{"id":810798,"date":"2026-07-19T20:01:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T20:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/810798\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T20:01:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T20:01:31","slug":"legendary-blue-jays-reliever-duane-ward-dead-at-62","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/810798\/","title":{"rendered":"Legendary Blue Jays reliever Duane Ward dead at 62"},"content":{"rendered":"

Duane Ward, a two-time World Series champion and one of the most accomplished relievers in Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> history, has died at 62.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays said Sunday that Ward died of natural causes in Toronto. He had arrived in the city Friday ahead of the team’s ceremony honouring its 1992 and 1993 championship teams but was absent from Saturday’s festivities at Rogers Centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with profound sadness that the Toronto Blue Jays mourn the passing of pitcher Duane Ward, one of the most accomplished and beloved relievers in franchise history,\u201d the Blue Jays said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDuane will be deeply missed by our fans, and we extend our heartfelt condolences to his family. Duane will always be a cherished part of the Blue Jays family, and we will be forever grateful for his contributions to our organization and to baseball in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ward ranks among the Blue Jays\u2019 leaders in saves with 121 across his 452 games with the Jays from 1986 to 1995. His 45 saves in 1993 remain a single-season franchise record.<\/p>\n

Longtime Blue Jays executive Paul Beeston, who helped build Toronto\u2019s back-to-back championship teams, said he was stunned by the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cI immediately thought of all the good times we had together, and we did have a number of good times together,\u201d Beeston said in a hallway behind the Rogers Centre press box, steps away from a framed photo of Ward on the mound.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was here when we were going well. Between him and Tom Henke, we only had to play seven-inning games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beeston\u2019s eyes watered as he highlighted Ward\u2019s contributions to the Blue Jays and the game of baseball in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the first guy who started the coaches clinic and player clinics across the country,\u201d Beeston said. \u201cHe was committed to it. He loved Canada, he loved the Blue Jays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ward was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays honoured him with a video tribute and a moment of silence before Sunday afternoon\u2019s game against the Chicago White Sox.<\/p>\n

Toronto manager John Schneider came to know Ward through the years, describing him as “the funniest guy in the room.”<\/p>\n

“That rubbed off on everybody,” Schneider said. “You feel for his family and the people around him. Life is hard sometimes. It definitely puts baseball into perspective.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m so thankful that I got to spend some time with him, and he’s one of the great Blue Jays.”<\/p>\n

The hard-throwing right-hander began his major-league career with Atlanta in 1986 after the Braves selected him in the first round of the 1982 MLB Draft out of Farmington, N.M.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays acquired Ward in July 1986 for pitcher Doyle Alexander. Ward would go on to spend the rest of his career in Toronto, forming a dominant bullpen tandem with Tom Henke before taking over as the club’s closer after Henke departed following the 1992 championship season.<\/p>\n

Ward was the winning pitcher when Joe Carter hit his walk-off home run \u2014 immortalized with a statue unveiled Saturday \u2014 in Game 6 of the 1993 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether setting the stage in the eighth inning or closing out wins, he will be remembered for the role he played in some of the greatest moments in Blue Jays history,\u201d the Blue Jays said.<\/p>\n

Ward missed the entire 1994 season with an arm injury and retired the following year after pitching in just four games during the 1995 season. He finished his career with a 3.28 earned-run average and a 32-37 record.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was indomitable, and I thought he was one of those guys who would last forever because of all the things he did,\u201d Beeston said. \u201cThe best way to describe him is that he was his own man. But it’s a tragic loss at a time when we’re having a celebration, and he was such a big part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Duane Ward, a two-time World Series champion and one of the most accomplished relievers in Toronto Blue Jays…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-810798","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\/810798","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=810798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}