Toronto Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. watches his solo home run take flight against the Seattle Mariners during the fifth inning in Game 6 of baseball’s American League Championship Series, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Toronto. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
In spring training 2022, the Toronto Blue Jays were coming off a 91-win season where they fell one game shy of the New York Yankees for the second wild card spot despite achieving a dominating four-game sweep at Yankee Stadium.
On March 17, 2022, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. delivered one of his more notable quotes, saying “Last year was the trailer. What you are going to see this year is the movie.”
A few years after the memorable line, the Blue Jays are delivering a blockbuster movie by getting to the World Series after beating the Seattle Mariners in a seven-game ALCS
The most memorable scene was the sight of George Springer’s go-ahead three-run homer in the seventh inning to left field, a few feet from Joe Carter’s famous game-ending homer to win the World Series in 1993. Other memorable scenes included Guerrero’s performance which netted him the MVP by hitting .385 and entering the World Series with a .442 average in 11 postseason games this year.
Toronto Blue Jays’ George Springer celebrates his three run home run against the Seattle Mariners during the seventh inning in Game 7 of baseball’s American League Championship Series, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025, in Toronto. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The Blue Jays are going back to the Fall Classic for the first time since Carter’s homer off Mitch Williams. The homer occurred about six years before Guerrero was born and six months after his father Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signed as a non-drafted free agent with the Montreal Expos.
Back in 2022, Guerrero had every reason to deliver that terrific quote coming off hitting 48 homers to contribute to the Blue Jays scoring 846 runs, one fewer than the 1993 championship team and 45 fewer than the 2015 edition.
Guerrero’s quote preceded two strong seasons with 92 wins in 2022 and 89 wins in 2023 but with distant finishes in the AL East and a managerial change from Charlie Montoyo to John Schneider right before the 2022 All-Star break. In 2022, despite threatening the Yankees in mid-August, Toronto finished seven games back and the following year it was 12 games behind the Baltimore Orioles.
Both times the movie experienced a disappointing ending with frustrating losses in the wild-card round.
In 2022 the Blue Jays were six outs away from forcing a decisive Game 3 against the Seattle Mariners but gave up a four-run lead and wound up with a 10-9 loss. The following season the Blue Jays went to Minnesota and stopped hitting, scoring once in two games and seeing a much-discussed move about taking out Jose Berrios after 47 pitches in a scoreless game following a walk to Royce Lewis.
Last season was more of a bad outtake as Toronto slipped to 74 wins with its 671 runs turning out to be the fewest in a full season since scoring 654 in 1997 when they won 76 games in the final season of Cito Gaston’s first managerial stint and the first year of Roger Clemens’ time in Canada.
Whatever the reason was, the Blue Jays could never get going despite Guerrero hitting .323 with 30 homers and 103 RBIs. Bo Bichette was injured for half the season, Springer hit .220 and the team dropped under .500 for good on April 30.
The rough season led to questions about manager John Schneider potentially being a hot seat candidate and the future status of Guerrero Jr, especially when he did not sign a new contract during spring training.
The apparent lack of progress made for some interesting dynamics on April 4 when he was part of the visiting introductions at the home opener of the massively hyped and eventually disappointing New York Mets.
Unlike many star opposing players, warm cheers replaced jeers as some fans saw it as a way to make New York attractive to Guerrero, especially after the star famously said he would never play for the Yankees previously due to George Steinbrenner swooping in to sign Gary Sheffield instead of Guerrero.
At that point unlike the talks to eventually ensure Aaron Judge stayed with the Yankees in 2022, there was significant progress on what eventually became a 14-year, $500 million contract. The deal was announced April 9 when the Blue Jays were in Boston and 12 games in what eventually became a memorable thriller filled with numerous enjoyable cinematic experiences that did not take shape until about early June after the Yankees set the early pace in the AL East with 35 wins in 55 games.
The Yankees were the first to experience to action of Toronto’s 2025 movie by losing eight of the 13 meetings. The Yankees lost six times in Toronto for their worst showing in Canada since losing eight of 10 meetings there in 2016 and then lost in a four-game Division Series a few weeks ago.
Those games were not close for the Yankees, who were outscored 23-8 in Toronto, needed a comeback from a five-run deficit in Game 3 and fell behind mere minutes into Game 4 on hits by Springer and Guerrero that just hugged the right and left field foul lines and stayed fair.
It led to a raucous celebration on the visiting side of Yankee Stadium with Schneider’s famous “Start Spreading the News, We’re going to the ALCS.”
Whatever the reason was, the Blue Jays did not win the first two games but ensured a long series by winning Games Three and Four. A classic grand slam by Eugenio Suarez in Game 5 provided a cinematic experience for the Mariners, who for the first time were one win away from getting to the World Series for the first time.
Previously the Mariners got to within two wins of the Fall Classic in 1995 and 2000 but endured way more pain since then enduring a stretch of 14 losing seasons in the 18 years following the 2003 season. In 2021, they debuted Logan Gilbert and Cal Raleigh, the following year Julio Rodriguez and George Kirby arrived, and the Mariners just finished their fifth winning season and wound up with their most agonizing ending.
Both teams entered the league in 1977 and for the past two weeks, provided thrilling cinematic entertainment in the ALCS. Now the Blue Jays are the ones getting a chance to see if they get a memorable ending against the Los Angeles Dodgers and make Guerrero’s three-year-old quote even more prophetic despite the results of it being delayed from when he originally said it.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/larryfleisher/2025/10/21/three-years-after-famous-quote-vladimir-guerrero-jr-and-blue-jays-get-to-the-world-series/
