Say “Shaker” and in Toronto pro sports history it can only mean Lloyd Moseby.

That’s how much of an impact the centre-fielder for the Toronto Blue Jays made during his tenure from 1980 through ’89. Drafted second overall out of Oakland High School in 1978, Shaker made his Blue Jays debut on May 24, 1980. He doubled off El Tiante (Yankees starter Luis Tiant) in the bottom of the fourth for his first Major League hit and added a single in the bottom of the ninth to complete a 2-for-4 arrival in The Show.

With the Killer B’s George Bell and Jesse Barfield at his sides the Blue Jays outfield possessed it all during the club’s transformation from MLB expansion club in 1977 to perennial AL East challenger starting with its first .500-plus season in 1983 (89-73). That season, Moseby became the first Blue Jay to score 100 runs in a season (104) when he also captured the Silver Slugger Award batting .315 with 18 homers and 81 runs batted in. For his career, Moseby boasts a 27.5 WAR. His 15 triples in 1984 tied teammate Dave Collins for the AL lead.

Moseby’s 255 stolen bases rank as the most by a Blue Jay. He’s second in triples (60), fourth in games (1,392), hits (1,319, doubles (242) and runs (768), fifth in extra-base hits (451), sixth in total bases (2,128) and ninth in home runs (149). An All-Star in 1986, Moseby called Bell’s final-out catch on October 5th, 1985 against the Yankees to seal Toronto’s first AL East title his career highlight. “Back then, if you didn’t take first place, you go home,” Moseby told Christina Butterfield in a profile in Blue Jays PlayBall! Magazine. “We certainly would have loved to have won a World Series, but we’d never even seen a pennant and that was just like, ‘Wow!’” The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inducted Bell (2013), Moseby (2018) and Barfield (2023) – honours richly deserved by the three amigos!