These two teams, so evenly matched on paper coming in, have played just a whale of a series now Jamie Quirk is going to pinch it for Ricky Henderson so Tony La Russa is letting some of those bench players at least say I made an appearance players at least say I made an appearance. Jamie Quirk. Left-handed batter takes it

down and in. Ball one. Jamie, one of the nuts and bolts utility players for La Russa's Oakland A's throughout the season. Now he's up to swing a bat in game six of the ALCS think he delivers a swing and a foul back

Jamie had 220 with two homers and 11 RBI's in the regular season I don't think anybody well I do see a few who are seated, but not many. For the most part, they're out of their seats all over the Sky Dome. 51,335 of them. The pitch on the way. It comes in high, and it counts as 2-1 on Quirk. A tremendous year about to be capped by a franchise first. And that will then mean there's one step to go, a swing and a

foul back. When the Blue Jays won the East, you heard it repeatedly in the clubhouse and all around the ball team. There are three steps. There's the East. There's the American League.

There's the World Series. So the Blue Jays are two outs away from finishing two legs of the journey. The 2-2 pitch. He fouled it off down after the fourth ball and he stays alive at 2 and 2 winning the East winning the American League and winning the World

Series that is the mission that is the three leg journey. One down and one on here in the top of the ninth inning for the Oakland Athletics. Jamie Quirk pinch hitting at the plate. Jerry Brown or Carney Lansford rather on deck

swinging a foul off and Quirk stays alive. Quirk waiting. The 2-2 pitch. Outside 3-2. the two to pitch outside three and two Tom Hickey been at the waist gloved hand on his left knee the big man works and there's a swing and a pass to the left hander and the ball is Tom Hickey been at the waist gloved hand on his left knee the big man works

and there's a swing and a foul off the runner was going so it's 3-2 on the batter on Jamie Quirk who is hanging in with Hickey fouling off pitches trying to work him for a base hit

or a walk Oakland with their backs to the wall down by 7 9-2 off pitches, trying to work him for a base hit or a walk. Oakland with their backs to the wall. Down by seven, nine to two here in the top of the ninth. Hickey trying to finish what Juan Guzman started. The right-hander sets. He works, and there's

a swing and a drive to deep right field. Carter running back, jumps, makes a catch! What a catch by Joe Carter! At the warning track, he reached up and he grabbed it. It looked like the ball would outrun him and Joe outran the ball.

What a great catch by Joe Carter to put the finishing touches possibly on his ALCS. He's hit a home run today. He just made a great running catch at the warning track. He had to leap at the last instant,

and he came down with that ball. A line drive out. There's one out to go. Landsford, the the batter and he takes it inside ball one Tom Hickey who lives in the pressure cooker is probably fighting his own emotions right now the tall one

delivers and he's in with a fastball high 2 and0 on the batter. Henke is probably trying to tell himself, you got a job to do. It's going to happen, but do the job. And let's get this thing over with. The last T crossed. The last exclamation point dotted. The 2-0 pitch.

Foul back by Lansford, 2-1. And I don't care how many years you've been in the game or how big you are or how old you are, when you're on the brink of a career first, well, you would have to be some kind of an automaton not to be very emotional in a situation as Hickey is in at the moment the pitch

Lansford fouls it down the right side one great veteran battling another one here and now it's 2-2 with two outs. The noise is absolutely deafening. The decibels have reached new levels here at the Sky Dome. The pitch, it's in the dirt.

A forkball, 3-2 on the batter. the skydome. The pitch. It's in the dirt. A forkball. 3-2 on the batter. Henke will get a new baseball from Drew Coble, the plate umpire. And a word for Drew Coble. The Blue Jays had

their moment with him the other day in Oakland. All of that is history. He has called a great ball game behind the plate this afternoon. 3-2 pitch, runner going. It's high, and the drama will stretch out. At least another batter, and that batter is Ruben Sierra.

Henke has walked in the inning. So Ruben Sierra, who has had a base hit in four at-bats today, will be at the plate here. B.A. Birdie, the Scott, pacing on the dugout roof. And his walk up and down there with his hands behind him kind of says it for a lot of people here. Let's get it done. The pitch to Sierra, and he takes it outside. Ball one.

So Henke looking for his control here, trying to get the last out in the books. The Blue Jays leading 9-2. Two men are on here in the top of the ninth. The pitch on the way, a swing and a popper into shallow left field. A run for Maldonado. He's there.

He's got it! 16 years after becoming the new kids on the block in the American League. Your Blue Jays are World Series bound. And to a man, they're in a big knot down in front of the pitcher's mound. And I don't know how somebody or a few of them maybe didn't get crushed under the onslaught when everybody came off the bench to meet the players coming off the field. And they ended up in a gigantic pileup between the plate and the mound.

What a scene. What a show. What a show. What a first. What a game for the Blue Jays to put it away. Game six of the ALCS. They set ALCS history by winning it in six. There had never been a six-game ALCS, and now there has been. And the Blue Jays, who just refused to stumble when it counted most, down the stretch through

that hectic month of September, never lost two games back-to-back, nor would they lose two games back-to-back in the ALCS. They dropped the opener. They won game two. They lose game five. They bounce back to win it in game six. And now, for the first time, players have peeled away from that big pileup and are beginning

now to make their way to the clubhouse.