Blue Jays Memory

It's hard to believe that its been 13 years since the Toronto Blue Jays won their last World Series. It doesn't seem that long ago.

Do you remember where you were when Joe Carter hit his historic series winning homerun? I do.

I'd like to say I was at the game but that wasn't the case. I did want to be in Toronto in case they did win to take part in all of the madness in the streets.

My friend Matt Goodman and I drove up to try and watch the game in a Toronto bar but they were all full. You couldn't find a seat or table anywhere on or just off Younge Street.

So we did the next best thing, we made our way down to the HMV Music store to watch the game with thousands of other fans on their massive screen on the front of the building. We were a little ways back but we could see the game and there was a van with huge speakers broadcasting the play-by-play on the radio.

It looked hopeless until the final inning when the Jays managed to rally. The police were standing by in riot gear and on horses waiting for something to happen. The police command post was just down the road from us as well.

When Joe Carter hit the homer to end the game and the series, the streets exploded in celebration. We were hugging and kissing people we didn't even know. People were smoking maijuanna next to cops and they didn't care. Nobody tried to riot or cause distruction. It was very peaceful but insane as well. Thousands of people quickly became tens of thousands and we were shoulder to shoulder on Younge Street barely able to move. You were at the mercy of the crowd and where it moved. You had to struggle to get out of the crowd and by the time we did we were two blocks south of where we started. It was an experience of a lifetime but I'd never do it again. The noise was deafening.

People were hanging from trees and street signs and traffic lights. To this day I still can't believe that many people were jammed into the downtown core and no real trouble happened.