Jays will likely wear white-panel caps in Game 3

Don't be surprised if the Toronto Blue Jays have a retro look when they take the field at Yankee Stadium.

Don’t be surprised if the Toronto Blue Jays have a retro look when they take the field at Yankee Stadium.

The Blue Jays have worn a white-panelled cap, a throwback look based on the hats the 1992 World Series champions wore, in critical games this season. Toronto could complete a sweep New York on Tuesday in Game 3 of the best-of-five American League Division Series.

“I didn’t pack another hat,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said with a smile on Monday when asked if he believed the caps were good luck.

The ball caps were standard for Toronto when it beat the Atlanta Braves in six games to win its first World Series championship in 1992. The next season they were replaced by all-blue caps when the Blue Jays successfully defended their title.

Toronto has gone through several uniform changes since then, including a predominantly black look highlighted with blue and silver in the 2000s before a return to its more classic 1993 style in 2012.

Alternate uniforms have been peppered into the Blue Jays’ sartorial rotation, including a 1980s-inspired powder-blue look, an all-red uniform usually reserved for Canada Day weekend, and a City Connect jersey worn on Fridays.

Although the white-panel cap with a modernized logo was introduced back in 2015, it hadn’t been used this season until Sept. 25.

Closer Jeff Hoffman suggested the white-panel caps make a comeback as a sort of good-luck charm as Toronto needed to finish the regular season with four-straight wins to clinch the American League East title.