With their white knuckle win last night over the Rays in Tampa, the Blue Jays not only won their sixth straight game and moved even closer to the division title. They also did something for the first time in over 30 years: in running their season record to 89-62 and a season-high 27 games above .500, they also evened up the franchise’s all-time mark.
After 7700 regular season decisions (not games, they’ve registered three ties), the Blue Jays all-time record is now an even 3,850-3,850. It was 11,077
days, or just over 30 years, since that was last the case, so it’s been a long time coming. Let’s take a deeper look.
After winning the famous snow debut on April 7, 1977 over the White Sox, the expansion Blue Jays actually put together a strong first homestand, taking the Chicago series as well as the ensuing series with the Tigers to sit alone in first place at 5-2 on April 14 after their first week. It was fool’s gold of course, and that was to remain the highwater mark for a generation. They were promptly swept in Chicago, and though maintained .500 as late as April 27th, the good ship Blue Jays was inevitably swamped and capsized en route to a 54-107 debut.
Major league baseball was really tough on expansions teams in that era (a parsimonious expansion draft; no draft picks or farm system beforehand; and more limited free agency in which the Jays were not even allowed to participate the first winter) and the Jays won scarcely over one in three games over their first five seasons. Early in 1979 they passed 100 cumulative games under .500, and late in 1981 the 200-game mark.
1982 was another losing season, but a marked a clear turning point. A 37-47 first half if still poor was more competitive, but in the second half they were above .500. They were a very streaky team, and the low point actually came with a six game losing streak through Labour Day weekend that dropped them to 61-75. At that point, the all-time franchise mark was 331-557, 226 games under .500 (and may that ever remain the low point).
1983 was another leap forward, as the Jays flirted with contention into early August before fading to an 89 win finish. It was the first of 11 straight winning seasons, averaging 91 wins, but such was the size of the hole those first five years dug that it was only at the very tail end that the franchise got back to breakeven. After twice tapping on the door, on Sept 1st, 1993, the Jays completed a sweep of the A’s in Oakland with an 8-3 win to hit 21 games above .500 at 78-57, and even up the franchise books at 1,334-1,334.
Of course, they immediately lost six in a row, and it was only the ensuing nine game winning streak that brought them back to, then put them above water and matched the highwater mark of those halcyon early-April 1977 days. Their 95 win total extended the mark it to 7 when all was said and done.
Alas, we know the bottom was about to fall out of that dynasty. 1994 actually started off strong, with a six game winning streak pushing them to 12-5 on April 23rd. Call it Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg, as that was the highwater mark of the corvidae and 14 games above .500 (1,363-1,349) remains the franchise’s peak. A late June 10-game swoon took them back under, and though they battled back to two over before the season halted in mid-August it was just a matter of time.
The fading core essentially traded water to start 1995, but was giving ground by the third week of the season in mid-May. Pat Hentgen’s first loss of the year in Detroit on May 20th dropped them to 10-12 and .500 all-time, losing the rubbermatch the next day dropped them under, and it was downhill from there. The rebuild that followed dug a hole that was to take 30 years to dig out from.
It’s been a pattern of grinding up and swift reversals since. They reached 61 games under .500 on May 1st, 1998 (1,622-1,683). Averaging 83 wins from 1998-2003 was moving them slowly back towards .500, but the 67-94 disaster of 2004 negated that and lead to 59 game under trough on after dropping the first half of a doubleheader on Sept 27, 2005 (2,254-2,313). Six more mostly decent-to-good years from 2006-11 again moved them back, only for the disasters of 2012-13 to result in a 69 game trough on May 3, 2014 (2,915-2,984).
The progress of the ALCS years in 2015-16 was negated by the ensuing rebuild of 2017-19 that troughed out at 79 below on August 16, 2020 (3,390-3,469). Averaging 91 wins over the next three years pushed them to within 13 and the closest since mid-1995, before last year’s setback.
This is all regular season, though the postseason wouldn’t change much. The 5-12 mark from the ALCS losses of 1985, 1989 and 1991 was offset by the 1992-93 championships that left them at 21-20 overall. Likewise, 2015-16 was a wash at 10-10. It’s just the 0-6 Wild Card marks of the last five years that pulls them to five under, so including that would leave a little bit to go. Something to care of this October, perhaps?
