The 2025 American League Championship Series didn’t exactly get off to the kind of start that the Toronto Blue Jays
The 2025 American League Championship Series didn’t exactly get off to the kind of start that the Toronto Blue Jays had hoped. Losing the first two games at home has everyone down about the team’s chances against the Seattle Mariners.
But maybe the memories of one of the greatest moments in franchise history can bring back some of the good vibes. It’s exactly 10 years ago to the day that Jose Bautista let fly with The Bat Flip Heard ‘Round The World.
It was the result of one of the craziest innings in baseball history. The seventh inning of the 5th and deciding game of the 2015 ALDS against the Texas Rangers. It was the bizarre, never-before-seen call in the top of the inning that left Toronto players and fans fuming. A deflected throw back to the mound by Jays catcher Russell Martin inexplicably allowed Texas to take a 3-2 lead. Fans littered the field with debris as the call was argued, and an 18-minute delay ensued.
Tensions were boiling over when Bautista launched a go-ahead three-run homer in the bottom of that inning—and the accompanying bat flip that would go down in history.
With the emotions of the Jays ending a 22-year playoff drought, and recovering from what could have been a crushing moment in the top of the inning, the magnitude of Bautista’s blast and his epic reaction soared to the top of Blue Jays’ lore. A moment rivalled only by Joe Carter’s historic three-run homer to win the World Series in 1993.
‘The most emotionally charged game’ led to the epic Bat Flip
“It’s the most emotionally charged game that I’ve ever played,” Bautista said at the time.
But while Joey Bats was celebrated in Toronto (and all of Canada) for the rest of his career for The Bat Flip, he was, for some reason, reviled by the rest of baseball, notably the sore-loser Texas Rangers. It even led to a scrap in a game with Texas the following season, with a punk infielder (who was later pretty much washed up at the age of 26) punching Bautista in the face. But the Jays got their revenge yet again in the 2016 postseason, sweeping the Rangers out in the ALDS.
Now, down in a deep 0-2 hole in this year’s ALCS, the Jays will try to channel some Joey Bats vibes to turn this thing around.
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