The Legacy of The Pearson Cup

The Pearson Cup has been largely forgotten since the Expos left Montréal at the end of the 2004 season. Today the trophy is housed here at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum, an important piece of Canadian Baseball history. 

At the end of it all, the Pearson Cup was a tie: both teams won three games, and tied on two, and they split the series in 2003-04. Through ten separate seasons over 26 years, the quest for baseball supremacy was never resolved when the teams played for the Pearson Cup. 

Where the Pearson Cup was successful was in its charitable objectives. During the heyday of the Pearson Cup from 1978-1986, over $530,000 was raised for amateur baseball in Canada. When games were held in Toronto, Baseball Ontario brought about 9,000 kids from around the province to SkyDome to watch the games. The funding supported amateur baseball federations across the country, allowing the game and participation in it to grow.

The Pearson Cup may not have had the longevity that was hoped for when it was founded in 1978, but as a way of giving back to the next generation of Canadian baseball players, it was a success. In 2024, 17 Canadian-born players took the field for a Major League team, and for many of them, their success is owed in part to the amateur federations which are still staffed by dedicated volunteers who make it all possible. In the end the scores on the side of the trophy didn’t matter, the real winners of the Pearson Cup were the amateur baseball players who benefitted from funds raised by the competition. That’s the legacy of the Pearson Cup: a competition which gave Canadians greater opportunity to play the game they love.