Young Jets take time to enjoy Jays’ post-season thrill ride

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This article was published 15/10/2015 (3643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mark Scheifele was still in diapers, just five months old when the Toronto Blue Jays last made a run in baseball’s post-season, winning their second of back-to-back World Series titles on Oct. 23, 1993.

Ever since then, Toronto has barely made a mark on the world of baseball. It’s a likely reason the Kitchener, Ont., native never really grew fond of the game.

None of that mattered Wednesday as Scheifele — he claimed he lacked the kind of attention span needed to play the sport as a kid — along with millions of others found themselves glued to the TV as the Jays knocked off the Texas Rangers in Game 5 to win an American League Division Series and earn their first post-season win at home since Joe Carter’s iconic walk-off home run 22 years ago.

“We were jumping up and down when everything was happening,” Scheifele said Thursday after practice at the MTS Centre. He watched the game with fellow Winnipeg Jets teammates Adam Lowry and Nic Petan. “We got pretty rattled at one point but when (Jose) Bautista hit that homer it was pretty awesome.”

Scheifele added: “I think the biggest thing about that game last night is regardless of the sport it is, regardless of the two teams that are there, it was an unbelievable game. So I think that’s the way a lot of guys are looking at it; it was just the epitome of sports is the way I like to call it, so it was pretty awesome.”

For goalie Michael Hutchinson, who spent last summer in Toronto and played baseball as a kid, keeping close tabs on the Jays ever since he was 14, the win meant a bit more.

“It was really nerve-racking. It was just a roller-coaster of emotions,” said Hutchinson, 25, who grew up in Barrie, Ont.

He marvelled at how the atmosphere in the city had changed over the summer, especially after a few key pickups at the MLB trade deadline.

“As a fan it’s a moment that you will definitely remember for a long time,” said Hutchinson.

Jets head coach Paul Maurice, who was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and spent three years in the Toronto market as the bench boss of the AHL’s Marlies and then with the Maple Leafs, didn’t watch the game.

Maurice said he has resisted jumping on the bandwagon because he doesn’t exactly get the ins and outs of baseball.

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“I understand that guy’s the pitcher and I listen to what they’re saying but I don’t know what the manager is doing, I don’t know what he’s thinking about,” said Maurice.

“They’re talking about the team is really hustling now. I can’t figure out when they’re really going and when they’re not. It’s exciting as hell, highlights are great.”

Then he took a quick pause and said with a smile, “It’s baseball.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton

Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.

Every piece of reporting Jeff produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.