Blue Jays make the playoffs? That's so '90s!

Justin McGuire

Blue Jays make the playoffs? That's so '90s! image

In October 1993, Michael Jordan retired from the NBA and the Blue Jays won the World Series. In the 22 years since, His Airness has retired two more times, but Toronto has not returned to baseball's postseason.

Until now.

The Jays clinched a spot in the 2015 playoffs Friday, ending baseball's longest drought. In fact, the Blue Jays were the only team that had not participated in October baseball this century.

MORE: Best Blue Jays ever | Memorable stars of the '90s

A lot has changed in that time, so let's take a look back at that magical year of 1993, when Bill Clinton began his first term as president, Bryce Harper was an infant and MLB had 28 teams, no interleague play and no wild cards.

— In Canada, the prime minister was Kim Campbell, whose brief term started in June and ended in November. The NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs began a 43-29-12 season on Oct. 7, an off day between Games 2 and 3 of the ALCS. The NBA's Toronto Raptors wouldn't exist for two more years.

— Like 2015, 1993 was a year of massive changes in late night television. As October began, Fox canceled "The Chevy Chase Show" less a month after it began. "Late Show with David Letterman," which debuted on CBS in late August, would prove to be much more successful. So would "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," which first aired on Sept. 13 and ran through 2009.

— Also debuting that fall was "Frasier," a spinoff of the wildly popular "Cheers," which went off the air in May as the baseball season was hitting its stride. "Frasier" went on to air 11 seasons and win 37 Emmys.

— On the other end of the TV spectrum: "Beavis and Butt-head," which first aired on MTV during spring training and was a genuine (and controversial) pop culture phenomenon by the time Joe Carter hit his famous walkoff homer on Oct. 23.

— Other popular TV shows during the 1993-94 season included "Home Improvement," "Seinfeld," "Roseanne" and "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air."

— At the movies, 1993 was the year of "Jurassic Park," which became the highest grossing film of all time following its June 11 release. But for baseball fans, 1993 perhaps is best remembered for "The Sandlot," released on April 7 (the Blue Jays beat the Mariners 2-0 that day). Another beloved sports movie, "Rudy," hit theaters on Oct. 13, the day after Toronto beat the White Sox to take the AL pennant.

— In the U.S., Mariah Carey's "Dreamlover" hit the top of  the pop charts the week of Sept. 11 and stayed there through the end of the World Series. It was the No. 1 song in Canada for much of the same period. Nirvana's "In Utero"  was the No. 1 album in the U.S. the week Toronto won the pennant.

— On Sept. 24, as the Jays were closing in on the AL East title, the Macintosh computer game "Myst" hit stores and went on to set sales records and spark the sale of CD-ROM drives. Yes, CD-ROMs were a really big deal in 1993. This was the kind of computer you could use to play "Myst" and other popular games like "The 7th Guest" and "Star Wars: Rebel Assault":

-- The world of computers was changing rapidly, though. In December, less than two months after Carter's homer, The New York Times made its first reference to something called "the World-Wide Web." The Gray Lady described the web to its readers as "an international string of computer data bases that uses an information-retrieval architecture developed in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer specialist at the CERN physics laboratory in Geneva."

— Born in 1993: Ariana Grande, Anthony Davis, Angus T. Jones, Jordan Spieth, Francisco Lindor, Miguel Sano.

— Died in 1993: River Phoenix, Arthur Ashe, Dizzy Gillespie, Audrey Hepburn, Thurgood Marshall, Don Drysdale, Roy Campanella.

1993 IN BASEBALL

— On April 5, opening day marked the first games ever played by the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins. Also that day, this happened:

— In June, the Mariners made 17-year-old Alex Rodriguez the first overall pick in the MLB Draft, resulting in the most 1993 photo possible. The denim! The phone!

— The oldest active player in 1993 was Nolan Ryan. He's now 68.

— The oldest Blue Jay was 38-year-old Jack Morris. The Toronto roster included future Hall of Famers Roberto Alomar, Rickey Henderson and Paul Molitor.

— The Jays won a seven-team AL East that included the Brewers, Indians and Tigers. The move to six divisions and a wild card in each league came in 1994.

— Making their MLB debuts in 1993: Chipper Jones, Manny Ramirez, Carlos Delgado, Trevor Hoffman.

— Playing their last MLB games in 1993: Ryan, George Brett, Dale Murphy, Carlton Fisk, Robin Yount.

— The World Series aired on CBS in the United States and CTV in Canada.

Justin McGuire