Toronto Blue Jays

Founded: 1977
Team Owner: Rogers Communications
Manager: Charlie Montoyo
Team Icon: Roberto Alomar
Overall Record: 3,506-3,557
AAA Minor League Affiliate: Buffalo Bisons
World Series Titles: 1992, 1993
Stadium: Rogers Centre (1989–present)
Stadium Capacity: 49,282
Previous Ball Parks: Exhibition Stadium (1977–1989)
City: Toronto, Ont
Website: www.mlb.com/bluejays

Toronto was awarded its baseball team in 1977, and most accounts base the Blue Jays nickname the result of a name-the-team contest in which over 30,000 entries were submitted. A panel of judges picked the team Blue Jays out of the final 10 entries because in their words "The blue jay is a North American bird, bright blue in color, with white undercovering and a black neck ring. It is strong, aggressive and inquisitive. It dares to take on all comers, yet it is down-to-earth, gutsy and good-looking." OK then.

There is another account of events that states the nickname was tagged by the former Premier of Ontario, John Robarts. He apparently exclaimed during a director's meeting "I saw a blue jay out of my window". And in other news I ate a waffle for breakfast this morning. So we should call them the Toronto Waffles? Weird and I'm not buying it. Thinking the name-the-team contest was how Blue Jays happened.

Although there is another theory that the original owner of the team, Labatt Brewery, demanded that the word Blue was part of the team name for advertising purposes. They may have rigged the name-the-team contest and decided on Blue Jays themselves. But could you really see a large corporation taking part in such a scheme? Especially a Canadian company? Yeah I could too.