Duane Ward

Roy Duane Ward was born on May 28, 1964, in Park View, New Mexico, to Tommy and Evelyn Ward. His father worked as an oil-field worker for Halliburton for many years, and his mother managed stores and restaurants, among them a Dairy Queen. Duane had an older brother, Tommy, and two younger brothers, Gary and Mike. All four boys played school sports, but only Duane went on to play professionally. He grew up in the Farmington area of northwest New Mexico.

Ward attended Farmington High School, home of one of New Mexico's best known high school baseball programmes. He pitched for the Scorpions and filled in at other positions, often playing weekend doubleheaders against teams from Albuquerque and Santa Fe. He was also a standout basketball forward and helped Farmington to a 26-0 record and the 1981-82 New Mexico Activities Association Class 4A state championship. In summer baseball he starred in the American Amateur Baseball Congress and the Connie Mack World Series, and his plaque hangs in the Connie Mack World Series Hall of Fame at Ricketts Park in Farmington. The Atlanta Braves drafted him out of high school in 1982.

The Braves chose Ward ninth overall in the first round of the June 1982 draft, four picks after Dwight Gooden. He pitched for Braves farm teams in the Gulf Coast League, Anderson, Durham, Greenville and Richmond before making his major league debut on April 12, 1986, with a scoreless eighth inning at Houston in a game started by Nolan Ryan. On July 6, 1986, Atlanta traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays for Doyle Alexander.

After time with Triple-A Syracuse, Ward became a full-time major league reliever in 1988 and set up for closer Tom Henke through 1992. He led the American League with 81 appearances in 1991, when he struck out 132 and finished ninth in Cy Young voting, and he posted a 1.95 ERA in 1992. He won Games 2 and 3 of the 1992 World Series against Atlanta as Toronto won its first title.

With Henke gone, Ward became the closer in 1993 and saved 45 games, a Blue Jays record that still stands, while tying Jeff Montgomery for the AL lead. He made the All-Star team, finished fifth in Cy Young voting and 22nd for MVP. He saved the ALCS clincher against the White Sox, saved Games 1 and 4 of the World Series against the Phillies, and won Game 6, which ended with Joe Carter's walk-off home run.

Arm injuries, including biceps tendinitis and a torn rotator cuff, kept him out for all of 1994. He pitched four games for Toronto in 1995, the last on June 22 against Milwaukee, and after a brief minor league stint in the Chicago Cubs system his playing career ended. In 452 games for Toronto he went 32-37 with a 3.28 ERA, 679 strikeouts and 121 saves.

Ward became one of the Blue Jays' most active alumni. He was a lead instructor for the Toronto Blue Jays Academy and Jays Care Foundation clinics and, by his own account, started the club's Honda Super Camps in 2010, running three-day youth camps each summer in cities from Kelowna and Vancouver to Halifax, Charlottetown and St. John's until the COVID-19 pandemic halted them in 2020. Former Blue Jays president Paul Beeston said Ward was the first to start the coaches and player clinics across the country. From 2014 he also worked fill-in games as a colour commentator on Blue Jays radio for Sportsnet 590 The Fan, including a stretch in the booth with Jerry Howarth, and he contributed to Sportsnet coverage of the team.

Ward was married to Leah, and they had two children, Drylee and Bishop. His family described him as a devoted husband and a loving father. The couple spent many years living in Durango, Colorado, and in the Las Vegas area of Nevada, and Tom Henke said Ward had travelled to Toronto from his home in Henderson, Nevada. Ward kept a very low profile, with no social media presence, saying he preferred to keep personal things personal. His family said he enjoyed golf, discovered a love of cooking and grilling, and loved spending time with and caring for his dogs.

Ward often spoke about the brotherhood of the championship Blue Jays. "It was one family," he told MLB.com in 2020. He credited the people around him for his success, saying on his Hall of Fame election that "you don't do it by yourself." Even after injuries ended his career early, he said he would not change anything about it, and he saw teaching young players as a way to pass on what he had learned to the next generation.

Ward is remembered as one half of the Henke and Ward bullpen that let manager Cito Gaston joke his teams only had to play seven-inning games. His 45 saves in 1993 remain the Blue Jays single-season record more than three decades later, and his 452 appearances and 121 saves rank second in franchise history. Sportsnet ranked him 21st on its list of the greatest Blue Jays, and writer Rob Neyer rated him the second-best reliever in team history. Beyond the mound, his youth camps brought coaching from World Series champions to young players across Canada.

Two-time World Series champion (1992, 1993). American League All-Star (1993). American League saves leader (1993, tied, 45 saves). American League leader in games pitched (1991, 81). Fifth in AL Cy Young voting (1993) and ninth (1991). Inductee of the Connie Mack World Series Hall of Fame. Elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020.

Ward's most replayed moments come from the 1993 World Series: the final out of Game 1 at SkyDome, the last four outs of the 15-14 Game 4 slugfest in Philadelphia, and his role as the winning pitcher in Game 6, the "Touch 'em all, Joe!" game. He appeared in MLB Network's #WeKnowPostseason series and in Sportsnet's Quarantine Chronicles interviews in 2020, and he was a regular guest at Blue Jays alumni events and broadcasts.

Ward travelled to Toronto in July 2026 for the Blue Jays' weekend celebrating their 1992 and 1993 championship teams, including the unveiling of the Back-to-Back World Series statue at Rogers Centre. He attended a dinner with former teammates on Friday night, leaving early because he was tired after the trip, but did not appear at Saturday's ceremony. He was found dead in his Toronto hotel room on Saturday, July 18, 2026, after a wellness check was requested. He was 62. The Blue Jays announced his death the next morning and said he had died of natural causes; no more specific cause was made public. His family said he passed away suddenly and peacefully. The team held a moment of silence and a video tribute before its game against the Chicago White Sox on July 19. A funeral was scheduled for July 30, 2026, in Farmington, New Mexico, where his family said he wanted his final resting place to be, near his family.