Major League Baseball first arrived in Canada after National League owners convened in 1968 to adjudicate bids for an NL expansion team. Montréal had demonstrated baseball success and an ability to draw crowds in the past with the Montréal Royals, the Minor League affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
After the Royals moved to Syracuse, NY in 1960 the city was ready to see baseball return. The 1968 bid was successful, and Montréal became home to the MLB’s first franchise outside of the United States. The brand new team, playing out of Jarry Park, was to be named the Expos, after Expo ‘67 which had just been held in the city. The Expos played their first season in 1969, and for 8 seasons they were the only MLB team north of the border.
Having witnessed the success in Montréal, a group of Toronto politicians and businessmen wanted to bring the MLB to Toronto as well. The first attempt at acquiring the failing San Francisco Giants in January of 1976 fell through at the last moment. Fans anticipating the arrival of the team that would be known as the Toronto Giants were disappointed, but not for long. In March of that year, Toronto’s bid for an AL expansion team was successful. On April 7, 1977, The Toronto Blue Jays played their first game in a snowy Exhibition Stadium, taking their first franchise win over the Chicago White Sox.
With two Canadian teams, one in the American League and one in the National League, it only made sense that there should be a rivalry between the two. Unfortunately, Interleague play (games between NL and AL teams that counted toward the standings) did not yet exist, and so the two teams would never actually meet during the regular season. The teams’ ownership groups devised a mid-season exhibition contest that would pit the two Canadian teams against one another in a friendly game, which was dubbed the Pearson Cup.
