Blue Jays Game Of The Week: April 07th, 1977 versus Chicago White Sox

With no baseball planned for the immediate future, Jays Journal will attempt to quench your Toronto Blue Jays thirst with historic game replays from the vault.

The first game in Blue Jays franchise history was played on April 07th, 1977 versus the Chicago White Sox at Exhibition Stadium in front of a sold-out crowd of 44,649 eager fans. The inaugural game was played in typical Canadian conditions with a temperature of 0 degrees Celsius and snow at times throughout the contest.

The Jays starting third baseman was Dave McKay who was a Canadian who hailed from Vancouver. McKay was plucked from the Minnesota Twins organization with the 49th pick in the 1976 expansion draft. Toronto alternated expansion picks with the Seattle Mariners who were also a new franchise entering the league in 1977.

Some other familiar names that entered the organization via the expansion draft were Ernie Whitt, Garth Iorg and Jim Clancy.

More from Toronto Blue Jays News

• Blue Jays: Snapping cold streaks at the right time
• Who Should the Blue Jays Extend First: Guerrero, Bichette or Manoah?
• Blue Jays now hold the top Wild Card spot, and yes that’s a good thing
• Blue Jays may have the tools to use a Bullpen Day
• Blue Jays win important first game after Bichette’s late inning heroics

Bill Singer would get the ball for the Blue Jays and ended up going 4.1 innings scattering three earned runs over 11 hits while striking out five White Sox. Richie Zisk would take Singer deep in the first inning giving the pale hose an early lead.

The 33-year old Singer would retire from baseball following the 1977 season with Toronto. The “Singer Throwing Machine” would go 2-8 with a 6.79 earned run average in 13 appearances for the Jays that season.

Doug Ault would waste no time writing his name in the Blue Jays record book hitting the franchises first homer in the first inning off Ken Brett. Ault would follow that up with a second homer connecting for another off Brett in the third inning. Al Woods would also go yard for the Blue Jays in the contest.

Jerry Johnson would pitch 2.2 innings of solid relief collecting the first win in franchise history while Pete Vuckovich would earn the save tossing two scoreless innings to close out the contest. Little known fact- Vuckovich played the power-hitting “Haywood” in the classic baseball movie “Major League“.

The Jays would win the game 9-5 and the rest is history.