Toronto Blue Jays fans react to team ditching the home run jacket as part of new attitude this season: "Time to get serious!" "A needed change!" 

The free-spirited Toronto Blue Jays squad is locking things down in 2023, hoping that paying more attention to functioning over form may get the team over the postseason hump.

The team announced that it is getting rid of the team's "Home Run Jacket," which players wore after hitting a round tripper in previous seasons.

Blue Jays manager John Schneider told the Toronto Sun on Wednesday:

"It’s time to go from a talented, fun team to a talented, fun team that’s going to scrap and claw and find ways to win games."

Toronto Blue Jays fans are split about the loss of the jacket. Many fans love the new no-nonsense spirit as the team seeks to make its first World Series appearance since back-to-back championships in 1992 and 1993.

Still, other Blue Jays fans lamented the loss of the ceremonial coat. Baseball is a game, after all, and games are supposed to be fun. Part of what makes Toronto successful, they argue, is the team's freewheeling clubhouse.

Some fans took a more philosophical approach - if the jacket helps the team win then keep it, if it doesn't, then lose it.

Of course, ditching the jacket doesn't mean that Blue Jays players couldn't do something even more profound to celebrate home runs.

Toronto Blue Jays yearning for a World Series

Bench coach Don Mattingly #23 of the Toronto Blue Jays directs players on the practice field

Joe Carter hit a walk-off home run off Philadelphia Phillies closer Mitch Williams to win the 1993 World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays. After back-to-back championships in 1992 and 1993, Toronto did not qualify for the postseason again until the first of two straight American League Championship Series appearances in 2015 and 2016.

The Blue Jays lost both times, first to the Kansas City Royals and then to the Cleveland Guardians.

While Toronto has made the playoffs again in two of the past three seasons, both of those postseason forays ended in Wild-Card Round defeat. Blue Jays players, management, and fans are bursting at the seams for the team to make it back to the World Series for the first time in a generation.