Blue Jays Flashback: Duane Ward
He was the first half of the most overpowering and beloved bullpen duo in Toronto Blue Jays’ history, and Kevin Glew wants to have his say on a Rogers Centre legend.
Say “Ward and Henke” to almost any longtime Blue Jays fan and they’ll tell you it was lights out with those two pitching at the end of games.
Still, I can’t but feel that neither has been given their proper due in Blue Jays’ lore.
Late last year, I made my case for why Tom Henke’s No. 50 deserves to be on the Blue Jays’ Level of Excellence, but there are also plenty of reasons to celebrate Duane Ward.
Consider this: Ward, one of the greatest set-up men of his era, pitched over 100 innings in five straight seasons from 1988 to 1992. No major league reliever, who has pitched exclusively out of the bullpen, has had five consecutive 100-inning seasons since.
And just how important was Ward to the Blue Jays’ World Series-winning teams?
In eight Fall Classic appearances in 1992 and 1993, the hard-throwing right-hander was 3-0 with a 1.13 ERA with two saves and 13 strikeouts in eight innings.
So yes, Ward should be regarded as one of the greatest pitchers in Blue Jays’ history, and there should be more acknowledgement of his feats at Rogers Centre.
Ward couldn’t have imagined such success north of the border when he was growing up in the Southwestern United States. Born in 1964 in Park View, New Mexico, Ward starred for his high school baseball and basketball teams. By his senior year, he had impressed enough on the mound to convince the Atlanta Braves to select him in the first round (ninth overall) of the 1982 MLB draft.
Ward began his minor league career as a starting pitcher. Armed with a mid-to-high 90s fastball and work-in-progress slider, the raw right-hander showed flashes of brilliance during his ascent up the Braves’ ranks. He was overpowering and wild, often in the same game. In his five seasons in the Braves’ system, he never had an ERA lower than 4.29.
Despite issuing 113 walks in the minors in 1985, Ward cracked the Braves’ Opening Day roster in 1986 and posted a 7.31 ERA in 10 relief appearances before being sent back down to Triple-A.
That July, the Braves had the opportunity to acquire veteran right-hander Doyle Alexander from the Blue Jays and they parted with the 22-year-old Ward. It proved to be one of the best trades in Blue Jays’ history.
The Blue Jays assigned Ward to the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs where he focused on becoming a reliever. He made two appearances for the Blue Jays that September but would spend the bulk of the season and the ensuing campaign in Triple-A.
After a strong spring in 1988, he made the Blue Jays’ Opening Day roster and would enjoy a breakout big league campaign. Sliding into the set-up role in front of Henke, Ward went 9-3 with a 3.30 ERA with 15 saves in 64 appearances, spanning 111-2/3 innings.
He returned to the set-up role in 1989 and added 15 more saves to help the Blue Jays capture their second American League East title.
In 1990, Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston relied on Ward even more heavily. Sixteen times that season, Ward pitched three or more innings out of the bullpen, resulting in him tossing a career-high 127-2/3 innings.
However, it was Ward’s next two seasons that were his best in the set-up role. In 1991, he made an American League-leading 81 appearances, posted a 2.77 ERA and fanned a career-high 132 batters in 107-1/3 innings. He also had 23 saves. For his efforts, he finished ninth in the American League Cy Young Award voting.
And he was even better in 1992, when he recorded a career-best 1.95 ERA in 79 appearances and struck out 103 in 101-1/3 innings to help the Blue Jays to their first World Series title.
Following the 1992 season, Henke departed to sign with the Texas Rangers and Ward was moved into the Blue Jays’ closer’s role where he excelled, posting a 2.13 ERA while securing an American League-leading and franchise record 45 saves. He fanned 97 batters in 71-2/3 innings and finished fifth in the American League Cy Young Award voting.
Unfortunately, all of those 100-inning seasons took their toll and he was sidelined in 1994 with a torn rotator cuff and bicep tendinitis. He attempted a comeback with the Blue Jays in 1995 but made just four appearances, which would be his last in the majors.
In all, Ward pitched parts of nine seasons with the Blue Jays and sits near the top in many of the club’s all-time pitching categories (minimum 500 innings pitched), including second in appearances (452), ERA (3.18), saves (121) and hits per nine innings (7.317).
Since hanging up his playing spikes, Ward has been active at Blue Jays alumni events. In recent years, he was one of the lead instructors at youth baseball clinics hosted by the Toronto Blue Jays Academy and the Jays Care Foundation.
In 2020, Ward got some much-deserved recognition when he was elected into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ont.
Henke had been inducted in 2011.
And today, when you walk into the plaque gallery at the Canadian ball hall, it only seems fitting that the most overpowering and beloved bullpen duo is reunited in that magical room.
“Ward and Henke!” I’m always tempted to say when I enter that room.
To which a longtime Blue Jays fan would more than likely respond: “Those two were lights out at the end of games.”