33 Years After His Walk Off World Series Winning Home Run, The Toronto Blue Jays Are Giving Joe Carter His Very Own Statue....But Why Did They Wait So Long?

I have a complicated relationship with Blue Jays fans, they all hate my guts and I hate most of them back. They may think I'm trolling with this blog but I'm dead serious when I ask what the hell took so long to get Joe Carter a statue outside of the Rogers  Centre? There's no denying that the Blue Jays have had some successful years recently but when you say "Blue Jays" you immediately think back to the famous "TOUCH EM ALL JOE!" clip. I was 4 when it happened and I still know the call like the back of my hand, it's one of the biggest plays in baseball HISTORY. Not just Blue Jays history, MLB history. So what the hell Toronto? Why did it take 33 years to get this man a statue? It's an all-time baseball moment, just the second time in history there's been a walk-off homer to decide a World Series game. How is that statue not up right away? It's something every kid dreams about, trailing in the bottom of the ninth inning with the winning run on base and you hit a homer to win the World Series? A storybook ending like that should have been celebrated a while ago.

Is it because it was the 2nd World Series win in a back-to-back run? They had just won it in 1992, so maybe it didn't matter as much? All I know is Nick Foles had a statue up like 29 seconds after Philly won that Super Bowl. I don't think the Eagles put that up but the point still stands, they got that shit up quick. I'm all for giving guys their flowers, I love that the Jays are giving him his shine in the most thankful way, I mean there really is no better way for someone to honor you than with a statue. I just figured it would have been up way before this year. 33 years is a long time for a guy like Carter to wait. And it's not like he was some guy who stopped in for a year, he was there for seven of his 16 years. Five time All-Star, finished top 5 in MVP voting twice for them, hit 203 home runs in a Jays uniform, he is Blue Jays baseball.  

Not to mention it's arguably the most famous home run of all time! What homer besides Bill Mazeroski's for the Pirates meant more in a game? If the Blue Jays were saving it for their 50th anniversary celebration I'd kind of understand, I just figured the statue would come pretty recently after the event. Maybe a decade, 15 years? Something like that. That would seem to make the most sense to me.

Especially while these guys are still alive too, I really don't like franchises waiting and waiting and waiting to celebrate these guys and then they end up passing away. Think about Franco Harris dying 4 days before the Steelers had retired his jersey #, why on earth are we waiting until he was 72 to retire his jersey? Carter is 65, it's not old but it's not young either! And like I said above, maybe they had this elaborate plan for 2 decades to celebrate year #50 in a big way with this, it just irks me that they waited that long. The plan could be in place, but I don't agree with it. And the reason it hasn't been done can't be money, these owners can afford all the statues they want.

I also think every ballpark and stadium in pro sports should have statues outside. Celebrating good athletes who meant a lot to your franchise and city is a good thing and I think more teams and fanbases need to do that. If you're a sports fan you know how much these guys can mean to people and cities, think about Mikey Bets crying at the Derrick Rose jersey retirement celebration. These guys mean a lot to a lot of people. So you heard it here first, every ballpark and stadium must have a statue from their franchises history in front of it, my new rule. Colleges do it well, Tebow got a statue VERY quickly after, RG3 has his statue, I think Kyler Murray has one? Heisman statues go up quick, so should all time MLB moments.

Give the guys their props and flowers while they are alive and can celebrate it with their friends and family. It's very cool that Joe Carter not only still works with the Blue Jays, but now will have his greatest moment immortalized forever in a place that is very special to him. It's cool for Joe, it's cool for the team, and it's cool for the fans. Let's just stop waiting so long, why take your time celebrating your legends and heroes.