The Pat Borders appreciation post

August 15, 2024

By Kevin Glew

Cooperstowners in Canada

He was the unlikely MVP of the Toronto Blue Jays’ first World Series-winning team. 

And if you look at photos of Pat Borders receiving the trophy, it appears as though he can hardly believe he had won the award himself. 

But that’s what happens when you hit .450 (9-for-20) and catch every inning of every game in a six-game Fall Classic. 

And those that were part of that superstar-laden 1992 Blue Jays team certainly knew how valuable Borders was. 

“He would run through a wall to help you win,” longtime Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston once said of Borders. 

Borders was a blue collar, team-first player on a roster full of stars. He was known for his toughness, his ball-blocking abilities, his clutch hitting and for the ever-present plug of tobacco in his cheek. 

It’s no wonder he remains one of the most popular players in Blue Jays’ history.  

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Borders moved to central Florida when he was young. He attended Lake Wales High School where he became a multi-sport star. He turned down a football scholarship to Mississippi State University to sign with the Blue Jays after they selected him in the sixth round of the 1982 MLB draft as a third baseman. 

The hard-working Borders spent six long seasons in the club’s minors. At different times early in his minor league career, he manned the hot corner, played first base and patrolled the outfield. 

In 1985, he played the entire season for Class-A Kinston at first base. Feeling his spot in the organization was in peril, Borders approached Blue Jays’ vice-president of baseball Bobby Mattick the following spring about transitioning to catcher. Mattick approved of the idea. 

Borders had never played the position before. And in the first inning of his first minor league game as a catcher in 1986, he was hit in the throat by a foul ball and had one of his fingernails torn off by a pitch in the dirt. 

But he was a quick and determined learner and soon he and Greg Myers were the top catching prospects in the organization. Borders also showed improvement at the plate, batting .339 with 11 home runs in 77 games between Class-A and Double-A in 1986 and .292 with 11 home runs in 94 contests in Double-A in 1987. 

In his major league debut on April 6, 1988, Borders tripled and drove in two runs on the first pitch he saw from Kansas City Royals left-hander Charlie Leibrandt in the first inning at Royals Stadium. In total, he knocked in five runs that game which set a Blue Jays’ record for most RBIs in an MLB debut. 

After platooning with Ernie Whitt in 1989, Borders became the Blue Jays’ regular catcher for the next five seasons. His finest big-league campaign at the plate came in 1990 when he hit .286 with 15 home runs in 125 games, but he was better known for his defence. In 1988, he led American League catchers by gunning down 47.2 per cent of baserunners attempting to steal off him and he topped AL catchers in games and assists in 1992 and 1993. 

For an encore, after winning the World Series MVP award and helping his club to their first Fall Classic triumph in 1992, he set career-highs with 124 hits and 30 doubles in 1993 and was a key member of the Blue Jays’ second consecutive championship team. 

“If you’re going to win, let alone a World Series, you need a catcher who sees the entire field and works diligently and unselfishly with his entire pitching staff,” Jerry Howarth told CBC about Borders in a 2022 interview. “Pat was so unselfish. With all the marquee and Hall of Fame players [on that ’92 squad], they continued to do what they were doing. It was never about any individual. It was the team, and Pat was greatly responsible for that behind the plate.” 

In all, Borders played 747 games for the Blue Jays, which is the second-most by a catcher in franchise history to Ernie Whitt’s 1,218. 

Following the 1994 season, Borders signed with the Kansas City Royals. 

In total, he competed in parts of 17 major league seasons with nine different teams and batted .253 with 69 home runs in 1,099 big league games. 

He was also part of the U.S. team that won gold at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. This made him one of just four players to have been part of a World Series-winning team and a gold medal-winning Olympic squad.  

Borders finally hung up his catcher’s gear when he was 43. 

From 2015 to 2019, he returned to professional baseball to manage the Philadelphia Phillies’ Class-A Short-Season Williamsport Crosscutters. 

But Canadian fans best remember Borders as a gritty Blue Jays catcher with a giant plug of tobacco in his cheek and as the unlikely winner of the 1992 World Series MVP Award. 

“I wasn’t a particularly good hitter but played well at the right time. I’m definitely proud of [being MVP], but I only reflect on it occasionally,” said Borders when asked by CBC about his 1992 World Series MVP Award in 2022. 

That’s the type of modesty Blue Jays fans have come to expect from the blue-collar Borders and why, more than three decades later, they still adore him. 

*I’d like to dedicate this post to my late Aunt Ruth, a wonderful and supportive woman, whose favourite player was Pat Borders.