Peterborough Man Who Sprinted Onto Field From Last Blue Jays World Series Win Draws Parallels to This Year's Run

Peterborough’s Mark Astrom ran onto the field to celebrate with the Toronto Blue Jays after Joe Carter hit a walk-off home run to win their last World Series in 1993.

Those memories remain vivid 32 years later, especially after Blue Jays outfielder George Springer hit a three-run home run in Game Seven to get Toronto to this year’s World Series from Monday night.

Astrom points to himself 32 years ago when he joined the Blue Jays celebrating Joe Carter’s home run in 1993. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

“Pitch by pitch, I was an absolute disaster leading up to that. I was pretty nervous, invested and pretty much in the game with the team,” explained Astrom. “I wanted to see them get there for the first time in 32 years. When that went out, everyone in our house got out of their seats and celebrated with them.”

The Blue Jays have had momentous home runs throughout their franchise, including Carter’s walk-off World Series home run in 1993 and José Bautista’s bat-flip home run in the 2015 American League Division Series. Astrom says Springer’s home run brings back familiar feelings.

“The sequence of his at-bat and even his reaction along the first-base line of jumping up and down was actually similar to Joe Carter's so that was a neat parallel.”

When Carter hit the home run, Astrom was around the tenth row behind the dugout. He jumped over the dugout, raced to home plate and started celebrating with the team.

“It was a matter of celebration, positivity and being a huge fan obviously,” explained Astom. “I remember (Roberto) Alomar's hand was on my back, my back on (Rickey) Henderson's back and we were just making space for him (Carter) to come down to home plate and just celebrated. It was an incredible moment in Toronto sports history.”

Since Monday, Peterborough has seemingly developed ‘Blue Jays Fever’ where businesses, organizations and communities are rallying behind the Blue Jays for another World Series win. Several places are decorated in Blue Jays decorations, team apparel is being worn in workplaces and restaurants feature menu specials revolving around the Blue Jays’ success this season.

Astrom says that moments like these in sports unite the community and create a positive epidemic.

“The beauty of live sports is for something as huge as the Blue Jays being back in the World Series in 32 years, it's going to bring together because they're going to be focused on what's on television or wherever they're watching it; but everyone's watching it live at the same and it's a beautiful thing.”

The Blue Jays start the World Series final against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game One at the Rogers Centre on Friday at 8 p.m.

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