The Blue Jays are welcoming back two franchise icons and World Series heroes to help this weekend’s two World Series games inside Toronto’s Rogers Centre get off to a roaring start.
Former Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston will deliver the ceremonial first pitch for Game 1 vs. the Dodgers on Friday, and Joe Carter will deliver the ceremonial first pitch for Game 2 on Saturday.
Gaston and Carter were perhaps the two most important figures to the Blue Jays’ run to back-to-back championships in 1992 and ‘93. Gaston was the man calling the shots in the dugout for those World Series-winning squads. He managed 12 seasons in the big leagues, all with Toronto across two stints: 1989-97 and 2008-10. The Blue Jays won five division titles under his watch, including in both of those championship years.
Carter hit 203 home runs over seven seasons with Toronto, but the only home run that everyone will remember, Blue Jays fan or otherwise, is his walk-off three-run shot off the Phillies’ Mitch Williams to win the 1993 World Series. It is one of the most iconic plays in MLB World Series history, and it occurred 32 years ago yesterday.
That was the last World Series pitch seen by a Blue Jays player before tonight. The franchise will celebrate that past with these ceremonial first pitches this weekend.
The national anthem singers were announced as well, starting with award-winning choir Voices of Fire. They will follow up their highly anticipated performance with Pharrell Williams by singing the U.S. and Canadian anthems before Game 1, accompanied by a local Canadian ensemble.
For Game 2, decorated American singer Bebe Rexha will perform the U.S. national anthem, with Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Alessia Cara scheduled to perform the Canadian anthem.
