Diamond Dreams: 20 Years of Blue Jays Baseball

by Stephen Brunt

Genres: Baseball, Sports

390 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Stephen Brunt is a Canadian sports journalist, well known as a current columnist for Sportsnet.ca, Sportsnet, and as co-host to Jeff Blair on Writers Bloc alongside Richard Deitsch.

Brunt started at The Globe as an arts intern in 1982, after attending journalism school at the University of Western Ontario. He then worked in news, covering the 1984 election, and began to write for the sports section in 1985. His 1988 series on negligence and corruption in boxing won him the Michener Award for public service journalism. In 1989, he became a sports columnist.

Nominated for several National Newspaper Awards, Brunt is also the author of seven books. His work Facing Ali, published in 2003, was named one of the ten best sports books of the year by Sports Illustrated. Brunt makes frequent appearances on sports talk radio shows such as Prime Time Sports and Melnick in the Afternoon on the Team 990 in Montreal. He has been the lead sports columnist for The Globe and Mail since 1989 and was a frequent sports panelist on TVOntario's now-defunct current affairs programme Studio 2. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2007.

He currently resides with his wife, Jeannie, in Hamilton, Ontario, spending much of his summer vacation in Winterhouse Brook, Newfoundland.

Reviews

[Jason Parke · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a book full of details, year by year, of the business side and playful side of Toronto Blue Jays baseball. The author effectively profiles the highs and lows of the first twenty years of the franchise, until the start of 1996, and doesn't sugarcoat what could have happened within the organization during its tenure, but infallibility describes what remains historical.

Players who have impacted the Blue Jays on the field, such as Dave Stieb and Roberto Alomar, and also those who maintain loyalty whether good or bad, such as Todd Stottelymre and Al Leiter, are mentioned sandwiches between detailed moments of the team's regular season and postseason triumphs and failures.

The Blue Jays front office is easily dissected in this read, with heavy focus on the Blue Jays' first and employee and eventual president Paul Beeston, widely respected around Major League Baseball.

Stephen Brunt, one of Canada's most proficlic sports writers delivers in this classic.

[Robert Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm new to baseball, not immersed in its culture, who has taken the Blue Jay's as my team. I found this a detailed but not heavy look through the franchise from the beginning to its glory years. It gave great insight into it's birth, the behind the scenes maneuvering over it's first 20 years as well as the on the field action. It helped me feel like I understand the club and the city of Toronto a bit more, the author allowed us a glimpse of what went on.

[Andrew Theobald · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun spring training read that brought back fond memories of the Blue Jays' glory days.

Sure, it's dated (Epy Guerrero is mentioned once - once!) and it's far too focused on the perspectives of the owners and the managers for my taste, but what have the Jays really done since 1993 anyway?

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read, synopsis of blue jay history and people behind it.