If you ask the Blue Jays' marketing department, their Toronto MLB franchise is "Canada's Team [Canada flag emoji]." It's a statement that, while technically true, is also false, and is offensive to the silent majority of Canadian baseball fans.
More honest slogans might be "Canada's ONLY Team," or "We Claimed This Title After The Expos Folded in 2004."
Before you even think of trying to cancel me for this lukewarm take you should know that the Jays are one of my favourite teams.
They're the team I cheer for in the American League, and the Minor League team I cheer for from my season ticket holder seat six days a week (the Vancouver Canadians) is their High-A affiliate.
While I like the Jays, I love the Los Angeles Dodgers. To me, a Canadian baseball fan, the Dodgers are "Canada's Team."
They're my team.
Some of my friends choose the Red Sox as "Canada's Team," others choose the Yankees, and even more are Mariners fans. Heck, even the Cubs are "Canada's Team" to one of my pals (we try not to hold it against him).
At a recent Jays at Dodgers game in L.A. I asked Toronto's manager, John Schneider (who also spent three years as the Vancouver Canadians manager), what he thought of the idea of the Dodgers becoming "Canada's Team."
He laughed at the (admittedly silly) question, telling me that "the Mariners have a better chance, based on geography," and he ended by telling me: "We're happy that Toronto is Canada's Team right now."
Jays outfielder George Springer was deeply confused by my line of questioning. He took some time to talk to me between resounding boos from the L.A. crowd, who haven't yet forgiven him for his involvement in his former team the Astros' cheating scandal in which the cheaters stole a World Series win from the Dodgers.
Springer told me "I feel like you'd have to be [located] there [to be Canada's Team]."
The Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts, took a different approach to answering the same question.
Roberts thinks an exhibition game "maybe [played] in Vancouver," with two teams that are both not the Jays, would help "to get fans more familiar with baseball outside of Toronto."
In 2024, the league is bringing similar international MLB exhibition games to London, Mexico City, Seoul, and Santo Domingo.
Here's hoping the league considers bringing more of "Canada's Teams" here for games in 2025.
@bcisawesome Canada’s team? #baseball #bluejays #dodgers #canada ♬ original sound - BC Is Awesome
