7/12/2000 - Behind the Plate and Behind the Mask: Great Jays Catchers (Part 1 of 2)

Coming into the 2000 Blue Jay season, Toronto had employed thirty-eight catchers. Some, like Pat D. Kelly and Gary Allenson are barely more than a name in an old program to most Jays fans and historians. Others like Ernie Whitt and Pat Borders have carved their spot in the Blue Jay history books.

RICK CERONE - THE JAYS FIRST CATCHER

When Bill Singer threw that memorable first pitch on April 7, 1977, there to catch the historic baseball was Rick Cerone. While the Blue Jays were debuting that cold April day, Cerone had a dozen major league games under his belt while playing for the Cleveland Indians, originally making his major league debut on August 17, 1975.

Born on May 19, 1954, Cerone had been obtained from Cleveland, coming to the Blue Jays with outfielder John Lowenstein in exchange for first basemen/outfielder Rico Carty on December 6, 1976. (This was just the Jays second trade in their history.)

Cerone had the misfortune of breaking his thumb during the Jays fifth game of their inaugural season and spent much of the season on the disabled list. Recalled from his rehab assignment at AAA-Charleston on August 17, 1977, Cerone hit his first major league home run the same day off of Texas's Nelson Briles. Between being injured and several trips back and forth to and from the minors, Cerone caught just 34 games that first season in Toronto.

In 1978, he would spend the season platooned with fellow catcher Alan Ashby, who was later traded, allowing Cerone to become the everyday catcher for the rest of 1978 and 1979.

In addition to being the Opening Day catcher in 1977, Cerone also undertook the same duties on Opening Day in 1979. That year, the Toronto Chapter of the Baseball Writers of America Association (BBWAA) would vote him Toronto's Most Improved Player, after hitting .239 with 7 home runs and 61 RBIs.

However, that honour wasn't enough to keep him with the Blue Jays. On November 1st, 1979, he was traded to New York along with LHP Tom Underwood and outfielder Ted Wilborn for first baseman Chris Chambliss, LHP Paul Mirabello and infielder Damasco Garcia.

He would play with the Yankees on three different occassions as well as Milwaukee, Atlanta, the New York Mets and Boston. Eventually, he would play with Canada’s other team, the Expos in 1992 before retiring.

He came into the season ranked fourth on the Blue Jays all-time list of game caught with 251, and is now fifth, as Darrin Fletcher has surpassed him.

ERNIE WHITT - THE JAYS GREATEST CATCHER?

On November 5, 1976, Toronto picked Ernie Whitt, a catcher from the Boston Red Sox organization in the 17th round of the American League expansion draft. Whitt would remain in a Toronto uniform until 1989, the final member of that original roster.

Whitt had made his Major League debut on September 12, 1976 with the Red Sox but would only play eight games, hitting .222 with 1 home run and 3 RBIs. Ironically, Whitt was drafted by the Blue Jays during the same week as his wife had their first child.

In his first season with Toronto, Whitt caught 14 games and was also used as a pinch-hitter. After suffering a dislocated tendon in his left foot, making the tag on fellow catcher Andy Etchebarren in mid August Whitt was out for the rest of the season. Whitt would spend most of the next two seasons with the Jays in the minors, before returning to the majors full-time in 1980.

In 1980, Whitt was given the nod of starting on Opening Day. He would catch every opening day game for Toronto from 1980 to 1989, except for 1985 (when Buck Martinez got the start).

In 1982, Whitt began to be platooned behind the plate with Martinez. The pair was later regarded to be as good as any starting catcher in baseball.

In 1983, Whitt earned the annual "Goodguy Award" from the Toronto Chapter of the BBWAA, after hitting .256 with 17 homers and contributing 56 runs batted in over the previous season.

Thanks in no small part to homering in three consecutive games on May 24-26, 1985, Whitt was named to the American League All-Star team, along with Dave Stieb, Jimmy Key and Damasco Garcia, but never had an at-bat.

1985 was also the first time that Toronto made the post-season. Whitt started all seven games during the ALCS against Kansas City. He hit two RBIs in Game One but hit just .190 over the Series. In Game 5, he grounded out to end the seventh inning with the bases loaded in a 2-0 Kansas City win.

Perhaps Whitt's finest season would come in 1987, when he hit career highs in average (.269), runs batted in (75) and hits (120) and tied his career high in home runs (19) and doubles (24). That was also the year that the Blue Jays famous "10 Home Run" game occurred, and Whitt was right in the middle of it. On September 14th, 1987, Whitt homered three times in an 18-3 victory over Baltimore. Whitt was the second player (the first being Otto Velez in May 1980) to homer three times in one game for the Blue Jays. Two days prior, Whitt had had his first of two 6-RBI games, against New York. (He would repeat the feat just over a year later, on September 27, 1988 against Baltimore.) However, his season would hit a snag in September, when he broke his ribs colliding with Paul Molitor of Milwaukee trying to break up a double play.

During the 1989 ALCS, Whitt was also the starting catcher for the five games against Oakland. He homered in the first game but hit just .125.

On December 17, 1989, an era came to an end when Whitt (along with outfielder Kevin Batiste) was traded to the Atlanta Braves for RHP Ricky Trlicek. He would play 100 games over the next two seasons with Atlanta.

Over 12 seasons with the Blue Jays, Whitt had hit .253 with 131 home runs and 518 RBIs. He is the all-time Blue Jay leader in games caught with 1159 and third all-time in games played (behind only Lloyd Moseby and Tony Fernandez). Only Dave Stieb spent more seasons with the Jays. His name is listed on over a dozen of the Blue Jays all-time lists including sixth in home runs with 131, ninth in extra base hits (310) and sixth in runs batted in (518).

After his retirement from baseball, Whitt began the Ernie Whitt Baseball Academy and became a minority owner in Toronto's New York/Pennsylvania Class A affiliate, the St. Catherine Stompers. Whitt enters the 2000 season in his 4th season as a roving Minor League Catching Instructor for the Toronto Blue Jays organization. Last year, he led Canada to a Bronze Medal at the Pan-Am Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

PAT BORDERS - WORLD SERIES MVP

When the Blue Jays won their first World Series championship in 1992, it was a catcher by the name of Pat Borders who received recognition as the Most Valuable Player for the Series.

Borders was originally drafted to the Blue Jays as a third baseman in the 6th round of the June 1984 Free Agent Draft (134th overall). Borders turned down baseball and football scholarships from Mississippi State to turn pro.

Borders made his major league debut with Toronto on April 6th 1988 and went 3-for-4 with 5 RBI against Kansas City. He hit his first major league home run on April 14th off future teammate Al Leiter of the New York Yankees. Although he split time between the major league club and the minors, he received the 1988 BBWAA Toronto Blue Jays Rookie of the Year Award.

The 1989 season saw Borders be called up to the majors for good and also saw him in the post-season during the American League Championship Series against the Oakland Athletics. He appeared in only one game, Game 4 on Saturday October 7th, taking over in the seventh inning for Ernie Whitt. Borders had only on at-bat, but used it to single in a run in an eventual 6-5 loss for Toronto.

Borders would find himself behind the plate when, on September 2nd, 1990, Dave Steib pitched his no-hitter, the first (and thus far, only) no-hitter in Blue Jay history. That season, Borders received the BBWAA Most Improved Award for the Blue Jays (ahead of David Wells), an honour he would receive again in 1992.

In 1991, the Toronto Blue Jays returned to the post-season again. Borders started as catcher for Game One of the 1991 ALCS against Minnesota and would catch every post-season game that the Jays have played since.

Borders started Toronto's season opener, catching Jack Morris against Detroit. Aside from Morgana the Kissing Bandit interrupting one of his at-bats, the day would be memorable as it was the first of three straight Opening Day starts that Borders would have for Toronto. He also caught Morris on Opening Day 1993 in Seattle and Juan Guzman's Opening Day start against Chicago in 1994.

After leading all American League catchers in games caught in 1992, Borders got his MVP performance in the 1992 World Series off to a great start, hitting safely in his first eight bats over Games 1 and 2. He would hit a team-leading .450 with a home run and 3 RBI and a slugging percentage of .750.

1993 would see Borders back behind the plate to repeat as American League leader in games caught. In addition to being a solid backstop for the pitching staff (including a very wild Juan Guzman), Borders would set a career high in RBI with 55. The 1993 post-season would see his post-season hitting streak end at 16 games after he was blanked in Game 3 of the ALCS. The streak was just one short of Hank Bauer's major league record. Despite this, he hit .250 during the ALCS with 3 RBI and .304 with 1 RBI during the World Series.

After the 1994 season, Borders became a free agent, signing with Kansas City in 1995. He has since played for the Houston Astros, the Chicago White Sox, the St. Louis Cardinals organization and the Cleveland Indians.

Borders would return to the Blue Jays, after being signed as a free agent on August 31, 1999. He would start six of the four games he spent with the Jays, three as a designated hitter and one behind the plate as a catcher. He hit .214 with 1 home run and 3 RBI. It was enough to bring his games caught total to 691, solidifying his #2 ranking on the Blue Jays all-time list.

On November 11, 1999, Borders was declared a free agent and signed a minor league contract with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Januray 27, 2000.

Over his major league career to date, Borders has a career batting average of .256 with 67 home runs and 327 RBI. Borders holds several Blue Jay single season catching records including most games (138 in 1993), most putouts (869 in 1993), most double plays (12 in 1993) and most assists (88 in 1992). He is also 9th on the all-time Blue Jay list for home runs at the Skydome.

DARRIN FLETCHER

Thought to be the "catcher of the future" for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Fletcher is now the catcher of the present for the Blue Jays.

A third generation baseball player, Fletcher's father was a member of the Detroit Tigers in 1962 and his grandfather, Glen spent eleven years in the Boston Red Sox organization.

In 1987, he finished third in NCAA I batting, with an average of .497 ahead of both Mo Vaughn and Robin Ventura. Later that year, Fletcher was drafted in the 6th round of the Free Agent Draft by the Dodgers.

He made his major league debut on September 10th, 1989 against San Diego and singled in his first at bat. Fletcher appeared in five games for the Dodgers in 1989 and hit .500 including two singles and a home run in his first five at bats.

In 1990, he was traded to the Phillies in exchange for LHP Dennis Cook. On May 3rd, 1991, in just Fletcher's 22nd major league game, he caught Tommy Greene's no-hitter at Olympic Stadium against the Expos. As it turned out, Fletcher would return to Olympic Stadium on a regular basis, as he was traded (with cash) to Montreal for pitcher Barry Jones.

To begin 1992, Fletcher was named to his first Opening Day roster. He started just 59 games but caught 8 of the 14 shutouts pitched by the Expos that year. He also hit his first career triple on July 24th against the Dodgers.

Although Fletcher would be sent to Montreal's minor league team in Indianapolis for a rehabilitation assignment from May 31- June 14, he would spend the next six seasons with the Expos.

1994 was memorable for several reasons for Fletcher. First of all, that was the year that the Expos shocked many and looked to be headed for the play-offs before the strike ended the season. In addition, April 13th marked Fletcher’s first two-home runs game (both off Jose Rijo of Cincinatti), the second of which was his 200th career hit. He was also named to the National League All-Star team and caught the 10th inning for winning pitcher Doug Jones of the Phillies.

In 1997, Fletcher caught 28 of the 31 starts made by that year’s National League Cy Young winner, Pedro Martinez. On October 27, 1997 he elected to become a free agent and signed a two-year deal with Toronto on November 26th.

In his first season with the Blue Jays, and, in fact, his first season in the American League, Fletcher hit .283 with 9 home runs and 52 RBIs. His first home run as a Blue Jay came on May 3, 1998 off Oakland’s Dave Telgheder. He was also the starting catcher for all of two of Cy Young winner Roger Clemens’ starts. For the remaining two, he was on the disabled list with a left hamstring strain.

He had two multi-homer games in 1999, which brought his career total to six and he was one of only three Toronto players to have a 5-RBI game during the 1999 season, his coming on August 20th against the Oakland A's. (Carlos Delgado and Shawn Green each had two such games.)

In 1999, Fletcher recorded career highs in batting average (.291), home runs (18) and RBIs (80 RBI, a Blue Jay record for catchers) as well as hits, doubles and extra base hits.

ALBERTO CASTILLO

Alberto Castillo arrived in Toronto during the off-season, thanks to a November 11th. 1999 trade that also brought LHP Lance Painter and RHP Matt DeWitt to the Jays in exchange for RHP Pat Hentgen and LHP Paul Spoljaric.

Castillo’s professional career actually started in 1987, when he was signed by the New York Mets on April 15th as a non-drafted free agent. He would make his pro debut at the age of 17 with Kingsport where he hit .111 in 7 games.

However, it would not be until 1995 that Castillo would make his major league debut. On May 28th, he would make his first appearance (at Shea Stadium, no less), going 0-3 with a walk against the San Francisco Giants. Two days later, Castillo would get his first major league hit, of San Diego’s Scott Sanders.

In all, Castillo would appear in 13 games, including 9 starts, in two major league callups from the Mets. The next year, however, he would appear in just 6 major league games, although he would hit safely in three of his four starts.

In 1998, he hit his first two major league home runs. The first came on May 16 against San Francisco's Kirk Reuter, the second came on June 5 against Boston's Pedro Martinez.

On October 15, 1998, Castillo was granted free agency, and was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies on November 5th. He never managed to make an appearance with the Phillies, however, as he was selected by the Cardinals as part of the Rule V draft on December 14th, 1998.

1999 was a big year for Castillo, even before the trade was made. It marked his first full season with the majors. He hit .263 and threw out 44% of would-be base-stealers. He would serve as the main starter for the Cardinals during the second half of the season, after Eli Marrero went into a deep slump. In August, Castillo enjoyed a 10-game hit streak (Aug 8-23).

Coming in Part 2: Other noteworthy Blue Jay catchers including Alan Ashby, Buck Martinez and Randy Knorr.

John M. Milner firmly believes that Joe Carter's home run in the 1993 World Series was one of the turning points of his life. Discuss this, his columns, baseball or life in general with him at docmilner@yahoo.ca.

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