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 regular season interleague baseball schedule.

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, after which 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. Marys, Ontario.

Results

From 1978 to 1986, the Cup was awarded after a one-game exhibition, that had no effect on the major league standings. 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 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.

During the 2003 and 2004 series, the Cup was awarded after a six-game set, three in Toronto and three in Montreal. These games counted in major-league standings and were played during the regular season.

The All-Canadian Series

The Blue Jays and Expos first played meaningful baseball in the season with the introduction of interleague play, with the teams being designated natural rivals. In 1997, the teams played three games at Toronto; the two teams played home and home series for the first time in . The series was a decided boost to the paltry attendance numbers at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, and gave a modest increase in attendance at SkyDome in Toronto; it failed, however, to become a serious rivalry amongst the players or the fans. Some people attribute this to a lack of Canadian players on both teams, while others point to the general discontent 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 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).

Season-by-season results

The two teams met annually from 1997 to 2004 as part of the All-Canadian Series, then met annually again starting in 2023 as a result of the scheduling formula change, meeting intermittently from 2005 to 2022. |- | | style=";" | Expos | style=";" | 21 | style=";" | Expos21 | no games | style=";" | Expos21 | First regular season games played between the two clubsFirst regular season games played between two Canadian teamsOnly time Expos have held the overall series lead |- | | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 40 | style=";" | Blue Jays20 | style=";" | Blue Jays20 | style=";" | Blue Jays52 | First regular season games played between the two clubs at Olympic StadiumFirst season series sweep by either team |- | | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 42 | style=";" | Blue Jays21 | style=";" | Blue Jays21 | style=";" | Blue Jays94 | First year of 6-game home and away format |- | | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 42 | style=";" | Blue Jays21 | style=";" | Blue Jays21 | style=";" | Blue Jays136 | |- | | Tie | 33 | style=";" | Blue Jays21 | style=";" | Expos21 | style=";" | Blue Jays169 | |- | | style=";" | Expos | style=";" | 42 | style=";" | Blue Jays21 | style=";" | Expos30 | style=";" | Blue Jays1813 | |- | | Tie | 33 | style=";" | Expos21 | style=";" | Blue Jays21 | style=";" | Blue Jays2116 | Last meetings played in Montreal |- | | Tie | 33 | style=";" | Blue Jays21 | style=";" | Expos21 | style=";" | Blue Jays2419 | Expos played their home games during this series in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Most recent MLB games between two Canadian franchises. |- | | Tie | 33 | style=";" | Blue Jays21 | style="| Nationals21 | style=";" | Blue Jays2722 | First meetings between the Nationals and Blue Jays.Last 6-game series meetingOnly Washington-Toronto meeting to have games played in both citiesIntended as Pearson Cup matchup due to 2005 schedule already being set |- | | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 30 | style=";" | Blue Jays30 | no games | style=";" | Blue Jays3022 | Second season series sweep for Blue Jays |- | | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 21 | style=";" | Blue Jays21 | no games | style=";" | Blue Jays3223 | |- | | style=";" | Nationals | style=";" | 21 | no games | style="| Nationals21 | style=";" | Blue Jays3325 | |- | | style=";" | Nationals | style=";" | 30 | style="| Nationals30 | no games | style=";" | Blue Jays3328 | First season series sweep for Expos/Nationals franchise |- | | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 21 | no games | style=";" | Blue Jays21 | style=";" | Blue Jays3529 | |- | | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 30 | style=";" | Blue Jays30 | no games | style=";" | Blue Jays3829 | Third season series sweep for Blue Jays |- | | Tie | 22 | no games | Tie22 | style=";" | Blue Jays4031 | Both Blue Jays home games relocated to Nationals Park due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as their alternate stadium (Sahlen Field) in Buffalo, New York was being prepared. These are considered home games for the Nationals, per official statistics, though each team played two games batting in the bottom of innings. |- | | style=";" | Nationals | style=";" | 31 | Tie11 | style="| Nationals20 | style=";" | Blue Jays4134 | Both Blue Jays home games played at TD Ameritrade Park (their Spring Training venue) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |- | | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 21 | style=";" | Blue Jays21 | no games | style=";" | Blue Jays4335 | Beginning this season, teams play three games annually in alternating venues as MLB adopts a new scheduling format. |- | | style=";" | Nationals | style=";" | 21 | no games | style="| Nationals21 | style=";" | Blue Jays4437 | |- | | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 30 | style=";" | Blue Jays30 | no games | style=";" | Blue Jays4737 | |- | | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 21 | no games | style=";" | Blue Jays21 | style=";" | Blue Jays4938 | |- | Toronto Blue Jays vs Montreal Expos | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 2419 | style=";" | Blue Jays, 149 | Tie, 1010 | |- | Toronto Blue Jays vs Washington Nationals | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 2519 | style=";" | Blue Jays, 167 | style=";" | Nationals, 129 | |- | Overall Regular season | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 4938 | style=";" | Blue Jays, 3016 | style=";" | Expos/Nationals, 2219 | |- ! Seasonal record ! colspan=2|Season series ! at Toronto Blue Jays ! at Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals ! Notes |- | Toronto Blue Jays vs Montreal Expos series | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 323 | colspan="2" rowspan="3" | | |- | Toronto Blue Jays vs Washington Nationals series | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 742 | |- | Overall Regular season series | style=";" | Blue Jays | style=";" | 1065 |

Notes

• Canadian Bill Atkinson was the winning pitcher and scored the winning run for the Expos in the first-ever Pearson Cup game at the Olympic Stadium in 1978.

• Pedro Martínez was the winning pitcher on June 30, 1997, in the first game of 'The All-Canadian Series', pitching 9 innings, striking out 10, walking one.

See also

• Interleague play

• Canadiens–Maple Leafs rivalry

• 401 derby

• Major League Baseball rivalries

• Beltway Series, the rivalry series currently played by the Nationals after moving from Montreal to Washington.

• Bay Bridge Series, the defunct inter-league rivalry between the San Francisco Giants of the National League and the Oakland Athletics of the American League respectively which started during the 1989 World Series which the Athletics won and started in 1997 when regular season inter-league play began and the rivalry lasted until 2024 when the Athletics franchise relocated from Oakland to Sacramento for an interim period pending a permanent move to Las Vegas by 2028.

References

External links

• http://www.canadianbaseballnews.com/MonExpos/PearsonCup.html