LOS ANGELES — In the rafters of the Rogers Centre, above the scoreboard and the field-facing hotel windows, a line of banners honors the history of the Toronto Blue Jays. Most of the flags recognize the franchise’s playoff seasons. The one on the far right shows the number 32.
It is rendered in the team’s distinctive style and represents Roy Halladay, the only Blue Jay with a retired number. But because there is no name alongside it, a quick glance could conjure another meaning for 32: the number of years since Toronto last won a title.
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Nobody in the Blue Jays’ lineup for Game 5 of the World Series, an emphatic 6-1 thumping of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday, was alive in 1993. But the number 32 hangs above them all, literally, as a burden of history and a beacon of hope.
It reminds them that Toronto once ruled the baseball world, first in 1992 and then when Joe Carter’s home run ended the next season in a burst of national pride.
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