2005 Toronto Blue Jays season
| 2005 Toronto Blue Jays | |
|---|---|
| Major League affiliations | |
|
|
|
|
| Location | |
|
|
| Results | |
| Record | 80–82 (.494) |
| Divisional place | 3rd |
| Other information | |
| Owner(s) | Rogers; Paul Godfrey (CEO) |
| General manager(s) | J. P. Ricciardi |
| Manager(s) | John Gibbons |
| Local television |
The Sports Network (Pat Tabler, Rod Black) Rogers Sportsnet (Tom Candiotti, Darrin Fletcher, Rance Mulliniks, Pat Tabler, Jamie Campbell) |
| Local radio |
CJCL (AM) (Jerry Howarth, Warren Sawkiw, Mike Wilner) |
| < Previous season Next season > | |
The 2005 Toronto Blue Jays season was the franchise's twenty-ninth season of Major League Baseball. It resulted in the Blue Jays finishing third in the American League East with a record of 80 wins and 82 losses. This was the first 162-game season since 1993 that Blue Jays hitters would combine for less than 1,000 strikeouts.
On February 2, 2005, several days after finalizing the purchase of SkyDome by Rogers Communications, Rogers renamed the stadium to the Rogers Centre. In spite of the best efforts of the new ownership, a wide majority of Blue Jays fans continued (and still continue) to refer to the stadium as SkyDome. By the start of the season, Rogers had upgraded the stadium with a new "JumboTron" videoboard and added other state-of-the-art video screens around the stadium. Furthermore, the AstroTurf surface was replaced by the more natural-looking FieldTurf. Owner Ted Rogers also promised a payroll increase to $210 million over the next three years, which allowed the team to have a team payroll of $70 million per year.
The Blue Jays finished spring training with a 16–10 record. Among the stars of spring training was Gabe Gross, who tied the Jays' record for most home runs in spring training with eight (the previous record breaker was long time Blue Jay Carlos Delgado). The Jays were able to translate their success in spring training into an excellent start—the team led the AL East from early to mid-April and held their record around .500 until late August. The Jays were hit with the injury bug when third baseman Corey Koskie broke his finger, taking him out of the lineup, but the club was pleasantly surprised with the performance of rookie call-up Aaron Hill in his stead.
On July 8, just prior to the All-Star break, Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay was struck on the shin by a line drive from Texas left fielder Kevin Mench and was placed on the DL with a fractured leg. The injury cost Halladay his chance to be the American League starter in the All-Star Game in Detroit; his place on the All-Star squad was taken by Red Sox pitcher Matt Clement. Though Halladay's injury was hoped to be minor, the recovery process was met with constant delays, and Halladay eventually would prove to be out for the rest of the season. Team management officially announced that he would miss the rest of the season in August. The Halladay injury is seen by many as the negative turning point in the Jays season; the team had been in serious wild card contention at the time, but afterwards fell out of the race and failed to make the playoffs for the 12th consecutive year.
...
Wikipedia