‘Canada’s Team’ excels at America’s pastime

Opinion

Amid threats from United States President Donald Trump to make Canada the 51st state, the Toronto Blue Jays’ season started with protocols aimed at avoiding booing during the American national anthem and the removal of someone wearing a “Canada is not for sale” hat at the ballpark.

Nonetheless, the Blue Jays are being heavily marketed as “Canada’s team” as they advance to the American League championship after beating the New York Yankees, the most storied baseball team from the U.S.

Why do the Blue Jays frame themselves as not just Toronto’s team, but Canada’s? And is their current post-season run their biggest and most important opportunity in years to fully establish themselves as representing all of Canada?

TRULY CANADA’S TEAM?

The Jays serving as Canada’s team may make sense since they’re the only Canadian team currently playing in Major League Baseball (MLB). But to some Canadians, positioning the Jays as the nation’s team may not sit well.

After all, for baseball fans in Québec, memories of the now-defunct Montreal Expos still loom large.

For fans closer to the Windsor-Detroit border, the Detroit Tigers are a more proximate and accessible team.

Finally, some British Columbia MLB enthusiasts — despite the trips Blue Jays fans make to take over T-Mobile Park when the Blue Jays play the Seattle Mariners — still opt to support the Mariners since the team is so much closer than the Blue Jays are in Toronto.

What all this means is that to some Canadian baseball fans, the Blue Jays aren’t really Canada’s team — they’re just Toronto’s.

HUGE MARKET

It’s unsurprising that the Toronto Blue Jays organization, owned by Rogers Communications — “proud owner of Canada’s team” — is intent on framing the squad this way because it provides a substantial financial boon. The Jays benefit greatly from being Canada’s team by compelling baseball fans from across the country to attend their games, and most importantly, to watch them on television.

Despite playing north of the border and earning revenues in the weaker Canadian dollar, the Jays operate in one of MLB’s largest markets — Toronto — and can also market to fans across the country. That gives them the largest geographical market in professional baseball — an entire nation.

This massive audience contributes to equally massive television ratings, even at a time when most MLB teams are struggling for regional television revenues. Being “Canada’s team” has also allowed the Blue Jays to spend competitively over the past 10 years and operate a top-five payroll, as they have in 2025, alongside other teams in huge markets like Los Angeles and New York.

CROSS-BORDER TRASH TALKING

In the midst of the series against the Yankees, Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Trump to discuss trade, tariffs and security. Initial reports suggested the meeting, held just days after Trump made yet another veiled annexation threat, went well.

But the ongoing backdrop of tense relations between the U.S. and Canada is perhaps echoed by some of the commentary about both teams.

Early in the season, the Yankees’ play-by-play man, Michael Kay, called Toronto “not a first-place team” despite the Blue Jays having just passed the Yankees for first place in the American League East.

In September, Jays colour-commentator and former catcher, Buck Martinez, said that the Yankees were “not a good team.”

Also in September, a Baltimore Orioles television analyst, Brian Roberts, questioned how well Canadians understood baseball, leading to the Blue Jays themselves defending the baseball intelligence of their fans.

There was even a popular hoax online about Trump not inviting the Blue Jays to the White House should they win the World Series — an invite he has extended to many championship teams in American sports leagues.

STOKING CANADIAN NATIONALISM

Ultimately, the Blue Jays bested the Yankees and are advancing to the American League championship series. Blue Jays players and their manager, John Schneider, have spoken of the intense atmosphere Blue Jays fans create for their opponents and how the team draws on the support of the entire nation of Canada.

The Jays’ success so far in the post-season in this current political moment — as Trump is once again making veiled threats about making Canada the 51st state during tense trade negotiations — presents the Blue Jays with perhaps their best opportunity to fulfil their role as Canada’s team.

In a season defined by rivalry, politics and national pride, the Blue Jays are proving that even America’s pastime can become a canvas for Canadian nationalism.

» Noah Eliot Vanderhoeven is a PhD candidate in political science at Western University.

» This column was originally published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca