Toronto Blue Jays

Toronto is buzzing again. For the first time in thirty-two years, the Blue Jays are heading back to the World Series – and they’ve just made an incredible start! Winning their first game 11 - 4, helped in large part by Canadian born Vladimir Guerrero Jr, who signed a jaw-dropping $500 million contract with the club. His father, Vladimir Guerrero Sr, spent his own career chasing a ring with the Montreal Expos — Canada’s lost team. The son now vows to win that title and hand the ring to his father.

But. Before we go any further – who exactly are the Blue Jays? Why are they one of the most iconic baseball teams in the world? And what even is a Blue Jay? Let’s do this year’s World Series contenders the honour – and #GetTheBadgeIn.

The Blue Jays appeared back in 1976. Toronto was awarded a Major League Baseball expansion franchise and it needed a name. The City turned to its citizens and asked for ideas - thousands of entries poured in. The winning name, Blue Jays, delivered on representing the city’s identity in a number of different ways: the connection ran through birds, beer and tradition.

Let’s take each in turn.

The blue jay is no ordinary bird. Common across eastern Canada, it’s intelligent, noisy, social, and fiercely territorial — a tiny bundle of personality in cobalt and white. Scientists say its feathers aren’t even blue; they only appear that way because of light refraction. In a sense, it’s a trick of the light — dazzling, clever, adaptable. These birds are also builders - blue jays hoard and plant acorns, helping new forests grow. That quiet symbolism of growth and community made them the perfect emblem for a young Canadian franchise trying to plant roots in the world’s biggest baseball league.

Then there’s the Labatt Blue connection — an undeniable nod to one of Canada’s most famous brewing houses. Founded in London, Ontario, in 1847 by John Kinder Labatt, the company grew from a small provincial brewery into a national giant. By the 1950s its pale lager, Labatt Blue, was the best-selling beer in Canada, and its blue label had become as familiar as the maple leaf.

The connection? Labatt was the Blue Jays’ first owner, and the overlap between the beer’s colour and the team’s kit was hardly an accident. The inclusion of the red maple leaf in the logo – identical to the icon on the Labbat Blue beer can – cemented the connection. It also helped that Toronto’s other big clubs — the Maple Leafs in hockey, the Argonauts in football — were already draped in blue. The Blue Jays simply extended that identity. Toronto is blue.

Toronto as a city was perfect for the new team. By the 1970s it was shifting from a regional capital to a global metropolis — a place of art, business, and bold growth. The Blue Jays’ arrival gave the city a team to match its confidence, and with it, a sense of identity distinct from Montreal, Vancouver, or New York. The franchise became a national symbol — Canada’s only MLB team, a shared flag for a whole country of fans.

Every home run, every World Series appearance, carried that sense of national pride. The victories of 1992 and 1993 defined an era.

Now, in 2025, the Blue Jays have landed once again in the top game of the sport.