José Bautista earns rightful place on Blue Jays’ Level of Excellence during emotional ceremony

TORONTO — The chants began as soon as he stepped onto the field.

“José, José, José, José,” the sold-out Rogers Centre crowd sang in unison as José Bautista received his hero’s welcome during Saturday’s ceremony before the Toronto Blue Jays’ 5-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs that was held to celebrate his induction to the Level of Excellence.

It has been Baustista-palooza this weekend at the Rogers Centre as the former slugging right-fielder returned to the city that fostered his best baseball days to be rightfully honoured by the organization.

It began Friday when Bautista signed a one-day contract with the Blue Jays so he could retire as a member of the team. “I think everybody knew for a while that I had been retired,” Bautista said on Friday. “What other way to make it better than just coming back here to Toronto and signing this one-day contract and making it official, official.”

With the paperwork in order, it was time for Bautista to take his proper place among the franchise greats, an honour he said left him “proud and humbled.” In a poignant 40-minute presentation that was both celebratory and emotional, the Blue Jays touched all the right notes as they paid tribute to who Bautista was and all that he accomplished with the organization, including six All-Star appearances, three Silver Slugger Awards, the single-season franchise record for home runs (54) and two playoff appearances, one of which included his iconic bat-flip home run in Game 5 of the American League Division Series against the Texas Rangers.

A video tribute featuring messages from former coaches and teammates left Bautista clearly emotional and those tears kept flowing as he watched his name unveiled on the Level of Excellence alongside his family while standing in the right field that he used to patrol. When it was time to give his own speech, a choked-up Bautista was brief, admitting he wasn’t a fan of giving speeches, before directing attention to his prepared video message that played on the big screen.

“You embraced me and my family as your own, and I can’t thank you guys enough for that. You guys treated me like an All-Star long before becoming one,” he said during the video. “And all that mattered was that I was one of your Blue Jays.”

Asked later if he’d ever seen Bautista that emotional before, former Blue Jays first baseman Justin Smoak said: “Every day,” chuckling, before conceding, “Probably not that way. He’s an emotional guy.”

Indeed, it was that chip-on-his-shoulder swagger after his unconventional path from journeyman to superstar that so endeared him to Blue Jays fans. Former Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin, who first met Bautista while they were teammates at Chipola College in Marianna, Fla., has a special appreciation for what Bautista was able to accomplish with the organization after he spent his early baseball days bouncing between organizations and fighting for an everyday job.

“He was the face of the franchise for a long time and to have that perspective of being able to see him progress and seeing where he came from, and all the struggles that he had, to finally land a home with the Blue Jays organization and then just make baseball fun for people here for a long time,” Martin said. “He was like the guy that people came to watch, you bought a ticket to go see the Blue Jays, you want to see José so it’s very fitting for him to get the honour that he got today.”

Along with Bautista’s family, including his parents, wife and four daughters, the Blue Jays invited several of his former teammates, managers and coaches to be a part of the ceremony.

Former Blue Jays managers Cito Gaston and John Gibbons got a raucous ovation when they were introduced. A host of former players were greeted warmly, too, especially those from the postseason 2015-2016 clubs, including Smoak, Martin, Ryan Goins, Devon Travis and Edwin Encarnación.

But throughout the afternoon, the largest cheers, of course, were reserved for the man of the hour, who also threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who watched the ceremony from the dugout along with his teammates.

“I think just realizing how a city and a fan base can rally around a player and a team,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said of what he hoped his players would take away from the ceremony. “It was a cool couple-year run with that core group of guys and José was probably the face of it. Whenever you can really highlight a really cool time in a team’s history and have it be one player, but having it be that team highlighted (as well), I think it’s great for guys to see.”

As part of the ceremony, the Blue Jays presented Baustisa with several gifts, including a donation of $100,000 on his behalf to Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and the introduction of the “Joey Bats All-Star Award” to be given to six individuals annually by the Jays Care Foundation. Bautista also received two custom-designed Muskoka chairs, a diamond No. 19 chain, a mural of the bat-flip moment that will be displayed at 99 Spadina Ave., and a framed jersey and photo from his one-day contract signing press conference.

Unfortunately, the current Blue Jays couldn’t honour Bautista with a victory, falling to the hot-hitting Cubs for the second straight game.

The Blue Jays fell behind 4-1 in the fourth inning after starter Chris Bassitt gave up a three-run home run to Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson. Whit Merrifield’s two-run shot in the fifth made it 4-3 and then in the sixth inning, shortstop Santiago Espinal hit a double into the gap that should have scored two runs easily and put the Blue Jays up by one, but it bounced over the centre-field wall, which held them to one run on account of the ground-rule double.

That came back to haunt Toronto when reliever Jordan Hicks gave up a pair of doubles to Cody Bellinger and Christopher Morel in the ninth inning which put the Cubs ahead 5-4 for good.

“Welcome to 2023,” Schneider said after the game, referring to the Blue Jays’ bad luck on what could’ve been a go-ahead double instead of a tying one. “That rule sucks. (Espinal) works a 3-2 count, hits the ball on the nose and (Cavan Biggio’s) going to score easily so such is life with runners in scoring position for us it seems right now, but you just keep doing that, things will be all right.”

The loss means the Blue Jays could slip out of the American League’s third wild-card spot if the Seattle Mariners win on Saturday night. With 43 games left to be played, Schneider said he’s not concerned.

“There’s a lot of time left and I think where we end up is totally different than where we are now with who’s coming back from the injured list and things like that so not concerned at all,” the Blue Jays manager said.

Of course, with Bautista in the house, it was a fresh reminder of what playoff glory truly means in Toronto. These Blue Jays have the next six weeks to play their best baseball so they can experience that feeling, too. In the meantime, Bautista got his chance to thank the fans for those memories one last time.

“I want to thank you, the fans, who especially during those crazy wonderful days in 2015 and ’16 filled the stadium, watched by the millions on television and lived and died with every pitch,” Bautista said. “I know for many of you, those memories will last a lifetime. We could feel your love and support. We played for the city. We played for this country. We played for each other. But most of all, we played for you.”

(Top photo of José Bautista: Kevin Sousa / USA Today)