The 1977 Toronto Blue Jays season was the first season of Major League Baseball played by the Toronto-based expansion franchise. The Blue Jays finished seventh in the American League East with a record of 54 wins and 107 losses, 45½ games behind the World Champion New York Yankees.
Offseason Transactions Transactions by the Toronto Blue Jays during the off-season before the 1977 season.
October 1976 Acquired Phil Roof from the Chicago White Sox for a player to be named later (Larry Anderson on January 5, 1977). Purchased Dave Roberts from the San Diego Padres. Purchased Dave Hilton from the San Diego Padres. Purchased John Scott from the San Diego Padres.
November 1976 Participated in the 1976 Major League Baseball expansion draftPlayers acquired, in order of draft: from the Baltimore Orioles from the Minnesota Twins from the Texas Rangers from the Oakland Athletics from the Cleveland Indians from the Milwaukee Brewers from the Kansas City Royals from the Minnesota Twins from the Baltimore Orioles from the Chicago White Sox from the Texas Rangers from the Milwaukee Brewers from the Detroit Tigers from the Minnesota Twins from the New York Yankees from the Texas Rangers from the Boston Red Sox from the Oakland Athletics from the Kansas City Royals from the Texas Rangers from the New York Yankees from the Detroit Tigers from the Milwaukee Brewers from the Chicago White Sox from the Minnesota Twins from the Kansas City Royals from the New York Yankees from the Baltimore Orioles from the Chicago White Sox from the Oakland Athletics Purchased Chuck Hartenstein from the San Diego Padres. Acquired Alan Ashby and Doug Howard from the Cleveland Indians for Al Fitzmorris.
December 1976 Acquired Rick Cerone and John Lowenstein from the Cleveland Indians for Rico Carty. Source
January 1977 Signed free agent Lloyd Allen from the St. Louis Cardinals to a contract. Signed free agent Pedro García from the Detroit Tigers to a contract. Sent Larry Anderson to the Chicago White Sox to complete the October 21 trade for Phil Roof.
February 1977 Acquired Jerry Johnson from the San Diego Padres for Dave Roberts. Acquired Ron Fairly from the Oakland Athletics for Mike Weathers and cash.
March 1977 Purchased Ken Reynolds from the San Diego Padres. Acquired Héctor Torres from the Cleveland Indians for John Lowenstein. Released Lloyd Allen, Leon Hooten and Doug Howard. Released Ken Reynolds.
Spring training The team had announced on August 26, 1976, that they had selected Dunedin, Florida as its base for spring training. Dunedin was a 30-minute drive from the Tampa airport with daily flights to and from Toronto, and was near other spring training sites including the Philadelphia Phillies in Clearwater, the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals in St. Petersburg, the Cincinnati Reds in Tampa, and the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton.
Dunedin's Grant Field was located near the downtown and had been used in the 1950s and 1960s by AAA minor league clubs for spring training. The city improved the ballpark with new seats, fences, and clubhouses, increasing seating from approximately 1,200 to 2,000.
The Blue Jays' first exhibition game was scheduled for March 10, 1977 against the Philadelphia Phillies, but was cancelled due to rain. Instead, the first game was March 11, 1977 against the New York Mets. Wire services reported, "Spectators who arrived too late to purchase tickets inhabited areas down both foul lines, outside the outfield fences and some even took seats in the Babe Ruth League grandstand located down the right field line, some 500 feet away from home plate." Bill Singer started the game for the Blue Jays and surrendered a lead off home run to the Mets' Lee Mazzilli. However, the Blue Jays came back and won 3–1 in front of 1,988 fans.
The first two times they played the Montreal Expos, the Blue Jays were triumphant as well. Perhaps the highlight of spring training was a game against the Cincinnati Reds. The Blue Jays defeated the defending World Series champions with the Reds missing only one regular starter from their lineup.Diamond Dreams: 20 Years of Blue Jays Baseball, Stephen Brunt, p. 91, Penguin Books, After spring training, the Blue Jays 25-man roster was set. Ron Fairly, who had previously played for the Montreal Expos, was one of the most recognizable players on the nascent team. The only marquee name was Bill Singer, a pitcher who won 20 games with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1969 and threw a no-hitter in 1970. Pat Gillick had worked out a deal with the New York Yankees to trade Singer for promising young left-hander Ron Guidry. Blue Jays president Peter Bavasi vetoed the deal, as Singer was part of his plan to market and promote the team.
Regular season
The first game
On April 7, 1977, 44,649 fans attended the first game in Toronto Blue Jays franchise history, as the squad hosted the Chicago White Sox.Diamond Dreams: 20 Years of Blue Jays Baseball, p. 90 Notables in attendance that day included Metro Toronto chairman Paul Godfrey, Toronto mayor David Crombie, legendary NHL broadcaster Foster Hewitt, and country singer Anne Murray.Diamond Dreams: 20 Years of Blue Jays Baseball, p. 94 Besides the snow that adorned the field, hundreds of fans missed the first pitch because they were stuck in traffic. An enduring image was the Chicago catcher, Jim Essian, using his shin pads to ski around on the field by their dugout with bats used as poles before the game started.
The umpires for the game included crew chief Nestor Chylak, Joe Brinkman, Rich Garcia, and 27-year-old Steve Palermo, who was making his major-league debut.Diamond Dreams: 20 Years of Blue Jays Baseball, p. 92 The game was broadcast on the CBC with Tom McKee (host), Don Chevrier (play-by-play) and New York Yankees legend Whitey Ford providing the commentary and analysis. McKee was the initial face and voice to appear on that inaugural Blue Jays telecast. The Blue Jays would appear on the CBC only 16 times that first season. Tom Cheek and analyst Early Wynn called the game on the radio, this being the first of 4,306 consecutive games Cheek would call.
As the snow was squeegeed off the field (via a Zamboni on loan from the Toronto Maple Leafs), the 48th Highlanders marched onto the field to perform the Star Spangled Banner. Canadian country star Murray, wearing a red parka, then sang O Canada.
The fans chanted "We want beer," because Toronto's Exhibition Stadium was the only ballpark in the major leagues to not serve beer.Diamond Dreams: 20 Years of Blue Jays Baseball, p. 93 This was essentially a political protest, since all Ontario stadia were forbidden by law at that time from selling alcoholic beverages. It would take more than five years of lobbying and petitioning from Blue Jays owners Labatt and other interested parties before the Legislative Assembly of Ontario legalized beer sales in the middle of the 1982 season.
Bill Singer threw the first pitch in Toronto Blue Jays history to Ralph Garr of the White Sox, a high fastball called for a strike. From an 0–2 count, Garr battled back to 3–2, then drew a walk. Afterwards, Garr stole second base, advancing to third when catcher Rick Cerone's throw went into centre field. Shortstop Alan Bannister then hit a fly ball for the first out of the game. Jorge Orta followed with a sacrifice fly to cash in Garr, who scored the first run in Exhibition Stadium history. Richie Zisk then hit the first home run at The Ex, making the score 2–0, White Sox. Blue Jays manager Roy Hartsfield went to the mound to talk to Singer as reliever Jerry Johnson started warming up in the bullpen. Singer was able to compose himself, getting Eric Soderholm to hit into a fielder's choice to end the inning.
Outfielder John Scott was the first Blue Jays player to have an at bat, facing White Sox pitcher Ken Brett, taking a strike on the first pitch thrown to him. He struck out, as did the next batter, Héctor Torres. Up came first baseman Doug Ault, a 27-year-old career minor-leaguer with only nine games' experience in the majors with the Texas Rangers and the Blue Jays' 16th pick in the expansion draft. On a 1–1 pitch, Ault slugged the first home run (and first hit) in Blue Jay history deep to left-centre. The score was now 2–1, Chicago.
The Chisox scored two runs in the top of the second, increasing their lead to 4–1. In the bottom of the second, Gary Woods bunted for a single, stole second, and scored on a single to right field by Pedro García. In the third inning, Torres singled and Ault was back at the plate. With the count 1–1, Ault hit his second home run down the right field line, and the game was tied at 4 runs apiece. Toronto took their first lead in the fourth when Dave McKay singled in García from second base.Diamond Dreams: 20 Years of Blue Jays Baseball, p. 95
Singer struck out Chet Lemon to start the fifth inning, but Brian Downing and Ralph Garr singled off him. Hartsfield came out to the mound to make a pitching change. Singer left to a standing ovation as Jerry Johnson entered the game. Johnson recorded the final two outs of the fifth. In his first major-league at bat, Al Woods pinch hit for Steve Bowling in the bottom of the fifth. With Otto Vélez at second base, Woods homered to right field. The score was now 7–4 in favour of Toronto, the team having scored in every inning to that point.
The Sox scored a run in the sixth inning, making the score 7–5. Pete Vuckovich entered in relief of Johnson to begin the eighth. He struck out two batters, gave up a walk and a single, but got a ground ball to end the inning.Diamond Dreams: 20 Years of Blue Jays Baseball, p. 96 In the bottom of the inning, Ault returned to the plate and singled in another run to make the score 8–5. Another run scored on a double play ground out, making the score 9–5, Blue Jays.
In the top of the ninth, Vuckovich retired Jorge Orta on a ground ball, then struck out Richie Zisk. For the day, Zisk had four hits in five at bats. With one out to go for the win, Jim Spencer hit a line drive to left field but Scott dropped the ball for a two-base error. Oscar Gamble subsequently grounded out to the shortstop, at which the Blue Jays had won their first game in franchise history. Jerry Johnson picked up the win while Vuckovich earned the save.
The heroes of opening day would not have a future with the Jays. Jerry Johnson retired after the '77 season and would end up in Hollywood working as a stuntman. At the 1977 Winter Meetings, Toronto traded Vuckovich to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for Tom Underwood. After seeing sporadic playing time in 1978, Doug Ault spent all of 1979 in the minors.Diamond Dreams: 20 Years of Blue Jays Baseball, p. 97
Linescore April 7, Exhibition Stadium, Toronto, Ontario Team123456789RHEChicago2200010005150Toronto1121200209161W: Jerry Johnson (1–0) L: Ken Brett (0–1) HRs: Doug Ault (2), Alvis Woods (1), Richie Zisk (1)
Boxscore
Batting Chicago White SoxABRHRBIToronto Blue JaysABRHRBIGarr, lf5230Scott, lf5110Bannister, ss5011Torres, ss2110Nyman, ph1000Mason, ph/ss1100Nordbrook, ss0000Ault, 1b4234Orta, 2b4001Vélez, dh4120Zisk, rf6242G. Woods, cf5110Spencer, 1b6020Bowling, rf2000Gamble, dh3000A. Woods, ph, rf3112Soderholm, 3b5021García, 2b4131Lemon, cf4000McKay, 3b4021Downing, c4130Cerone, c6020Totals435155Totals389168
Pitching Chicago White SoxIPHRERBBSOBrett, L (0–1)3.095504Barrios3.032231Hamilton1.032201LaGrow1.010001Totals8.0169937
Toronto Blue JaysIPHRERBBSOSinger4.1114335Johnson W (1–0)2.231131Vuckovich, SV (1)2.010013Totals9.0155479
April The Blue Jays finished their first homestand with a 5–2 record, sitting in first place in the American League East by 0.5 games, as the team took two of three against the Chicago White Sox and three of four from the Detroit Tigers. Pitcher Jerry Garvin picked up two of Toronto's five wins.