On November 5, 1976 — The Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays each select thirty players in the expansion draft. Seattle picks Kansas City Royals’ outfielder Ruppert Jones, and Toronto selects Baltimore Orioles’ shortstop Bob Bailor as their team’s respective first picks.
The Blue Jays followed those picks with Jerry Garvin, Jim Clancy, Gary Woods, Rico Carty, Butch Edge, and Al Fitzmorris. Soon after being selected, Fitzmorris was flipped to Cleveland in a deal that landed Alan Ashby in Toronto. Later in the draft, with the 32nd selection, the Blue Jays grabbed Doug Ault from the Texas Rangers. Ault lives on in Blue Jays lore for his two home runs in Toronto’s first home game, a 9-5 win over the Chicago White Sox.
Just after Ault with the 34th overall in the expansion draft, Toronto selected a catcher from the Boston Red Sox by the name of Ernie Whitt. He went on to appear in 1,218 games over 12 seasons with the Blue Jays.
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