These are bad times in the Big Smoke
Other Canadian cities get to have fun with their professional sports teams. Toronto cannot be counted among those happy cities. On Tuesday, it was Toronto Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri, trying to convince reporters that his team’s post-season collapse did not represent a “doomsday” situation. Technically, he is correct. Calamity has become ingrained in Toronto sports over the last two decades. Here is a look at the depths of that despair:
TORONTO ARGONAUTS
They are the only major team in the city to win a league championship this century, doing it twice, in 2004 and again in 2012. The Argos have fielded some capable teams over the last 15 years — including one stint with perhaps the best defence in CFL history — and have a universally beloved ambassador: Michael (Pinball) Clemons.
As of this writing, the Argos were facing the prospect of homelessness. Their lease at Rogers Centre expires in 2017, and a move into BMO Field, a soccer-specific stadium by the shore of Lake Ontario, is likely their last hope.
TORONTO RAPTORS
They were supposed to be the good team, an island of success in Toronto’s roiling sea of failure. When they made the playoffs last year, the Raptors turned a cul-desac outside Air Canada Centre into a nightly basketball revival, with fans crammed into what became known as Jurassic Park.
Toronto lost, but it seemed like a noble loss, a blocked shot away from winning in Game 7 at home. The Raptors have not won a seven-game playoff series in their 20 years in the NBA.
TORONTO FC
This is the team’s ninth season in Major League Soccer, and it has never qualified for the playoffs. Toronto FC came close to the postseason in 2009, needing only a tie against what was then the worst team in the league in their season finale — but it lost, 5-0.
Toronto FC has won two of its first six games this season. It is not in a playoff position.
TORONTO BLUE JAYS
Someone born after the most recent Blue Jays playoff game is old enough to drive, to buy alcohol, to vote and to know Joe Carter only through old television highlights. It has been almost 22 years since the Blue Jays appeared in the playoffs, giving the team not only the longest post-season drought in baseball, but in all of the major North American leagues.
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
Two years from now, the Leafs will likely reach two major milestones, but they will only celebrate one of them. In 2017, the team will reach its centennial. The year will also mark the 50th birthday of Toronto’s most recent Stanley Cup parade. The Leafs own the longest Stanley Cup drought in the league. They have missed the post-season in nine of the last 10 seasons, their lone breakthrough coming two years ago