Blue Jays flashback to inaugural game in 1977

Yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the Toronto Blue Jays inaugural game versus the Chicago White Sox in front of 44,649 snow-covered fans at Exhibition Stadium.

The Blue Jays reigned victorious trouncing the White Sox 9-5 in a day game that spanned 3 hours and 22 minutes and saw the first three home runs swatted in franchise history.

Veteran pitcher Bill Singer got the nod on the bump for the Jays opposite Ken Britt of the pale hose. Neither hurler would fare well during the contest as they combined surrendered 20 hits and 9 runs. Singer tossed 4.1 innings while Britt only made it through 3 innings of work.

The Blue Jays would be down 2-0 before getting to launch their first offensive attack in franchise history. Singer served up a solo home run to Richie Zisk the top half of the inning pacing the White Sox.

In the bottom half of the first Britt would strike out the first ever Blue Jays hitter fanning left fielder John Scott and then making short work of shortstop Hector Torress with the same result. With two down in the inning, first baseman Doug Ault would make Blue Jays history and forever be the answer to a trivia question.

Ault would deposit a Britt offering over the left centre field wall connecting for the first home run in Blue Jays history. The feat took all of three batters before the Jays had their first homer in the record books.

Ault would repeat the heroics in his very next at-bat crushing a two-run home run in the third inning as well tieing the game at 4 runs apiece. In case you’re wondering Ault only hit 17 home runs in his entire major league career that spanned 4 seasons.

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Al Woods would also slug a home run of his own in the 5th giving the Blue Jays three round trippers on their inaugural day. The Jays offence would erupt for 16 hits on the day led by both Ault and second baseman Pedro Garcia who each had 3 knocks in the contest.

The first two stolen bases would come in the 2nd inning with Gary Woods swiping the first bag in history and then Otto Velez stealing one of his own later in the frame.

The game also featured Canadian Dave McKay who manned the hot corner in the game for the Jays. The Vancouver native would end the day with 2 hits and become the first Canadian player to ever suit up for the Jays. McKay would spend three seasons in Toronto before moving to Oakland in 1980.

After Singer got the yank in the 5th inning, pitcher Jerry Johnson would take over for 2.2 innings earning the first win while Pete Vuckovich earned the save with two scoreless innings of relief.

This is how the starting lineup and final boxscore shook out for the first major league game played in Toronto.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

R

H

E

2

2

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

5

15

0

1

1

2

1

2

0

0

2

X

9

16

3

WP: Jerry Johnson (1-0) • LP: Ken Brett (0-1) • SV: Pete Vuckovich (1)

Next: Blue Jays MiLB Recap – Bo and Vlad impress

Forty years have come and gone with two World Championships in between and your Blue Jays are still going strong. Here’s hoping for another 40 years.