Blue Jays quotations from the Toronto Star, September 1985

"We know we'll win. It's a matter of when, where, how. It's a funny thing. You can't explain it." - Lloyd Moseby (quoted by Neil MacCarl and Garth Woolsey), Toronto Star, Sept 1 1985

"It's time to pin some pictures up on the dartboard. Rickey Henderson (boo!), Don Mattingly (hiss!), Dave Winfield (gull-killer!) and Billy Martin (cowardly bar fighter) will do for starters." - Alison Gordon, Toronto Star, Sept 1 1985

"Remember that we are in a pennant race here: This is serious business. Remember the good guys on our side. Remember that every home run Dave Winfield hits, every batter Guidry strikes out, has the potential of stealing food from Willie Upshaw's baby's mouth. Surely you can harden your heart for a month with those kinds of stakes. Do you want to take food from Willie Upshaw's baby's mouth? Boo. Boooo. BOOO!" - Alison Gordon on sympathizing with some of the nicer Yankees, Toronto Star, Sept 1 1985

"'This is the best park in baseball,' the skipper of the game's most successful team since the middle of May proclaims, thereby establishing himself in firm opposition to countless millions who have given humble Exhibition Stadium a double-Z rating..." - Milt Dunnell amazed that Bobby Cox actually likes the Ex, Toronto Star, Sept 2 1985

"I think I've matured a lot this year. It's been an education. It's not something I've relished. But I'm man enough to take it. It's got to make me a better pitcher. Hey, it's got to make me a better person." - Bill Caudill, on losing his job to Tom Henke (quoted by Wayne Parrish), Toronto Star, Sept 3 1985

"For the fans, it's time to climb aboard the big roller-coaster called Pennant Race. How are your nerves, anyway? Are you too old, too young, too jaded, too laid-back to enjoy the screaming highs and the pit-of-the-guts lows now that the carnival actually has come to our town? It might be years, you know, before it returns." - Garth Woolsey, Toronto Star, Sept 8 1985

"They can go out there and pitch or catch or hit the next day and really make a difference. I don't. All I can do is hope and cheer my sick little lungs out and send every ounce of good vibrations I've got in my soul towards the field, and even that doesn't work. Every time the Blue Jays lead drops another game, I line the razor blades up again." - Alison Gordon, Toronto Star, Sept 8 1985

"I've heard it said that when the pressure is on I don't want to play any more. That is garbage. These people who say that, they never believe a Latin can be hurt. When a Latin is hurt, they believe he's faking. (To them) we are made of iron. They think we must be constructed of steel and should never break down." - Damaso Garcia (quoted by Wayne Parrish), Toronto Star, Sept 9 1985

"While in successful times he often alludes to his faith in God as a born-again Christian, Fernandez takes his own failures very hard. He is not often in a good mood after making an error." - Wayne Parrish, Toronto Star, Sept 13 1985

"We are reminded of a time just a few short years ago when our Canadian neighbors unselfishly risked the safety and security of their own embassy and countrymen in the Middle East. They came to the aid of Americans held hostage, and provided shelter and safety, proving to the world that they are true allies and friends to America.

"It is traditional, therefore, that whenever a Canadian team comes to New York, we honor both Canada and the United States. Let us now show our respect for both nations, as John Amorante sings both O Canada and The Star Spangled Banner." - Statement read by public-address announcer Bob Sheppard, telling Yankee fans not to boo "O Canada" (quoted by Wayne Parrish), Toronto Star, Sept 14 1985

"Not only did Mary O'Dowd not begin the words O Canada, the tune she sang bore no resemblance to the actual strains of Canada's national anthem. After several lines, foreign even to non-Canadian ears, uncertain silence on the part of the crowd gave way to a crescendo of boos. O'Dowd left the microphone behind home plate and walked 50 feet to the corner of the Yankee dugout, on which the words to O Canada were presumably written." - Wayne Parrish, on Mary O'Dowd's anthem troubles at Yankee Stadium, Toronto Star, Sept 15 1985

"I won't tease Lloyd Moseby for singing any more." - Jesse Barfield, on Mary O'Dowd's botched rendition of O Canada at Yankee Stadium (quoted by Neil MacCarl and Garth Woolsey), Toronto Star, Sept 15 1985

"...every so often a team comes along that seems somehow different from the rest. It responds to challenges. It's able to win just when it needs to most, to ward off pursuers just when it seems ripe to be caught.

"Some might attribute such to that old bugaboo, character. In truth, it probably has far less to do with that than it does with their skill levels and strategy. But whatever its roots, one thing is now clear - the 1985 Toronto Blue Jays are such a team." - Wayne Parrish, Toronto Star, Sept 17 1985

"Well, button up your overcoats.

"A World Series in Ontario, once a chilling and laughable idea among American League baseball fans in East Division cities such as New York, Baltimore and Detroit, suddenly has become not only plausible but nearly a take-it-to-the-bank proposition." - George Shirk, Knight-Ridder columnist (quoted by Damien Cox), Toronto Star, Sept 17 1985

"You get a hit and then you get a dirty look like no way are you supposed to get a hit. It gets you pumped up and you like to beat that club, because everybody hates him." - Bill Buckner on Dave Stieb (quoted by Neil MacCarl), Toronto Star, Sept 18 1985

"Pitching greatness is doing whatever it takes to win. It requires an exceptional blend of talent, intelligence, guile and temperament. Stieb has the first quality. He also has the second. But he doesn't have the other two and it now seems possible that he will never acquire them, that the person he is will forever stand in the way of the pitcher he could be." - Wayne Parrish, Toronto Star, Sept 18 1985

"Rather than inspire support and confidence in his teammates, he kills such things. Inwardly - and outwardly in some cases - many of them feel he holds them in the same contempt he does reporters, to whom he is frequently rude and last night mutely rebuffed with a curt, backhand flick of his hand." - Wayne Parrish on Dave Stieb, Toronto Star, Sept 18 1985

"They told me I couldn't play because I was too big. I might hurt the other kids." - Cecil Fielder, on not being allowed to play football when he was 9 (quoted by Wayne Parrish), Toronto Star, Sept 18 1985

"Think of the Yankees, and images ranging from Babe Ruth to Thurman Munson flash in your mind. Think of the Blue Jays and you think of... um, er... Doug Ault?" - Bob Ryan, Boston Globe (quoted by Garth Woolsey, Toronto Star), Sept 18 1985

"You and I know that Canada is the best-kept secret in the world. Unfortunately, it's a secret that fails even the vaguest curiosity from our pushy neighbours to the South, and the brats don't even go through the motions." - Lynda Hurst, on why the U.S. media are ignoring the Jays, Toronto Star, Sept 19 1985

"What's he thinking about? It's B.S. Maybe he has such a big ego, he thinks he's so big, that teams can't pitch him inside.

"He was out there telling everyone, 'If I get hit, someone's going to get this (the bat).' How could he think of doing that. How could anyone live with that; maybe he could... We're dealing with a strange man." - Rich Gedman, Red Sox catcher, on George Bell (quoted by Garth Woolsey), Toronto Star, Sept 19 1985

"Play for Canada. Forget money. Try to forget you're American until the end of the season." - Star reader Mervyn Hoy gives advice to the Jays, Toronto Star, Sept 19 1985

"Toronto in October is warmer than both Milwaukee and Minnesota and about the same as that of Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland." - Environment Canada weather supervisor Ron Huibers attempts to reassure American fans, Toronto Star, Sept 19 1985

"It's really quite fun, watching it slowly sink into the American consciousness that a foreign team is about to invade their baseball playoffs," - Wayne Parrish, Toronto Star, Sept 20 1985

"People may find it betters their relationship with their girlfriend or boyfriend, or improves their performance at work. The excitement created by something like Blue Jay fever can be very powerful in its over-all effect on a person's life." - psychologist Dr. Steven Berkowitz (quoted by Damien Cox), Toronto Star, Sept 20 1985

"This year, America's team is the Toronto Blue Jays. Forget the geography. The Blue Jays embody traditional American values - hard work, selflessness, teamwork and the absence of identifiable superstars." - Mike Bauman, Milwaukee Journal (quoted by Damien Cox, Toronto Star), Sept 20 1985