It was on this date in 1976 that
the city of Toronto was awarded an American League franchise, scheduled to
begin play in the 1977 season. First, a little background.
The San Francisco Giants had
been losing money and owner Horace Stoneham was looking to sell the team. A
Toronto group, led by Don McDougall, president of Labatt Breweries of Canada,
Ltd, Howard Webster, president of the Globe and Mail newspaper, and the Canadian
Imperial Bank of Canada, offered Stoneham $13.25 million to purchase the team
and move it to Toronto. In January of 1976, Stoneham accepted the offer and the
team (which would be called the Toronto Giants) was set to begin play in the
National League in April of 1976, with their home games being played at
Exhibition Stadium, a football stadium renovated to accommodate baseball.
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| Exhibition Stadium, the first home of the Toronto club |
However, A United States court
blocked the move and the sale, allowing real estate magnate Bob Lurie to come
in (riding the white horse) and purchase the team keeping it in San Francisco.
In March, though, the American
League decided to expand for the 1977 season, and on March 26th,
Toronto was selected as one of the two cities with Seattle as the other.
Another threat, however, emerged as U.S. President Gerald Ford put pressure on
Major League Baseball to award Washington, D.C. the franchise instead of
Toronto. While some of the media expressed concern, MLB basically ignored the
pressure Ford put on them and Toronto kept the expansion franchise.
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| Paul Beeston The Toronto club's first employee |
The ownership was formed by the
same group that attempted to buy the Giants. Labatt Breweries would own 45% of
the team, Webster 45% and CIBC 10%. The franchise’s first employee was Paul
Beeston who was given the title vice president of business operations. The
team’s first general manger was Peter Bavasi and his assistant was Pat Gillick.
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I think you are only the website to acknowledge the official Toronto Blue Jays birthday.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why, but I think that would be because most would recognize their first official game as such. Thank you for your comment.
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