The Blue Jays, over their 50 seasons since expansion in 1977, have had more playing-out-the-string season wrap-ups than they have “road to the playoffs” finales to any year. Sunday’s 5-1 win over the Reds, otherwise a meaningless tilt to end a disappointing 80-82 season managed to grab and hold the attention of a Rogers Centre crowd of more than 41,000, the 61st home sellout of the year.
Ahead of this final victory, Jays manager John Schneider seemed to have prepared more like a Hollywood director than a traditional baseball skipper.
The resulting crowd reaction showed Schneider to be successful in his goal of balancing winning baseball with obvious tugging on the heartstring moments in a memorable afternoon at the yard. The emotion created within the scripted, sometimes hokey sporting theatre came off a little like Field of Dreams, minus the corn fields.
The two headliners on this day were George Springer and Max Scherzer. Springer’s six-year run with the Jays was coming to an end and fans still appreciate many of his highlight moments, especially his huge playoff home run last October, accompanied by an outgoing personality and many charitable works.
His big moments on Sunday included a standing ovation for his leadoff at-bat that brought tears to his eyes and likely helped with a vision-impaired strikeout. Then when he finally reached second base in the fourth, Schneider sent rookie Sean Keys in to run and Springer milked the moment for another huge reception.
With the Scherzer performance, it was less subtle and more in your face. Take the first inning as the rest of the team allowed Max to run out to the mound alone to soak in the crowd noise. He held his arms aloft and turned to all quadrants of the field. As he continued pitching well and efficiently, Schneider unexpectedly visited with two outs in the seventh and the crowd booed. It was reminiscent of the flash of anger Scherzer showed last October when Schneider went out to see how Max was doing.
“You want to try to win,” Schneider explained of the fine balance between sports and entertainment. “Today worked out where you had a Hall-of-Fame pitcher doing what he did. Then the face of the franchise for the past six years, (Springer) playing in maybe his last game.
“It was a tough needle to thread, but you’re always trying to do it. George was kind of easy. A DH being given his moment. But to navigate Max on three days rest and trying to win the game at the same time was tough. I told Max when he was coming out, thank you for letting me be part of your unbelievable career and I wouldn’t want any 42-year-old psychopath on my team, other than you.”
Scherzer sort of knew what the gameplan was for his day, but he showed a momentary burst of anger when his manager approached. He had a momentary flashback.
“I mean, I did,” Scherzer said. “We didn’t have the game scripted. He basically said, ‘You have as long a leash as you want.’ I didn’t know exactly how this was going to shake out. We knew he wanted to take me out in the middle of an inning, so he came out and the whole place was booing and I’m like ‘Man, I want to stay in this game too.’ You hear that. I felt good, he came out and said, ‘Hey, if you get this guy you know you have to go back out for the eighth. I said, ‘Yeah, I feel good, I feel great.’ I will admit the Rogers Centre booing definitely helped me want to stay in that game.”
When Schneider visited for real after a leadoff walk in the eighth, Mad Max hesitated, handed him the ball then hugged his teammates one-by-one. First man that he embraced was his rookie catcher Brandon Valenzuela, who was then asked post-game what it meant to him, personally, and what he would be thinking about five years from now as he watches Scherzer being inducted into the Hall at Cooperstown.
“Jesus Christ, I thought I was going to be done crying,” Valenzuela admitted. “There’s a lot of memories from this year. He’s been a big part of my year. Just from learning from him. Conversations, not even catching. During the time that he was injured, down, there were a lot of conversations, between innings, or when I wasn’t playing.
“It was really fun to be a part of this last year of his career. Hopefully it’s not, but we’ll see. But I’m going to remember his patience in the games. Yeah, I was just trying to hold back the tears. To be honest, when (Mason) Fluharty was warming up right after Max, I couldn’t see the ball (through the tears). I was just catching. I didn’t know how.”
When Scherzer was asked for a reaction to what his young teammate had said in tribute, Max paused for a moment then began.
“Having everybody tell me how awesome it was to watch it, is special,” Scherzer explained. “(Valenzuela) has done such a great job this year. He’s really one of our unsung heroes. I know we didn’t accomplish our goals. It really stinks.
“When you think back on this year and look at it with perspective, it was special for him to be a rookie catcher at this level. I have a lot of details on how I prepare (for starts) and what I think and he does such a great job of working with me. I love throwing to him and he’s had such a good year coming into it. If he said that and to hear that, I think the world of him and everything he’s done.”
Finally, after he left the game in the eighth and had acknowledged the crowd, hugged everyone in the dugout, come back and climbed awkwardly into the stands to hug his wife and four children, he addressed to media his two injury-riddled years in Toronto, including as an important cog in the amazing run to Game 7 last year.
“It’s been awesome,” Scherzer said. “Especially last year, everybody on that 2025 team, to be able to have that all the way to Game 7. That’s just one of my core baseball memories. I’ve pitched 19 years and I’m telling you, hey, what happened in 2025 means the world to me. And I’ve had so many great moments in my baseball career, being in a World Series with all the other franchises I’ve been with. But last year was special and it really meant something to me and my family.
“Being a Blue Jay here has been great. I’ve had so much fun. I tell everybody across the league how much this is a hidden gem, playing for the Blue Jays. You don’t know until you experience it. I’ve got to experience it and it’s been great.”
With Scherzer, Springer, Kevin Gausman and others with proven veteran leadership likely gone for 2027, the Jays will have to add not only position players with pop, but also some strong personalities to take charge of a clubhouse that will be lacking in real leadership. But on this one day, on Fan Appreciation Weekend, full of theatre and emotion, those upcoming problems were not even on the team’s radar.