‘I didn’t pack another hat’: Toronto Blue Jays will likely wear white-panel caps as good-luck charm in Game 3 of ALDS

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Kevin Gausman (34) delivers to the New York Yankees during the first inning of game 1 in MLB American League Division Series baseball action in Toronto on Saturday, October 4, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Don’t be surprised if the Toronto Blue Jays have a retro look when they take the field at Yankee Stadium.

The Blue Jays have worn a white-panelled cap, a throwback look based on the hats the 1992 World Series champions wore, in critical games this season. Toronto could complete a sweep New York on Tuesday in Game 3 of the best-of-five American League Division Series.

“I didn’t pack another hat,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said with a smile on Monday when asked if he believed the caps were good luck.

The ball caps were standard for Toronto when it beat the Atlanta Braves in six games to win its first World Series championship in 1992. The next season they were replaced by all-blue caps when the Blue Jays successfully defended their title.

Toronto has gone through several uniform changes since then, including a predominantly black look highlighted with blue and silver in the 2000s before a return to its more classic 1993 style in 2012.

Alternate uniforms have been peppered into the Blue Jays’ sartorial rotation, including a 1980s-inspired powder-blue look, an all-red uniform usually reserved for Canada Day weekend, and a City Connect jersey worn on Fridays.

Although the white-panel cap with a modernized logo was introduced back in 2015, it hadn’t been used this season until Sept. 25.

Closer Jeff Hoffman suggested the white-panel caps make a comeback as a sort of good-luck charm as Toronto needed to finish the regular season with four-straight wins to clinch the American League East title.

Hoffman had kept the idea in the back of his head as an option all year. When he heard two clubhouse attendants discussing what jerseys to lay out for the end of the regular season, he asked them if the retro look was a possibility.

“‘I heard we have those with our real logo, is that true?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, we’ve got them up upstairs,’” recalled Hoffman last week. “I was like, ‘Let’s bring them out, it’s no better time.’ I think everybody was on board without me even saying it.

“It was just like who was going to offer the proposal to wear them and everybody was on board.”

Toronto went on to beat the Boston Red Sox 6-1 that night, then sweep the Tampa Bay Rays in the final three games of the regular season.

The Blue Jays donned the caps in their 10-1 win over New York on Saturday in Game 1 of the ALDS and again in Sunday’s 13-7 thumping of the Yankees.

“This hat was hanging in my locker, so it’s the hat I’m going to wear,” said veteran outfielder George Springer before Game 1. “I don’t make that decision.

“I know we busted these hats out a few games ago, I believe, and here they are again.”

Toronto pitcher Kevin Gausman said he wasn’t picky about what uniform he would wear. But Gausman also said he won’t wear anything except the white-panel cap.

“I don’t pick the jerseys,” said Gausman on Saturday after earning the win in Game 1. “I just kind of show up, and that’s what it is.

“I probably would have switched (the cap) if it was anything different.”

— With files from Gregory Strong in New York City.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 6, 2025.

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press