Flashback Friday: The Canadian Living Blue Jays Issue

Whether you’re a professional athlete making tens of millions of dollars a year, or whether you’re just an average Joe, there is a common thread among all of us; we all need food to survive. Yes, food is the great equalizer among us all.

Perhaps that was the reason behind a special Blue Jays centric edition of one of Canada’s most beloved publications for almost 37 years. For this week’s Flashback Friday, we take a look at the 1994 edition of Canadian Living & the Blue Jays.

To those who have one of these Canadian Living magazines stuffed away in your parent’s attic or in a cardboard box somewhere in the catacombs of your basement, you know how impressive this issue was.

The main hallmark was that this Canadian Living issue not only featured 49 recipes (16 in total by Blue Jays players), but there are also lots of great articles and interviews featured in this exclusive issue.

Below are just a few of the select recipes from the Blue Jays players families. It ranges from the Carter Family Corn Pudding, to Juan Guzman’s mother’s recipe for braised goat (seriously), and the Olerud family omelette.

 
To those who feeling like cooking up some of the Blue Jays favourites, here are individual links to each and every recipe. Collect and trade them with all your friends! I’m sure these would come in handy for your next block party.

The Spragues’ Toasted Mushroom Bread
The Craigs’ Maryland Crab Cakes
The Spragues’ Hot Cheesy Mexican Dip
The Carters’ Corn Pudding
The Timlins’ Jerked Chicken
The Oleruds’ Omelette
Francia Correa de Guzman’s Braised Goat
The Knorrs Hot & Spicy Chili
The Borders’ Sweet Potato Casserole
The Stottlemyres’ Lasagna
Maria Velazquez de Alomar’s Chicken
The Leiters’ Chicken Primavera
The Olerud’s Beef and Bean Burritos
The Coleses’ Lemonade Ice Cream Cake
Angel Food Cake for Coleses’ Ice Cream Cake
The Craigs’ Creme de Menthe Brownies

In addition to all the recipes from the Blue Jays players families, the magazine has quite a few great articles as well. There’s some great candid shots as evidenced below, when Ed Sprague measured up Jerry Howarth against John Olerud.

 
And then there’s a visual tutorial on grips for pitches courtesy of former Blue Jays pitching coach Galen Cisco.

 
Heck, there was even an insert where fans could win Joe Carter’s 1994 Honda Ex. It had a suggested retail value of $27,000 dollars, and was previously driven by Joe Carter. So maybe they should have renamed the contest “Win Joe Carter’s Used Car!”

 
I always love when baseball players are photographed outside of their natural environment. Here’s Pat Borders and Todd Stottlemyre having a “fish out of water” moment during a fishing trip.

 
Through Canadian Living, we also learned that in addition to fishing, Stottlemyre enjoys grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

If you ever happen to stumble across the Canadian Living & the Blue Jays issue, I highly recommend picking one up. You can usually find them on eBay for less than $20 dollars, and it’s a great conversation starter for any dinner party.