Saskatoon-born man helps tell Toronto Blue Jays’ 50-year story

As Major League Baseball’s 2026 season comes to an end, it will be viewed as a disappointment by many Blue Jays fans, especially on the heels of an incredible 2025 campaign that saw them nearly win the World Series.

But 2026 was special in some ways for the Jays, as the franchise celebrated its 50th anniversary. The milestone has been commemorated with a new statue, the unveiling of the new Hall of Excellence and a special jersey patch.

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It has also been marked with a seven-part documentary series on Sportsnet, The Blue Jays Way, which chronicles the entire history of the team. And one Saskatoon-born man was instrumental in its production.

“It was just so exciting to see it all come together,” director of photography Mark Utley said.

“When you work on something for six months, and just knowing how many different people were involved in it. I’ve gotten calls and texts from friends and family and people in the industry from across the country, and we got great feedback from the Blue Jays.”

Utley began his career in film and television as a volunteer at the Shaw TV Community Station in Saskatoon at the age of 15, learning pretty much every role involved in production.

The skills he developed led him to work on larger-scale projects with Dome Productions — the company that provides the TV trucks for TSN and Sportsnet — and to a realization as he worked at the World Junior Hockey Tournament in Saskatoon in 2010.

“By the end of that event, I was like, ‘I need to go somewhere where I can do this more often.’ So I think my mind was made up before the final game that ‘I’m gonna move to Toronto and give it a shot.’ So I moved to Toronto in 2011, and a lot of my childhood dreams have come true,” Utley said.

Utley has continued to demonstrate his versatility, working on reality shows like the Netflix competition series Blown Away, as well as the biggest live sports imaginable.

He has done camera work at the Olympics, World Series, Stanley Cup Finals and NBA Finals.

“I try to be someone who can step into those different types of productions. It’s good for when one area gets a little slow, then you know you can pick something up in a different area,” Utley said.

“You know, I love doing documentaries and storytelling and getting to use my own gear and having some creative control over things too. I love live sports as well, but it’s definitely less creative.”

It was the best of both worlds when he was asked to take on the job of director of photography for The Blue Jays Way by producer Paul Sidhu.

Former Blue Jays pitcher Dave Stewart sits for an interview for The Blue Jays Way. (Mark Utley/Submitted)

“I’ve done a few projects with him, and he was kind enough to pick me to lead this one,” Utley said.

As director of photography, Utley was responsible for the look of the interview segments that stitched the story together.

“We decided on doing three cameras for everything, one of them being super wide, and that really required us to have great locations because with a super wide-angle shot, if you’re in a conference room in a hotel, with, as I like to say ‘50 Shades of Beige,’ a beige table and beige walls and curtains and everything, it’s not going to look great,” Utley said.

Still frames from the interview setups Mark Utley created for The Blue Jays Way, featuring John Olerud and Joe Carter. (Mark Utley/Submitted)

“Our producers really worked hard to get us amazing locations. The timing of the renovations at the Rogers Centre was pretty great for us, because they have amazing boardrooms, amazing club levels. We lucked into some great locations on the road as well.”

The road was a place Utley became highly familiar with during his time working on the project.

“I just hit super elite status with Air Canada as a result of this documentary. I lost count of the flights. It was dozens of flights, easily,” Utley said.

“I went to St. Louis, Dallas, California, Phoenix three times, I think, Minnesota, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and a bunch of other random cities that I’m forgetting.”

Utley’s globetrotting ways were necessitated by the massive scope of the project. He said the process began last December with an interview with former Blue Jays general manager Pat Gillick.

“And then we hit the ground running. We got a couple of other guys in December, and then January is when it really took off. And so I think that we did slightly over 100 interviews for this project between December and June,” Utley said.

Mark Utley got a chance to sit in the interviewee’s chair, as Blue Jays legend Jose Bautista (centre) reviewed the questions he was about to be asked. (Mark Utley/Submitted)

Planning, co-ordinating and filming this volume of material was a serious undertaking for all involved. But it also had some lighter moments, including one that led to Utley making a brief appearance in an episode, courtesy of the Jays’ legendary first baseman, Carlos Delgado.

“We’ve got our three cameras, so I would often get guests just to do one clap in front of their face, so that it’s easy for the editor to sync up the three angles. So I did that, and he said, ‘What, you guys don’t have a clapper?’ And they used it in the episode. So I’ve got a little vocal cameo in there.”

Another Jays legend made even more of an impression on Utley. Former outfielder Vernon Wells stuck around for about 45 minutes after his interview wrapped, telling stories that he “couldn’t tell on camera.”

“And then I was working the Blue Jays’ home opener, and I was in the camera well beside the dugout and I felt a tap at my shoulder and it’s Vernon Wells. He was there throwing out one of the ceremonial first pitches, and he came over to say hi. I couldn’t believe that he would have remembered me,” Utley said.

Utley admitted he wasn’t a huge baseball fan growing up, but that has changed dramatically since he moved to Toronto and began attending and working at games.

And his love of the team has only grown since getting the opportunity to be a part of sharing five decades of Jays history.

“These kinds of milestone projects don’t come along every year, obviously, so it’s really cool to have a part in Blue Jays history, or documenting it, anyway,” Utley said.

“It’s a cool time capsule. It will live on forever.”

The Blue Jays Way can be viewed on Sportsnet+.