The Vancouver Canadians minor-league baseball club announced a new affiliation with the Toronto Blue Jays in a news conference at Nat Bailey Stadium on Friday.
The new four-year deal links Canada's only affiliated minor league team with Canada's only major league team, a move that C's owner Jake Kerr thinks will unite fans across the country.
"One of the goals we set out to achieve when we purchased this club was to ensure that baseball fans locally felt like the C's were their team. I think this pairing with the Blue Jays will bring baseball fans closer together from coast-to-coast," he said.
The C's will remain in the Single-A short season Northwest League which is comprised of eight teams, all of which are affiliated with major league baseball clubs.
On Thursday Vancouver ended its 10-year affiliation with the Oakland Athletics while the Blue Jays did the same with their affiliate, the Auburn Doubledays of the New York Penn League.
The player-development contract between the two clubs allows the Blue Jays to send some of its top 2011 draft picks to Vancouver next summer.
In a release the Jays said the deal is a great move for both clubs.
"Having always received strong support from the west coast and particularly with British Columbia becoming a hotbed for baseball, this partnership will enhance the success of both organizations."
While partnered with Oakland, the C's never won a league championship but were West Division pennant winners in both 2004 and 2005. This past season, the C's claimed a West Division second-half title before being eliminated by first-half winners the Everett AquaSox.
