How many Canadian teams have played in Major League Baseball?

The Toronto Blue Jays are often the forgotten team in Major League Baseball, as the only franchise not based in the United States.

However, there is a very different view of the Blue Jays in Canada. They’re the team of the country and baseball is on everyone’s mind right now – even though the NHL season has started – as the Blue Jays try to reach the World Series for the first time since 1993 after winning the American League East title.

Blue Jays are the Canadian team

The Blue Jays face a daunting task as they fall behind the Seattle Mariners 2-0 in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series after losing twice at the Rogers Center in Toronto. However, the Blue Jays should have plenty of fans in the T-Mobile Park stands for Game 3 on Wednesday due to Seattle’s proximity to Canada.

The Blue Jays have also shown a penchant for comeback wins this season.

“It’s an incredible honor to play for a country,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “I think this team, more than any other team I’ve been around, has kind of dug into that, and they kind of understand how many people are watching them every night. The support we get (at Rogers Center) is incredible. It makes it very difficult to come and play here, and we really enjoy playing here.”

“It’s cool to say you’re playing for a country. It’s from the east coast to the west coast; everyone supports this team. It’s something we definitely don’t take for granted.”

The Blue Jays began playing as an expansion team in the AL in 1977. They finished last in the AL East in each of their first five seasons, then moved to sixth place in the seven-team division in 1982 before jumping to fourth place in 1983 and second place in 1984.

The Blue Jays broke through with their first AL East title by winning 99 games in 1985, but then lost a heartbreaking seven-game ALCS to the Kansas City Royals. Toronto also won the division in 1989 and 1991, but fell to the ALCS again.

Jay’s only Canadian franchise to win a title

However, the Blue Jays broke through in 1992, beating the Minnesota Twins in the ALCS and the Atlanta Braves in the World Series, becoming the first non-American team to win it all. The Blue Jays repeated as World Series champions in 1993, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in dramatic fashion, with Joe Carter a series-ending home run in Game 6.

Then came a 22-year drought for the franchise, which finally ended in 2015. Although the Blue Jays have reached the playoffs six times in the past eleven seasons, it has been 32 years since their last World Series berth.

The only other MLB franchise to play in Canada, the Montreal Expos, never made it to the World Series. The Expos formed in 1969 as an expansion team of the National League and played in Montreal for 35 years. They moved to Washington before the 2005 season, renamed the Nationals.

The Expos made just one playoff appearance, losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a best-of-five National League Championship Series in 1981. The Dodgers won 2-1 in the decisive Game 5 at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium on a rainy Monday afternoon when Rick Monday hit a tiebreaker home run in the top of the ninth inning.

Twenty years after the Expos’ departure, the city’s baseball fans still call the game ‘ “Blue Monday.” The franchise finally earned its first World Series title in 2019 when the Nationals defeated the Houston Astros.

Could MLB return to Montreal?

There has been talk on and off in recent years about the possibility of MLB placing an expansion franchise back in Montreal. MLB has not given an official timetable for when it may expand again, but many within the game believe Nashville and Salt Lake City top the list of cities receiving franchises.

So the Blue Jays remain the only Canadian team to win a World Series, and they would like to add a third Commissioner’s Trophy to the ones they won in 1992 and 1993.

“I understand we have one team for a whole country,” Blue Jays pitcher Kevin Gausman said. “There are many things involved. That brings extra pressure, but there is also a lot of love from the fans, from people who may never see you play in real life. But that is precisely the advantage that we have as one team for an entire country.”