[URBAN NOTE] "Toronto is good at sports — get used to it"

[rfmcdonald]

I have to admit that I like the optimism of CBC News' Benjamin Blum, purely for reasons of municipal patriotism. Is this liking well-founded, sports fans?

Yes, you read the headline correctly.

This goes beyond the city's reputation for unearned bravado and the usual bandwagon jumping that comes with success. There's tangible support for this claim now.

Toronto FC's 5-0 thrashing of New York City FC to reach the East final in the MLS playoffs, coupled with back-to-back ALCS trips for the Blue Jays and the Raptors' run to the conference final in May have Toronto actually feeling good about its pro sports teams. Hell, even the Maple Leafs are fun to watch!

The last time Toronto's sports teams collectively were this successful was in the early 1990s when the Jays won back-to-back World Series titles, the Argonauts won a Grey Cup with nickname hall-of-famers Rocket Ismail and Pinball Clemons and the Maple Leafs... well, only Wayne Gretzky and Kerry Fraser know for sure what happened in the 1993 Campbell conference final.

So how did we get here?