Tonight, postseason baseball will return to Toronto for the first time since Joe Carter went yard off Mitch Williams in Game 6 to give the Blue Jays their second consecutive World Series victory.
At lot has happened since Tom Cheek uttered the words, “Touch’em all, Joe,” including the venue that housed that game and tonight’s game changing names; SkyDome became Rogers Centre in 2005, although plenty of people still refer to the Jays home field as SkyDome and probably always will.
While there are teams that have endured longer World Series droughts (Hey There, Cubbies!), the Jays postseason drought was the longest in the major up until tonight and a lot has happened during that time.
Like what? Glad you asked – here’s a look at a bunch of things that happened in the 20-plus years since the Toronto Blue Jays last made the playoffs.
Justin Bieber
The Bieb’s entire existence has come post-playoffs. Born five months after the Jays won their second straight World Series title in London, Ontario, we as Canadians have spent the last four or five years apologizing for the now 21-year-old superstar. Sidenote: who has Bieber only been “a thing” for like six years? Doesn’t it feel a lot longer than that?
Bryce Harper
Let’s just put this into perspective on the baseball front right out of the box. When the Jays won the 1993 World Series, Harper was exactly 53 weeks old; Harper was born on October 16, 1992 and Game 3 took place on October 23, 1993.
Today, he’s the consensus pick to be named National League MVP after posting a .330/.460/.649 slash with 118 runs, 42 home runs and 99 RBIs this season. Dude grew up and became a masher in the time between Toronto playoff appearances.
UFC 1
Roughly two weeks after the Jays locked up their second consecutive World Series victory, an eight-man, no-holds-barred fighting competition called the Ultimate Fighting Championship took place at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado.
Last weekend, UFC 192 took place in Houston, Texas. There were 191 UFC pay-per-view events – and 334 events in total – between Toronto playoff appearances.
Hootie & the Blowfish
You want a good measuring stick of how long it has been since the Blue Jays last made the playoffs? Here you go: Hootie & the Blowfish’s massive debut album, Cracked Rear View, came out on July 5, 1994.
That means that Hootie & the Blowfish arrived, blew up, fizzled out and lead singer Darius Rucker regrouped to launch a successful country music career all in the time between Toronto’s last playoff game and tonight’s opener against the Texas Rangers.
Mission: Impossible
The fifth film in the Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt series hit theatres this summer, but the first installment didn’t arrive on screen until May 1996. Even after waiting three years, Cruise & Co. still turned out five different entries into the Mission: Impossible series before the Jays got back into the postseason.
Downloading Music
Grabbing songs you like off the Internet (legally or illegally, depending on your taste for danger) is woven into the fabric of our lives now; it’s just something we do. When the Jays beat the Phillies, we were still a little under six years away from the launch of Naptster and then it was two more years before iTunes launched.
And on the subject of Apple, we were 14 years away from the first iPhone too. Cell phones weren’t even omnipresent the last time the Jays made the playoffs.
Foo Fighters
The Foo Fighters’ entire career exists in the space between Toronto Blue Jays playoff appearances.
Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain died six months after the Jays 1993 World Series victory, prompting drummer Dave Grohl to start a new project. That project was the Foo Fighters, who recorded their self-title debut album one year after the Jays win. Since then, they’ve dropped seven more albums and become one of the biggest bands in the world.
Pulp Fiction
Now considered a classic, Pulp Fiction came out in North America a year after the Blue Jays beat the Phillies to win the 1993 World Series. Think about that.
The last time the Blue Jays had made it this far, John Travolta hadn’t experienced a resurgence, Samuel L. Jackson hadn’t quoted scripture and we hasn’t been introduced to The Wolf, Butch, Marcellus Wallace or anyone else from Tarantino’s gem.
Video Game Consoles
Here’s another “technology tells the tale” example of how long it has been since Toronto last hosted a playoff game: we were still in the midst of the Super Nintendo vs. Sega Genesis battles, a year away from the release of the PlayStation 1 and three years away from the N64. Think about that while you stream Netflix on your PS4 or Xbox One tonight.
Eminem
Everyone will agree that Marshall Mathers has been one of the biggest musical artists of the last 20 years, but the reality is that his major label debut (, The Slim Shady LP, didn’t arrive until February 1999, five years and some change after the Blue Jays’ last made a trip to the postseason.
