watch the highlight on YouTube<\/a>, yes, that\u2019s current Red Sox manager Alex Cora, lying in the dirt at shortstop as Morris rounds the bag, in complete disbelief. If you\u2019re wondering, yes, there is a statue of Morris outside of Charles Schwab Field in Omaha where the tournament is held. And it\u2019s the most popular site for photos at the entire facility, by a mile.<\/p>\nWhat makes the whole thing so confounding is that not only do zero Jays have edifices outside the park, but there is actually one single, solitary statue there. It\u2019s of Edward S. Rogers Jr. He\u2019s in a suit. Carrying a folder. Noble Canadian, surely. He\u2019s the guy that TED Talks are named after. Exhilarating stuff, I know. <\/p>\n
Ironically, for Carter himself, the home run is a weird reminder that one moment can define, even if you don\u2019t want it to. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things it did on the negative side, it took away from what I had done the other years because when people first think of Joe Carter, they think of the home run, and that\u2019s it,\u201d Carter said before Game 2 Saturday, a 5-1 Blue Jays loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. \u201cSo the 10 years of a hundred RBIs, those things, I think it diminished because they will think about just the home run, and I like to think that I was more than just a guy that hit one home run in the World Series. But on a positive standpoint, I mean, it\u2019s what every kid dreams of. It\u2019s what everyone sits there and thinks about. It\u2019s only happened two times in the history of the game, and the first time it happened was the year I was born, 1960. And then it happens 33 years later. I say a lot of things about destiny. The bat that I hit the home run with, the model number was J93. So I look at it as Joe 1993.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s another reason why putting up a statue for Joseph Chris Carter makes perfect sense. He\u2019s just a great guy. In 2009, he organized a bunch of former players from that championship team to be honored at what was the then-SkyDome. Gaston threw out the first pitch and the old gang had a blast. Essentially, they all came because Joe asked them to.<\/p>\n
In general, you\u2019d be hard pressed to find anyone on earth who doesn\u2019t like Carter \u2014 going back decades, well beyond his magic moment.<\/p>\n
![\"V.J.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-107048999.jpg\")
Toronto Blue Jays slugger Joe Carter (center) celebrates after hitting a three-run walk-off home run during the ninth inning of Game 6 of the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies at SkyDome on Oct. 23, 1993, in Toronto.<\/p>\n
V.J. Lovero \/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Phil Stephenson is taking a trip down memory lane after getting his license plates renewed, something that\u2019s annoying him on this weekday morning. In his suburb of Wichita, a change in municipal operations now means he has to drive farther and wait longer to get them renewed, but he\u2019s happy to talk about his old buddy on a fall afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played four years at Wichita State, I walked out of there with 13 different individual offensive record, NCAA offensive records, okay, of which five I still hold today,\u201d Stephenson said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019d have them all if Joe would have hung around for one more year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stephenson, whose older brother Gene was the Wichita State Shockers head coach for 35 years and led them to a College World Series championship in 1989, remembers meeting Carter back in high school in Oklahoma. They were rivals and ended up playing together in college, and even in the big leagues, something Phil considers to be incredibly neat.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoe might be the nicest guy I know. He\u2019s always, he\u2019s always had time for anybody that wants his time. Yeah, and he, you know, we, we kind of grew apart when pro ball. We both got into pro ball, but then we ended up being teammates in San Diego in 1990,\u201d he recalled. \u201cJust a great guy. I mean, like I said, we\u2019ve known each other for so long, maybe, maybe the most kind of unassuming guy, you know, right? And, you know, I do a sports talk show here in Wichita. Since I moved back here four years ago, and he\u2019s been on the show, we\u2019ve talked about the home run to win the World Series with Toronto.\u201d<\/p>\n
He remembers where he was, just like pretty much anyone you ask anywhere in Toronto. But as a contemporary player to Joe, he was still sort of hanging on to his own career by the time Carter had made it up north. Seeing his old Shockers teammate go yard maybe gave him one last spark before he hung it up, himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cBelieve or not, I was at home watching it on TV,\u201d Stephenson, 65, said. \u201cNinety-four was my last year playing. So, \u201893, I\u2019d been in the minor leagues, and I was at home, right? And I watched it all, probably jumped up and down just as much as he did.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Phil\u2019s brother, he remembers just being lucky that he ever even got the chance to coach the guy who was The Sporting News\u2019 College Player of the Year in 1981. He didn\u2019t even know the kid was going to be on the team. An assistant football coach at Wichita State, back when they had football, told him that there was a kid he saw on a recruiting trip that wants to play on the diamond there. That coach was Phil Fulmer (yes, that one). Only he had one problem: He didn\u2019t have any scholarships left. Luckily, Carter actually was a decent football player.<\/p>\n
The way Stephenson tells it, he says he straight up luckboxed into arguably the best player in the history of the program.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Well, let me tell you something. He can play football for us,\u2019 \u201d Fulmer said, according to Gene Stephenson. \u201c\u2018He may not be able to play for OU, but he can play football for us right away, and we want to put him on a football scholarship.\u2019 I said, \u2018Well, let\u2019s work. Let\u2019s talk some turkey.\u2019 So, the end result was that [Carter] came on a football scholarship, full scholarship, but whenever he decided that he didn\u2019t want to play football anymore he wouldn\u2019t have to play football. He could play baseball, and he would still keep his full scholarship.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a season of football for the now defunct program, Carter never looked back.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a great kid from a great family, and all he wanted to do was go somewhere to play, and a good student did everything necessary to stay well, at top of his line,\u201d the elder Stephenson, 80, said this week. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t a marginal student at all. He was a good student, and he had great discipline. And you know, he would you as a coach, you always marvel at guys who go out on their own, aside from practice [to work on their game], because if they didn\u2019t do something well, they wanted to be seen by their contemporaries as doing well.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for his now golfing buddy who he sees a couple times a year because he daughter lives near Carter, Phil\u2019s thoughts on a statue for Carter are simple. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of the biggest moments in the history of baseball,\u201d Phil Stephenson said.<\/p>\n
![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-577803124.jpg\")
A father and son hold up their jerseys of former Toronto Blue Jays players Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter during a Blue Jays game against the Detroit Tigers on July 10, 2016, at Rogers Centre in Toronto.<\/p>\n
Tom Szczerbowski\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Walking around the concourse at the World Series, you don\u2019t see a ton of Carter jerseys, per se. There have been plenty stars since that day in \u201993 and for a city that has just a touch of an inferiority complex about being in Canada with a sport based in the U.S., people take their starmaking very seriously. Meaning, the variance in jerseys in the park is about as wide as any team I\u2019ve ever seen, never mind one in the World Series.<\/p>\n
When you ask someone when and where they got the jersey, you see that glint in their eye, like Al Bundy telling you about his four touchdowns in one game, or Uncle Rico bragging about throwing a football over the mountains. And if they aren\u2019t alone, you can always tell the other person has heard the story a million times before.<\/p>\n
Standing in line to get new gear, one guy was willing to admit he bootlegged his Carter gear because he just had to have it. The story of him becoming a Blue Jays fan is long and convoluted as a kid from Ohio, but ultimately, it paid off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was 15 years old, I was in my buddy\u2019s basement, and his parents were upstairs rooting for the Phillies, because we lived in the States, and so they\u2019re like, Well, you can\u2019t read for a Canadian team. What are you? Some kind of a communist?\u201d Chris Stedron, 47, said with a laugh in line for new merch along with thousands of his closest friends. They live in Ohio and traveled for this. \u201cI remember like the off the bat, like he just knew it was gone. And I remember jumping, and we\u2019re in that basement, my hands hit the drop ceiling, and we\u2019re like, oh no. Like, we, you know, we broke my buddy\u2019s basement, but, yeah, 15 years old. That\u2019s like, a core memory.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s so busy telling the story that he has to put down his rally scarf and hand it to his wife while he got animated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHave to have a statue. 100% Absolutely. It\u2019s a crime [that they don\u2019t.]\u201d<\/p>\n
When the Jays played Seattle in the ALCS, their fanbase was well represented, even thousands of miles away. They\u2019ve long been Canada\u2019s team, no matter where you live. Carter, among many greats on that team, including a 36-year-old Dave Stewart, who actually registered the win in that iconic game on the mound.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember it like yesterday. I was sitting. I\u2019m from Vancouver, okay? And I was sitting in my living room, on my living room couch. I know exactly where I was sitting. I knew. I know exactly which glove I had on my right hand,\u201d Jag Ghumen who just turned 40, said, wistfully a couple hours before the game. \u201cMy wife got it for me a few years ago. Yeah, I was an unreal gift. But yeah, I remember it, like, just down the left field line. It was nuts. Honestly, it\u2019s like one of the only things I remember from when I was a kid. So, very cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a certain subset of guys, Carter\u2019s jersey is like a warm blanket from a part of their childhood that makes them feel like a kid again. In some cases, more so than themselves, they\u2019ve actually passed that childhood memory down to their own kin, quite literally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 42 1761496449 okay. I was like 10, sure, jumping up and down in my grandmother\u2019s house. My parents were [out of town] at a wedding, so I\u2019m jumping up and down, going nuts, loving every minute of it. It was phenomenal,\u201d Justin Mastrangelo said, beaming in front of his wife and son, telling the story of his jersey. \u201cI got this jersey probably 20 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
The white one, with the World Series patch on the left shoulder is a popular piece around here. A recollection of a simpler time, if you will. The kind of thing that people want to remember forever, one way or another.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew when I was gonna have my first, my boy\u2019s name would be Carter. I love the Blue Jays that much,\u201d said Justin Mastrangelo, standing with his 9-year-old son, who was lucky enough to get a signed jersey from Joe at a meet and greet. The message he wrote on it was: Carter Meets Carter.<\/p>\n
Win or lose the series, the memory of Carter with the red and blue Franklin batting gloves and high-top Nike spikes, fist pumping all the way around third with his helmet off is the Blue Jays for many baseball fans. But right now, the actual team has series to play, and Friday night\u2019s 11-4 blowout in Game 1 certainly didn\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Jays were 600-to-1 to win the World Series, I think, before the season started,\u201d Mastrangelo said, just taking it all in. \u201cYeah, anything can happen at all times. It\u2019s kind of nice to get a good clubhouse, good atmosphere, you know what I mean? And it\u2019s pretty it\u2019s pretty exciting to see kind of where they\u2019ve come this far.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Carter Mastrangelo was asked if he\u2019d ever seen the highlight of the guy he was named after, he gave the same answer as when his dad was asked whether or not a statue would be appropriate for Joe.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clinton Yates is a tastemaker at Andscape. He likes rap, rock, reggae, R&B and remixes \u2014 in that order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 By any measure, Rogers Centre is an incredible ballpark. Between field layout, playing surface, fan experience,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-242374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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In Wichita, Black baseball and Jackie Robinson live on through League 42 \u2013 AndscapeRead now<\/a><\/p>\n