Elliott: Remembering Blue Jays reliever Duane Ward

July 19, 2026

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

On the ride home from Saturday’s game, I was trying to think of the last time Blue Jays fans left the Rogers Centre this happy after a regular-season win.

_ The statue they had been clamoring for for about 32 years or so when Joe Carter hit his walk-off homer against Mitch Williams to win Game 6 of the 1993 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

_ Fans went home with giveaways of replica World Series rings from 1992 and 1993.

_ And they went home with a win. The Blue Jays had kicked the crap out of the Chicago White Sox -- as Seattle Pilots manager Joe Schultz used to say after close wins -- by a 1-0 score.

(Well, maybe the fans went home that happy last Sept. 13 when the Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Rays 13-4, clinching the American League East division on the final day of the season.)

Many of the members of the 1992-93 World Series team were there and the press was invited to Level 400 for interviews with players. We spoke with familiar faces like manager Cito Gaston, Hall of Famers Jack Morris and Paul Molitor, Pat Borders, Juan Guzman, Pat Hentgen, John Olerud, Ed Sprague, Devon White, Tom Henke and Carter himself.

We asked Carter, “How on earth was he going to stand outside the Rogers Centre through all of the cold and January on one foot?” Carter gave me a puzzled look. The Kingston joke didn’t land so I added, “That’s why they put up the statue.”

Now whether it was “I’ve had enough of talking to this old goat,” or whether they knew I had a good relationship with some players four or five asked “Have you seen Todd Stottlemyre? Did you see Al Leiter? Have you seen Pat Gillick? Did you get to talk to Duane Ward?”

Someone added “Ward is not here -- he was with us last night -- but he’s not at the game.”

Another pair of players also said, “We don’t know where Ward is.”

Blue Jays champions (left to right) C Pat Borders, RHP Todd Stottlemyre, 3B Ed Sprague, LHP Al Leiter, 3B Kelly Gruber, RP Duane Ward, OF Turner Ward and RP Tom Henke. Photo: Todd Stottlemyre/X

It was the fourth or fifth inning ... I did not give it another thought. I used to watch Hall of Fame closer Lee Arthur Smith lumber to the bullpen on his bad knees in the seventh inning.

I awoke this morn and thought of Don Drysdale, the Hall of Famer who died in a Montreal hotel room in 1993, Blue Jays broadcaster John Cerutti who passed the final day of the 2004 season and St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Darryl Kile, who passed in 2023. All passed during their sleep in a hotel.

Duane Ward? Could that be the reason he wasn’t there? Nah. He was as bullet-proof as any reliever I ever saw.

Then, I checked my email. There it was: at 8:56 AM. A release stating that Ward, 62, had passed. The first graph read: “It 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.”

I should have followed the trail of hints from Saturday afternoon. But that is a selfish reaction.

My first reaction should be to extend sympathies to a champion Blue Jay.

His first spring in Dunedin I saw Ward in the bullpen -- before camp opened. He was throwing without a name on the back of his jersey.

I asked a coach who the heck is that? Because he threw hard.

“That,” said the coach, “is an arm surgery waiting to happen -- his delivery is too violent.”

That son of a buck could pitch. He was a workhorse that could pull a plow from dawn to dusk as set-up man and fill in for closer Tom Henke when needed. He threw 111 2/3 innings with 15 saves in 1988, 114 2/3 with 15 saves the next year, then 127 2/3 and 11 saves in 1990, 107 1/3 innings with 23 saves in 1991 and 101 1/3 innings closing out 12 games when the Jays won their first World Series in 1992. He averaged 112 innings over the five seasons.

After Henke departed to join the Texas Rangers as a free agent, Ward took over, saving 45 games and earning an all-star selection in 71 2/3 innings.

I’ll say this about Ward: Robbie Alomar and Ward probably met more Canadians, shook hands with more Canadians, and talked to more Canadians than any other Blue Jay, Both travelled coast to coast, with their pre-Tournament 12 tryout sessions, their JaysCare Foundation camps and their participation in the T-12 tournament, than any other ex-Jay. Ward was known to young Canadians from Kelowna, BC to Moncton and beyond.

Each year at the T-12 (now the Canadian Futures Showcase) I ask instructors -- Devon White, Lloyd Moseby, Tanyon Sturtze and others -- the top 10 prospects they saw during the event. Ward’s list was always the same -- nothing but pitchers on his top 10 list.

Ward’s actual cause of death won’t be known until the coroner completes his examination. It could be the man with the violent delivery passed peacefully in his sleep.

Rest in peace.