The Montreal Expos were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in the National League (NL) East division from 1969 until 2004. Following the 2004 season, the franchise relocated to Washington, D.C., and became the Washington Nationals.
The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games primarily at Rogers Centre in downtown Toronto.
Rogers Centre is a retractable roof stadium in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated at the base of the CN Tower near the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Opened in 1989 on the former Railway Lands, it is home to the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB). As well as being improved over the decades, during the MLB offseasons of 2022-24, the stadium was renovated by upgrading the sports facilities and hospitality whilst reducing the capacity for baseball games. While it is primarily a sports venue, the stadium also hosts other large events such as conventions, trade fairs, concerts, travelling carnivals, circuses and monster truck shows.
The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario. Founded in 1873, the team is the oldest existing professional sports team in North America still using its original name, as well as the oldest-surviving team in both the modern-day CFL and East Division. The team's origins date back to a modified version of rugby football that emerged in North America in the latter half of the 19th century. The Argonauts played their home games at Rogers Centre from 1989 until 2016, when the team moved to BMO Field, the fifth stadium site to host the team.
Interleague play in Major League Baseball refers to regular-season baseball games played between an American League (AL) team and a National League (NL) team. Interleague play was first introduced during the 1997 Major League Baseball season. Before that, matchups between AL teams and NL teams occurred only during spring training, the All-Star Game, other exhibition games, and the World Series. Unlike modern interleague play, none of these contests, except for the World Series, counted toward official team or league records.
Olympic Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Montreal, Canada, located at Olympic Park in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district of the city. Built in the mid-1970s as the main venue for the 1976 Summer Olympics, it is nicknamed "The Big O", a reference to both its name and to the doughnut-shape of the permanent component of the stadium's roof. It is also disparagingly referred to as "The Big Owe" in reference to the high cost of its construction and of hosting the 1976 Olympics as a whole.
Canadian National Exhibition Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the grounds of Exhibition Place. Originally built for Canadian National Exhibition events, the stadium served as the home of the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL) from 1959 to 1988, the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1977 to 1989, and the Toronto Blizzard of the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1979 to 1983. The stadium hosted the Grey Cup game 12 times over a 24-year period.
Tomokazu Ohka is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher. He played for the Boston Red Sox (1999–2001), Montreal Expos / Washington Nationals (2001–2005), Milwaukee Brewers (2005–2006), Toronto Blue Jays (2007), Cleveland Indians (2009), as well as the Fukushima Hopes in Japan's Baseball Challenge League. He started his professional career with the Yokohama BayStars in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. He throws right-handed and is a switch hitter.
The Intercounty Baseball League (IBL) is a Canadian baseball league, comprising teams of college players and former professionals from North America and beyond. The teams are located in Southern Ontario.
Jacques Doucet is a retired Canadian radio announcer of baseball play-by-play in the French language. He broadcast Montreal Expos games for every year of the team's existence, from 1969 to 2004. After commenting on the Québec Capitales from 2006 to 2010, he became the French play-by-play voice of the Toronto Blue Jays on TVA Sports from 2011 until his retirement in 2022.
The Beltway Series, promoted by the teams as "The Battle of the Beltways," is the Major League Baseball (MLB) interleague rivalry series played between the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals. The Orioles are a member of the American League (AL) East division, and the Nationals are a member of the National League (NL) East division. The series name is taken from the beltway highways, the Baltimore Beltway (I-695) and the Capital Beltway (I-495), that serve Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., respectively.
Baseball in Canada is played at various levels throughout the country, including by Major League Baseball's Toronto Blue Jays, founded in 1977 and Minor League Baseball's Vancouver Canadians, an affiliate of the Blue Jays competing in the High-A Northwest League. There are also several teams that compete in independent baseball leagues, such as the Trois-Rivières Aigles of the Frontier League and the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the American Association.
The city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, has a long history of sport. It is home to a number of clubs, including the Granite Club, the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, the Argonaut Rowing Club, Toronto Argonauts football club, the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club, and the Badminton and Racquet Club. A number of heritage venues have developed in Toronto such as: Christie Pits, Coca-Cola Coliseum, Varsity Arena, and Maple Leaf Gardens. Toronto is also the location of the Canadian Football League's headquarters.
The 1997 Major League Baseball season was the inaugural season for Interleague play, as well as the final season in the American League for the Milwaukee Brewers before moving to the NL the following season. The California Angels changed their name to the Anaheim Angels. The Florida Marlins ended the season as the World Champions defeating the Cleveland Indians in a seven-game World Series, four games to three.
The 1997 Toronto Blue Jays season was the franchise's 21st season of Major League Baseball. It resulted in the Blue Jays finishing fifth in the American League East with a record of 76 wins and 86 losses. With a massive redesign of their logos and uniforms, the Blue Jays attempted to re-establish themselves in the American League East by signing Roger Clemens via free agency and bringing All-Stars Carlos García and Orlando Merced through trade. Although Clemens rejuvenated himself with the Blue Jays, both Garcia and Merced ended up being flops as dismal overall hitting and an inconsistent bullpen doomed the Blue Jays once again to a last-place finish. 1997 also marked the end of the road for manager Cito Gaston, being fired near the end of the season. Longtime fan-favourite Joe Carter also played in his final season for the Blue Jays, as he was released at the end of the season.
The 1997 Montreal Expos season was the 29th season of the franchise. They finished 78–84, 23 games back of the Atlanta Braves in the National League East and 14 games back of the Florida Marlins in the Wild Card. They played the Toronto Blue Jays in Interleague play for the first time during the season.
The 1978 Montreal Expos season was the tenth season in franchise history. The team finished fourth in the National League East with a record of 76–86, 14 games behind the first-place Philadelphia Phillies.
The 1989 Major League Baseball season saw the Oakland Athletics win their first World Series title since 1974.
The Naismith Cup was an annual pre-season National Basketball Association (NBA) exhibition game. From the 1995 season through 2000, it was played between the two Canadian NBA rivals, the Toronto Raptors and the Vancouver Grizzlies, at neutral venues across Canada. The cup was named after James Naismith, the Canadian inventor of basketball, and was originally created to raise money for Canada Basketball, similar to the Pearson Cup competition between Canada's Major League Baseball teams the Toronto Blue Jays and Montreal Expos. Following the Grizzlies relocation to Memphis the cup was laid dead, though the Raptors continued the tradition of hosting neutral site pre-season games in Canadian cities under the NBA Canada Series name. The Raptors won the series against Vancouver 4–1.
Throughout its history, Major League Baseball rivalries have occurred between many teams and cities. Rivalries have arisen for many different reasons, the primary ones including geographic proximity, familiarity with opponents, various incidents, and cultural, linguistic, or national pride.
