As Canada’s one and only Major League Baseball club (R.I.P., Montreal Expos) battles to capture its first World Series pennant since 1993 it’s hard to believe the Toronto Blue Jays almost weren’t and the Toronto Giants almost were.
In 1975, two years before the Blue Jays made their MLB debut at drafty old CNE Stadium as an American League expansion franchise, Toronto almost landed the National League’s San Francisco Giants. In a complex and often convoluted potential sale that involved equal parts economics and politics — and drama — the Giants came oh so close to leaving the Bay Area in California and taking up residence along the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto. The deal never happened but did help hasten the decision by MLB owners to award an expansion team to Toronto that would become a reality in 1977 with advent of the Blue Jays.
But, 50 years ago, one of the hottest rumours in baseball had a Toronto ownership consortium dishing out more than $13 million to purchase a struggling San Francisco Giants club and taking it north to Toronto. (Interestingly, in 2023, Forbes valued the Giants franchise at $3.7 billion and Blue Jays at $2.1 billion.)
In ’75, more than one Toronto group was vying to buy the Giants, who were suffering from poor attendance at outdated Candlestick Park and bleeding money at a profuse rate. Labatt Brewery emerged as the frontrunners to purchase the beleaguered team and a deal looked all but done. In fact, the potential new ownership had already come up with a design for a Toronto Giants logo and scripted “TG” for the team’s ballcaps.
Long story short, MLB extended the Giants a financial lifeline until a new, local ownership group could be found (it eventually was) and San Francisco mayor George Moscone vowed the team would never leave. (It never did.) Toronto, much like CNE Stadium itself, was left out in the cold.
Of course, as we know, in the end this story had a happy ending for Toronto and its baseball fans. The Jays entered big-league baseball in 1977 and won back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and ’93. Now, they’re back for all the marbles.
As for San Francisco, the Giants saga also ended on a happy note for Bay Area ball fans. The team eventually moved into a sparkling new ballpark in 2000 and have since won World Series championships in 2010, ’12 and ’14.
Meanwhile, the potential relocation of the Giants wasn’t Toronto’s first flirtation with the possibility of landing a Major League baseball franchise. In the 1950s, the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball club was a Triple-A minor pro powerhouse, playing in the International League, where they led attendance for several consecutive seasons. Owner Jack Kent Cooke was keen on bringing the baseball Leafs into the big leagues, but was rebuffed.
Cooke later brought Los Angeles into the NHL as original owner of the expansion Kings in 1967.
(PAUL SVOBODA)
