October 5, 1985: Poetic justice: Yankee castoff Doyle Alexander leads Blue Jays to first AL East crown

At the time, releasing Doyle Alexander seemed like a no-brainer. Swallowing 2 2/3 years of Alexander’s four-year, $2.2 million contract was a small price for New York Yankees principal owner George Steinbrenner to pay to rid the club of such a major disappointment. Signed to that deal immediately after his March 1982 acquisition from the San Francisco Giants, Alexander went 1-7 with a 6.08 ERA in a 1982 campaign derailed by a finger he broke in a moment of anger.1 Saddled with an 0-2 record after five starts interrupted by an early-May demotion to the bullpen in 1983, the 13-year veteran was let go on May 31.2

When a reborn Alexander snuffed out the Yankees’ playoff aspirations on the next to last day of the 1985 season to give the Toronto Blue Jays their first American League East Division crown, Steinbrenner’s decision to let Alexander go looked like the worst baseball mistake he had ever made; maybe even to Steinbrenner himself.3

Three weeks after the Yankees turned Alexander loose in ’83, the Blue Jays signed him to a minor-league contract. Alexander was inserted into the Toronto rotation in mid-July by first-year manager Bobby Cox, his skipper with the Atlanta Braves a few years earlier.4 A loser in his first six decisions for Toronto, Alexander earned victories in each of his last seven appearances as Toronto recorded its first winning season since joining the AL in 1977. He finished 17-6 the next year as the Blue Jays once again topped .500 but finished a distant second to the Detroit Tigers in the AL East.

The 1985 Blue Jays were a confident group, hungry to finally earn a playoff berth. Behind a pitching staff that compiled the lowest ERA in the league and an offense second in the majors in extra-base hits, they reached the top of the AL East in late May and stayed there. Heading into the final week of the regular season, they were on the verge of clinching the AL East with a half- game lead over second-place New York.

Unable to secure the division in Detroit, where they lost three of three to the eliminated-but-still-feisty World Series champion Tigers, the Blue Jays returned home for a showdown with second-place New York. Able to separate themselves from the rest of the division with three straight wins at Yankee Stadium in mid-September, Toronto needed just one win in any of three games with the Yankees to clinch Toronto’s first-ever playoff berth. Should they get swept, the Blue Jays would have to go to Baltimore to make up a game lost to the two-day August players’ strike.5

New York staved off elimination in the series opener on Friday night, October 4, winning 4-3 thanks to a two-out, two-run ninth-inning rally off Blue Jays closer Tom Henke.6 “I don’t think we’ve got anything to worry about,” Toronto’s unfazed starter Jimmy Key told reporters afterward. “We’ve got our two best pitchers, Doyle [Alexander] and Dave [Stieb going [the next two games]. … If we can’t win once, we don’t deserve it.”7

While Toronto’s stars were clearly in each other’s corner, their New York peers had Steinbrenner in their face. Three weeks earlier, after the Blue Jays took the first two games of a series in New York, Steinbrenner rhetorically asked, “Where is Reggie Jackson?” derisively called Dave Winfield “Mr. May,” and said of the team’s number three through five starters: “If I don’t get pitching from [Joe] Cowley, [Ed] Whitson, and Marty] Bystrom, we’re not going to win.”8

Facing elimination for a second straight day, Yankees manager Billy Martin called on Cowley, a curveball specialist, as his starting pitcher for Saturday afternoon’s battle. Coming off a seven-inning scoreless effort against the Baltimore Orioles a week earlier, Cowley was 12-5 with a 3.83 ERA.

Matching up against Cowley was Alexander, Toronto’s winningest pitcher with 16 victories but only 4-10 lifetime against the Yankees. Working on three days of rest, as he’d done with mixed success that season,9 Alexander was looking to bounce back from a rocky Detroit outing (4 earned runs and 8 hits in 6 innings) that started the Blue Jays’ four-game tailspin. Calling balls and strikes was Jerry Neudecker, the last AL umpire still wearing an outside chest protector, working the next-to-last game of his lengthy career.10  

A crowd of 44,608 braved gametime temperatures in the 50s, winds gusting over 30 mph and rain in the forecast to be at Exhibition Stadium, bundled up but ready to celebrate.11 With the wind blowing steadily from home plate out to right field,  it was clear that anything hit in the air that way would “definitely get a boost.”12

Alexander mowed the Yankees down in order in the first inning, retiring five-time All-Star Rickey Henderson on a weak popup for the first out, and eventual AL Most Valuable Player Don Mattingly on a lazy fly to left field to end the inning. 

Toronto scored the game’s first run in the second. With two out, original Blue Jay Ernie Whitt pulled a 3-and-2 fastball through a light sprinkle and “into the jetstream over the right-center field fence” for his 19th homer of the season.13 Scoring first was a good omen for the Blue Jays; they were 61-20 coming into this game when they did.14

An inning later, Cowley was hurt once again with a full-count fastball as Lloyd Moseby deposited one onto the gridiron beyond the right-center-field fence.15 The home run, his 18th, provided a measure of redemption for Moseby, who had dropped a fly ball to let in the Yankees’ winning run the night before.16 Three pitches later, first baseman Willie Upshaw crushed Cowley’s last pitch of the game, a hanging breaking ball, over the fence in right-center for his 15th homer to put Toronto up 3-0.

Desperate to keep the game within reach, Martin yanked Cowley for southpaw Bob Shirley.17 With rain falling steadily (it would stop altogether an inning later), DH Al Oliver doubled down the right-field line, in what proved to be his final regular season at-bat.18 Pinch-hitter Garth Iorg, an erstwhile journalist and former Yankees prospect,19 ricocheted a single off Shirley’s pitching hand that sent Oliver to third and put Shirley out of the game with a bruised paw.

In came Rich Bordi, a short reliever dropped into the Yankees rotation two weeks earlier. The right-hander surrendered a run-scoring sacrifice fly to Toronto’s top run-producer, George Bell, before getting the third out.

Allowing only a harmless two-out single over the first three innings, Alexander was touched up for a run in the fourth. Ken Griffey, whose 15-year-old son Ken Jr. was drawing attention for his football exploits back home in Cincinnati,20 began the rally by doubling off the right-field fence. He moved to third on Upshaw’s diving stab of a grounder blistered down the first-base line by Mattingly and scored on Winfield’s single up the middle.21 Winfield stole second one out later but was left stranded.

In the bottom of the fourth, a one-out double into the right-field corner by a “squinting” Tony Fernández and an RBI single by Dámaso Garcia gave the Blue Jays a 5-1 lead.22 With the count 2-and-0 to Moseby, struggling southpaw Dennis Rasmussen was brought into the game. Knocked around for seven earned runs in his last eight innings, Rasmussen walked Moseby, then fanned Upshaw. He gave way to Neil Allen, who spiked a breaking ball to put both baserunners in scoring position before retiring pinch-hitter Cliff Johnson.23

Both sides were held in check over the next four innings. New York managed one-out singles by second baseman Willie Randolph in the fifth and Mattingly in the sixth, but neither advanced. Runner’s interference and a double play erased a Toronto leadoff single in the fifth, and a pair of one-out hits in the seventh went for naught.24 A marriage proposal passed across the sky on an airplane banner with Henderson batting in the eighth, heightening the festive mood.25

Up first for New York in the ninth was Mattingly, who grounded out to Upshaw unassisted. Winfield made the second out on a fly ball to Bell in left. Catcher Ron Hassey lofted Alexander’s next pitch to left. Bell caught the ball, then fell to his knees with joy. Jubilant teammates hoisted Alexander to their shoulders and carried him to the dugout as fans streamed onto the field. CTV announcer Fergy Olver told television viewers, “It’s finally over. The wait is over.”26

Pitching to contact, Alexander kept the highest-scoring team in the majors off-balance by changing speeds and pitch location. He allowed just five hits, issued no walks, and recorded 18 outs on fly outs while registering no strikeouts. His 99 pitches earned Toronto its 99th win and its first division crown.

 “Let’s just say it was sweet,” drawled a smiling Alexander in a raucous, champagne-drenched clubhouse.27 “It’s been a long road, it seemed like it would never get there,” said Whitt of Toronto’s first postseason berth.28 Playing with little sleep after his misplay the night before, Moseby was happy to have contributed. “I knew somehow we would pull it out,” he told Upshaw as they sprayed each other with bubbly.29

The next day’s Toronto Star labeled Alexander’s performance “the bitterest pill of all” for Steinbrenner.30

Alexander next appeared on the Exhibition Stadium mound for Game Six of the AL Championship Series, after a Game Three no-decision in Kansas City. With Toronto one win away from the World Series, Alexander failed to replicate his October 5 performance. He took the loss as the Kansas City Royals forced a deciding Game Seven in which they ended Toronto’s dreams of a fall classic appearance.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Doyle Alexander, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Canadian Television (CTV) telecast of this game and the Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and Stathead.com websites, including box scores listed at the links below:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TOR/TOR198510050.shtml 

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1985/B10050TOR1985.htm

Notes

1 Alexander missed two months after breaking a knuckle in the pinkie finger of his right hand, punching a wall following a rocky start on May 6, a game in which Gaylord Perry earned his 300th career win. “Yanks Lose Alexander 6 to 8 Weeks,” Decatur (Illinois) Herald and Review, May 9, 1982: B3.

2 After one of those losses, Steinbrenner, known for humiliating those who disappointed him, declared he was flying Alexander “back to New York to undergo a physical. I’m afraid some of our players might get hurt playing behind him.” Tim Dahlberg, “A Legacy More Than Feuds, Bluster,” DeKalb (Illinois) Chronicle, July 14, 2020: B2.

3 Jim Proudfoot, “Alexander Proves Steinbrenner Wrong – Again,” Toronto Star, October 6, 1985: 3-BLUEJAY.

4 Upon Toronto’s signing of the Yankees castoff, Cox said of Alexander, who went 14-10 in 1980 during his lone season with the Braves, “He’s a hard-nosed competitor and I like that.” Allan Ryan, “Jays Sign Alexander to Minor-League Deal,” Toronto Star, June 22, 1983: F2.

5 Garth Woolsey, “Nightmare in Ninth!” Toronto Star, October 5, 1985: D1; Murray Chass, “Baseball Strike Is Settled; Games to Resume Today,” New York Times, August 8, 1985: 1. The players struck over the owners’ failure to adjust the pension fund to reflect increased revenue and the owners’ efforts to make changes in the arbitration rules. Of the 25 games lost to the strike, 23 were made up later in the season.

6 “Nightmare in Ninth!”

7 Wayne Parrish, “Silent Doubts Beginning to Creep into Jays’ Clubhouse,” Toronto Star, October 5, 1985: D1.

8 Mike Littwin, “Steinbrenner’s Rx Just Makes It Worse,” Baltimore Sun, September 16, 1985: C1.

9 Alexander had lasted 6 2/3 or more innings in four previous 1985 starts on three days’ rest. He was 1-1 in those games, with a 3.90 ERA.

10 Canadian Television (CTV) telecast (7:15 mark), “October 5, 1985 Toronto Blue Jays vs New York Yankees AL East Pennant Clinching Game – Part 1,” YouTube video (NHL Overtimes), 1:42:09, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x20eBUwDyT4, accessed January 2025.

11 Canadian Television telecast (2:35 mark), “October 5, 1985 Toronto Blue Jays vs. New York Yankees AL East Pennant Clinching Game – Part 1”; “Metro Weather,” Toronto Star, October 5, 1985: A1. Most spectators were exposed to the elements at “the Ex,” the longtime home of the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts that was reconfigured to attract major-league baseball in the mid-1970s. Only the original grandstand beyond left field included a roof. Fans in seats that ringed the infield, as well as those in the newer grandstand down the right-field line, sat uncovered.

12 Canadian Television telecast (4:00 mark), “October 5, 1985 Toronto Blue Jays vs. New York Yankees AL East Pennant Clinching Game – Part 1.”

13 Bill Madden, “A ‘Branded’ Alexander Ousts Yanks,” New York Daily News, October 6, 1985: 68. Whitt was plucked from the Boston Red Sox farm system in the 1977 expansion draft.

14 Canadian Television telecast (35:40 mark), “October 5, 1985 Toronto Blue Jays vs. New York Yankees AL East Pennant Clinching Game – Part 1.”

15 After the game, Cowley admitted he relied on his heater more than he would’ve liked against Toronto’s lefties, a consequence of the wind wreaking havoc on his curveball command. Murray Chass, “Alexander Triumphs, 5-1,” New York Times, October 6, 1985: 1S. Left in place in the area beyond the outfield fence during the CFL season, the Exhibition Stadium gridiron was extended across much of the outfield for Toronto Argonauts home games. The next Argonauts home game was played on October 20.

16 After Moseby’s homer, CTV color commentator Ken Singleton said of the popular Blue Jays center fielder, “If there was a guy you might want to hit a home run today, I’d guess you would say Lloyd Moseby is the man.” Canadian Television telecast (47:55 mark), “October 5, 1985 Toronto Blue Jays vs. New York Yankees AL East Pennant Clinching Game – Part 1.”

17 Wearing a cast on his right arm from a broken bone he suffered in a Baltimore cocktail lounge fight with disgruntled  pitcher Ed Whitson, Martin sent pitching coach Bill Monbouquette to the mound to make this and all other Yankees pitching changes in this game. Shirley, a long reliever/spot starter swapped into the Yankees rotation shortly before Steinbrenner’s latest tirade, had thrown a complete game just three days earlier.  “Billy Brawl: Martin Breaks Arm in Fight,” Nashville Tennessean, September 23, 1985: 1C.

18 A seven-time All Star and former NL batting champ, Oliver was an 18-year veteran acquired by Toronto in July from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

19 In Saturday’s edition of the Toronto Star, Blue Jays fans were treated to a column by Iorg in which he shared his perspective on the previous day’s heart-wrenching loss to New York. He penned several more such columns through the end of the playoffs. Iorg was drafted from the Yankees organization by Toronto in the 1977 expansion draft. Garth Iorg, “Victory over Yankees Just Wasn’t Meant to Be,” Toronto Star, October 5, 1985: D5.

20 See, for example, Tom Groeschen, “Family Ties,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 8, 1985: C-15 and “Moeller Tramples Trace,” Cincinnati Enquirer, November 3, 1985: C-14.

21 Canadian Television telecast (1:10:36 mark), “October 5, 1985 Toronto Blue Jays vs. New York Yankees AL East Pennant Clinching Game – Part 1.”

22 Canadian Television telecast (1:22:46 mark), “October 5, 1985 Toronto Blue Jays vs. New York Yankees AL East Pennant Clinching Game – Part 1.” Fernandez, like many of the left-handed batters in this game, stepped out of the batter’s box several times during this at-bat to deal with the effects of the wind blowing in his face.

23 A one-time Yankee and former Blue Jay, Johnson was picked up from the Texas Rangers in August.

24 Iorg was ruled out through no fault of his own when second baseman Randolph tried to run through him at the edge of the second-base cutout to get to a ball hit by Bell up the middle that Allen deflected. Cox unsuccessfully argued that because the Yankees pitcher had already made a play on the ball, the interference rule didn’t apply. Canadian Television telecast (15:15 mark), “October 5, 1985 Toronto Blue Jays New York Yankees AL East Clinching Game – Part 2,” YouTube video (NHL Overtimes), 1:29:44, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoofS70YwTw. Accessed January 2025.

25 The proposal came from a devoted female fan, Bonnie Lee, to her boyfriend, Paul Davidson. He accepted a few days later, via airplane banner over Exhibition Stadium during Game Two of the AL Championship Series. Canadian Television telecast (47:41 mark), “October 5, 1985 Toronto Blue Jays New York Yankees AL East Clinching Game – Part 2”; Dale Brazao, “Groom Says ‘Yes’ in Airplane Courtship,” Toronto Star, October 10, 1985: A6.

26 Canadian Television telecast (1:00:40 mark), “October 5, 1985 Toronto Blue Jays New York Yankees AL East Clinching Game – Part 2.”

27  “Alexander Triumphs, 5-1.”

28 Douglas Martin, “In Toronto, Nice Guys Finish First,” New York Times, October 6, 1985: 5S.

29 Neil MacCarl, “Doyle Puts Final Nail in Yankee Coffin,” Toronto Star, October 6, 1985: 1-BLUEJAY.

30 “Doyle Puts Final Nail in Yankee Coffin.”