Meetings total 43 | Regular season series 24–19, Blue Jays | |
First meeting June 30, 1997
SkyDome, Toronto, Canada Latest meeting July 4, 2004
Estadio Hiram Bithorn, San Juan, Puerto Rico Largest victory 14–2, Blue Jays (June 22, 1998) Longest win streak Expos: 4 games (June 14, 2002–June 28, 2002)
Blue Jays: 6 games (July 2, 1997–June 4, 1999) | ||
The Pearson Cup was an annual midseason Major League Baseball rivalry between former Canadian rivals, the Toronto Blue Jays and Montreal Expos. Named after former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, it was originally created to raise money for minor league baseball in Canada. In later years, it was incorporated into the interleague baseball schedule.
Contents
The series began in 1978, and ran until 1986. Due to a strike, no game was played in 1981. In 2003 the series was revived as part of the Blue Jays-Expos interleague rivalry. It continued on into the 2004 season, before the Expos moved to Washington, D.C. and became the Washington Nationals. The cup is now on display in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Mary's, Ontario.
Results
From 1978–1986, the Cup was awarded after a one-game exhibition, that had no effect on the major league standings. The game was suspended in 1987 as the two teams could not find a mutually agreeable date to play the game. There was discussion about reviving the game in the preseason, or playing it in another Canadian city such as Vancouver, but this never took place. However, the Jays did play a number of exhibition games at BC Place in Vancouver including three game series against the Milwaukee Brewers prior to both the 1984 and 1985 seasons (the Vancouver Canadians were the AAA farm team of the Brewers at the time), as well as single games against the Detroit Tigers and Brewers in 1993 and against the Montreal Expos and Seattle Mariners in 1994 in a series billed as the "Baseball Classic". The Jays also played the Cleveland Indians in an exhibition game at War Memorial Stadium in nearby Buffalo, New York in 1987. More recently, the club has hosted a pair of exhibition games at Olympic Stadium in Montreal prior to the start of the season, New York Mets (2014), Cincinnati Reds (2015), Boston Red Sox (2016), and are scheduled to host two versus the Pittsburgh Pirates prior to the start of the 2017 season. The club has also discussed playing more games at BC Place with the President of the Vancouver Canadians.
During the 2003 and 2004 series, the Cup was awarded after a six-game set, three in Toronto and three in Montreal. These games did count toward the major league standings and were during the regular season. The 1979 and 1985 games were abandoned as ties due to time constraints; in 1979 the Expos had to catch an airplane flight, while in 1985 the Jays had to catch a flight.
The All-Canadian Series
The Blue Jays and Expos first played meaningful baseball in the 1997 season with the introduction of interleague play. Originally one game sets, the two teams played home and home series for the first time in 1999. The series was a boost to the paltry attendance numbers at both the Olympic Stadium in Montreal and the SkyDome in Toronto, but failed to become a serious rivalry amongst the players or the fans. Some people attribute this to lack of Canadian players on both teams, while others point to the general malaise of Canadians with Major League Baseball during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Major League Baseball put the final nail in the Series' coffin by playing the final set between the Jays and Expos in San Juan, Puerto Rico instead of Montreal. Major League Baseball's intention to boost attendance by playing in San Juan ended up resulting in lower attendance than the series had attracted in Montreal a year earlier.
The All-Canadian Series ended after 2004 when the Expos were relocated and became known as the Washington Nationals. The Blue Jays won the series 24 games to 19 games, and Toronto also won the most season series (3-2-2).