Blue Jays great Joe Carter tells team to take it ‘one game at a time’

Joe Carter offered a simple bit of advice for the Blue Jays as they continue to try to climb back into contention.

“It’s the old cliché: one game at a time. You can’t make up seven or eight games in two or three days, so you do it one at a time.”

The former Blue Jays great — who is nearing the 20th anniversary of his famous walk-off home run to win the 1993 World Series — was speaking at a fundraising event at the Rogers Centre on the eve of his annual Joe Carter Classic celebrity golf tournament.

“The thing we always said was, ‘Look, let’s try to win two out of three and never lose the rubber game,” Carter said. “If you do that you’ll be fine. It’s a slow process, but I think they got a chance to do it.”

Carter’s charity golf tournament, now in its fourth year, has raised more than $750,000 for the Children’s Aid Foundation through the Joe Carter Scholarship Fund and Joe Carter Family Support Fund.

“To see these young adults get the opportunity to succeed in life and for us to be able to help just by playing a little game of golf, I mean, it’s tremendous,” Carter said.

The event, sponsored by TD Canada Trust, Blackberry and Canada Goose, features current and former professional athletes from all major sports. Wayne Gretzky is among the players this year.

“We didn’t think it could get bigger,” Carter said. “Last year we had guys like Charlie Sheen. But this year the Great One comes down.”