“No way.”

That would have been the simple answer that Joe Carter would have had for you back in October of 1993 if you had told him that the second of the Toronto Blue Jays’ back-to-back World Series triumphs would be the last glory the team would experience to this day.

The architect of arguably the greatest moment in franchise history, his walk-off, three-run home run off of Philadelphia Phillies closer Mitch Williams in the ninth inning of Game 6 of the 1993 Fall Classic to give the Jays an 8-6 win and the world title, Carter is back in Toronto this week for the sixth-annual Joe Carter Classic charity golf tournament held just north of the city.

While Carter might have expected more for he and his star-studded squad that included future Hall of Famers in Roberto Alomar and Paul Molitor, the five-time All-Star cites the story of baseball’s Iron Man as proof that nothing is a given when it comes to baseball.

“Cal Ripken said it best,” Carter explained to TSN.ca. “His first year [in 1982], he wins Rookie of the Year. Then, he’s [American League] MVP and wins the World Series [with the Baltimore Orioles in 1983]. He’s like, ‘I’m going to win it every year. I’m gonna go to the World Series.’ He didn’t go again. So you can’t take it for granted. That’s the reason why, when you get close to getting a chance to making the playoffs, you take advantage of it because you never know when you’re gonna be back.”

Though the relative mediocrity of the American League East this season means that the Blue Jays are alive and well in the division race, the team remains a below-.500 club and ending what is now a 21-year post-season drought, the longest such active dearth in North American sports, remains an uphill battle.

If the playoff dream for the Blue Jays begins to fade for a 22nd-straight year, you can bet the knives will once again be out for the team in the local media. In recent days, shortstop Jose Reyes has been the latest target of criticism in Jays’ circles.

Carter had a way to tune out the external noise in his playing days.

“We didn’t really read the local papers,” Carter said. “You kinda just read the national papers because then they just talked about stats. The great thing for me, living in Kansas City, was that my kids never heard when I had a bad game because the only time they saw me was when I had a good game and the highlights. ‘Oh, Dad’s on TV. He had a good game.’”

Still, the now-55-year-old recognizes the sway the media has over a team’s narrative. When a club plays 162 games a season, a lot of ink is spilled and a lot of stories are told over the course of what is almost nine months from spring training to the World Series. Fairly or unfairly, a player’s connection to that narrative normally extends as far as the field. From there, the media picks it up.

“First of all, you’ve got to have thick skin,” Carter said of the media spotlight. “It comes with the territory. It’s not always fair, but media has the power of the pen. They basically have the last word. You can’t get caught up because no matter what you do, you’re not going to please everyone. I’ve always said, if you go out there and give it your best…if you look at yourself in the mirror and say, ‘Today, I gave it my best,’ that’s all anybody can ask of you.”

With some Jays, though, it might seem like more is being asked of them lately.

With injuries to Reyes, Devon Travis, Michael Saunders, Dioner Navarro and the absence of Jose Bautista playing the field for two weeks with a shoulder ailment, the Jays have been a patchwork configuration at times, seemingly having to force square pegs into round holes and field players out of their natural positions. This arrangement has proven costly at times for the team through misplays and errors.

For Carter, the benefit of young players getting comfortable in multiple positions is obvious.

“My dad always told me, be in a position to play more than one position because then, they’re going to utilize you a little bit more,” Carter said. “If you find yourself just being able to play only one position, you can be expendable. When I came up [with the Cleveland Indians in 1984], I remember my big league coach, Pat Corrales, asked me – and I was basically just an outfielder – if I’d played any first base before. He was looking for me to get a little more playing time, so I said yeah. I’d never played a day of first base before in my life. Then, eight years later, where am I at? The biggest game of my life, Game 6 of the World Series, I’m at first base – playing first base for the Blue Jays and I get the last out of the game.”

Having spent significant time at every outfield position over his 16-year career and playing 295 games at first base, Carter believes duty to your club outweighs any hesitance in stepping outside your comfort zone when it comes to being asked to play a different position.

“For guys having to switch, it’s all about the team,” Carter said. “It’s baseball. If you’re asked to go from shortstop to second base or second base to third base or the outfield, all these guys are able to do that. If you’re not, then I think that takes way from being a team player. You just look at your individual statistics. When you win and you’re a champion, you’re a champion and it seems like that follows you throughout your whole career, so you’ll always get the benefit of the doubt. I’ve always said the pie is big enough for everybody.”

If it’s not, then ultimately, the manager will fall on the sword. So far in 2015, the season has already seen the Milwaukee Brewers part ways with Ron Roenicke and the Miami Marlins dismiss Mickey Redmond. With the Jays’ recent run of good form, any talk there might have been surrounding the dismissal of skipper John Gibbons has ebbed for now. But the talk never stays away for long. If the losses begin to pile up again, so will the rumours.

“You feel a little bad because it’s because you haven’t performed,” Carter said of watching a manager get fired. “Like they say, it’s easier to fire one guy than it is to fire 25 guys. But the reason why a manager gets fired, it’s because the players have not produced the way they should be producing. It has to fall on someone. The managers, they say it best: you’re hired to be fired. So it’s not a matter of if you get fired,  it’s a matter of when because sooner or later, your time will come – for even the best – where you’re going to be let go or fired and it’s time to make changes.”

One thing that seemingly hasn’t changed is the esteem in which the city of Toronto holds Carter. Even two decades removed from one of the iconic moments in the city’s sporting lore, Carter feels just as welcome every time he returns.

“The way they feel for me is the way I feel for them,” Carter said of Torontonians. “The feeling is mutual. My seven years here in Toronto and then post-baseball, it’s even been better with the reception that I get for all the work that everybody’s done for the golf tournament, the Children’s Aid Foundation. It’s a love-love relationship that’s win-win for both sides. This is my second-favourite city [after Kansas City]. This is my second home because I love coming back here and it’s the people that I meet, the friendships that I’ve acquired throughout the years and [the tournament] just gets bigger and bigger every year.”

One of these days, though, Carter hopes to be returning to a Toronto celebrating another World Series title.