There is something so special about being a Blue Jay: in no other franchise do players have the ability to represent not just their team, but an entire country. The love of baseball in Canada drives this team, and the Blue Jays thrive on the enthusiasm and love shown to them by Canadians. When a Canadian becomes a Blue Jay, that honour is even greater with 41,000,000 fellow countrymen cheering them on. Since stepping up to the plate to become Canada’s only MLB team after the Montreal Expos were relocated to Washington in 2004, the Blue Jays have become a phenomenon of Canadian pride.
The Blue Jays' Canadian fandom
The love of the Blue Jays has existed from the minute they were founded in Toronto, and arguably even before as baseball fans clamoured for an MLB franchise. That fandom grew yearly, and in 1991 the Blue Jays became the first MLB team to draw over 4,000,000 fans in one season. The team prides itself on its Canadian roots, producing numerous giveaways and uniforms that reference their city and country. Canada Day celebrations in particular are one of the most important games each year and feature unique red jerseys that the Blue Jays boast every July 1st.
CAN DO! The best of Canadian Jays
The first Canadian to take the field for the Blue Jays was Dave McKay (Vancouver, BC). McKay was selected in the 1976 expansion draft, setting the standard for all Canadians who would eventually join the organization.
Denis Boucher (Montreal, QC) made his Toronto debut on April 12, 1991 as the team’s starting pitcher, facing soon-to-be Blue Jay, Paul Molitor. Boucher would start for the Jays six more times before being traded, but two seasons later he would become the first Canadian to play for both the Blue Jays and the Expos!
Rob Ducey (Toronto, ON), played for the Jays from 1987-1992, eventually joining Boucher as one of just four Canadians to suit up for both the Expos and the Jays.
Brothers Rob and Rich Butler (East York/Toronto, ON) both played for the Blue Jays: Rich in 1997, and Rob in 1993-94 and 1999. Rob Butler was famously the only Canadian on the 1993 World Series winning team.
Appearing in 386 games with the Blue Jays from 1996-2001, Paul Quantrill (London, ON) won 30 games and saved 15 in his career with Toronto. He was elected Blue Jays Pitcher of the Year in 2001 after leading the AL with 80 games pitched. His .846 winning percentage is the second highest in Blue Jays history.
Corey Koskie (Anola, MB) signed with the Blue Jays in December of 2004, and throughout the 2005 season he slugged 11 home runs in 97 contests for the team.
Another talented batter to join the Blue Jays was Matt Stairs (Saint John, NB), who hit 32 home runs for the Blue Jays in the two seasons he spent with the team between 2007 and 2008. Stairs had begun his career in Montreal, which made him the third Canadian to play for both Canadian MLB teams.
When Shawn Hill (Mississauga, ON) joined the Blue Jays in 2010, he became the fourth and final Canadian to have played for both Toronto and Montreal.
10s Across the Board
The 2010s were a spectacular time to be a Blue Jay and a Canadian one at that! With over seven Canadian players on the Blue Jays within ten years, the team soared in popularity in this decade.
Brett Lawrie (Langley, BC) joined the Jays as a staple in 2011 and remained as their third baseman until 2014, at which time Dalton Pompey (Mississauga, ON) joined the team in the outfield. 2015 would see Jeff Francis (Vancouver, BC), Michael Saunders (Vancouver, BC), and Russell Martin (East York, ON) join the organization as well. These four players (Pompey, Francis, Saunders, Martin) would solidify themselves as Canadian baseball stars during the 2015 season as they helped the Blue Jays along an electric post-season run. The four even set the record for most Canadians in a Blue Jays starting lineup in Major League history on April 25, 2015. That same year, Martin hit a career-best 23 home runs, while Francis retired from playing at the end of the season. In 2016, Michael Saunders had a career year, with all of Canada rallying behind “Captain Canada” to successfully vote him into the All-Star Game.
The final years of the 2010s would see several more prominent Canadian players join the Blue Jays, including pitcher John Axford (Simcoe, ON) in 2018, and pitcher Jordan Romano (Markham, ON) in 2019.
The Pearson Cup: An All-Canadian Match-Up
The Pearson Cup was an annual exhibition game played between Montreal and Toronto yearly. Canada’s only two MLB cities, head to head, twice a year, every year! Created by Expos founder, Charles Bronfman, this exhibition game was designed to inspire Canadian pride and bring awareness to charities, with the proceeds from each game going to various minor ball organizations in Canada. The Pearson Cup was named after Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, a Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductee and ball player himself, for his contributions to baseball in Canada. The Pearson Cup is on display at the Rogers Centre this year for the 50th season festivities.
One of the greatest series came in 1997 when the annual match-up between the two cities happened to fall on Canada Day. On Canada’s 130th birthday, the two teams faced off at SkyDome in front of a sold out crowd of almost 50,500 to watch the Expos win 2-1 over the Blue Jays after a pitching battle between Toronto’s Roger Clemens and Montreal’s Jeff Juden. 1997 was also the year that interleague play was introduced, meaning for the first time a Toronto-Montreal tilt counted toward the standings. The Canada Day game with elevated stakes was nothing short of electric.
You can learn more about the Pearson Cup by checking out our previous virtual exhibit, “Who Won the Pearson Cup?”