Baseball in Canada

Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Canada and there is a long history. 1838 was played a baseball -like game for the first time in Ontario, the first team emerged in 1854. Though it in no Canada Major Leagues are currently, the Canadian Baseball Sports is still represented by the Toronto Blue Jays in Major League Baseball. The first Canadian team in the MLB were the Montreal Expos, who from 1969 until she moved to Washington DC 2004 in the National League were active.

Since 1919 exists with the Intercounty Baseball League (IBL ) is a Semi -Professional Baseball League in Canada, which is native to Ontario. In parallel exists since the year 2002, the Ligue de Baseball Senior Élite du Québec ( LBSEQ ). In addition, several Canadian teams play in the outgoing of the U.S. College Summer Leagues.

Organization

The baseball sport in Canada is controlled by the organization founded in 1964 Baseball Canada, which has its headquarters in Ottawa. Baseball Canada is a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee and the International Baseball Federation.

Clubs

In the history of the Canadian Baseball Sports two clubs were part of the Major League Baseball. The first Canadian team in the MLB were the Montreal Expos, who were represented from 1969 to 2004 in the East Division of the National League. The Expos were the first Canadian team that could win a division title. In 1981 they reached by the National League Championship Series, but they lost with 2:3 games against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The second Canadian franchise in the MLB are the Toronto Blue Jays, who play in the East Division of the American League since 1977. The Blue Jays was the honor in part, as the first and only Canadian team to win the World Series. This was the team from Toronto also twice in a row. They defeated the Atlanta Braves in 1992 and 1993, the Philadelphia Phillies.

In the history of the Minor Leagues acted a total of 75 teams on Canadian soil. Currently, however, there with the Vancouver Canadians only one team. The Canadiens play since 2000 in the Northwest League and belong to the structure of the Blue Jays.

Player

Canada has produced some successful players that were active in the MLB or are. So far, only one Canadian was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame with Ferguson Jenkins, however. Other outstanding achievements of Canadian players in the MLB shown in the following table.

National

The Canadian baseball team represents the country in international competitions. Since 1970, the team participated in 17 baseball world championships. The greatest success of this was winning the bronze medal at the Baseball World Cup in 2009. During the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, they lost the 3rd place match against Japan and was fourth. In 2008, that took the part and finished fifth. In so far two participations in the World Baseball Classic, the team did not come out 9th place.