Toronto
Only one NBA team (out of 30) and only one MLB team (out of 30) currently play their home games outside of the United States. Both teams play
their home games in Toronto (Raptors and Blue Jays).
Five years ago, the Toronto Raptors defeated the Golden State
Warriors in the NBA Finals in six games.
That was the only NBA Finals in which the Raptors have participated in their history. The Blue Jays played
in two World Series (1992 and
1993) and won both of them in six games.
The 1993 World Series ended on this Joe Carter home run, one of only two home runs to end a World Series.
Out of the eighteen cities with teams currently in the NBA and in MLB, Toronto is the only one that has never experienced an NBA Finals loss or a World Series
loss.
As mentioned, all three Toronto championships were won in exactly six games. In all three series, the Toronto team split the first two games
with the opponent, won Game 3, won Game 4, lost Game 5 (and a chance to win the championship), and won Game 6. I think that's pretty incredible!
Only four other NBA Finals (1948, 1950, 1982, 1998) followed the pattern I just described and only eight other World Series (1911, 1918, 1935, 1948,
1959, 1977, 2009, 2021) have followed that pattern. In all, there have been 75 NBA Finals and 117 World Series.
My parents were born and raised in Sri Lanka. Toronto is a special place for me since the number of
people of Sri Lankan descent in Toronto is slightly
more than the number of people of Sri Lankan descent in the United States. This is remarkable
since the population of
the United States (more than 300 million) is over 100 times that of Toronto (less than 3 million)!
In Toronto, there are approximately 200,000 people of Indian descent and 60,000 people of
Sri Lankan descent. There are approximately 4.8 million Indian Americans and approximately
50,000 Sri Lankan Americans. For every one person in the U.S. of Sri Lankan descent, there are approximately 96 people of Indian descent. For every one person in
Toronto of Sri Lankan descent, there are approximately 3 people of Indian descent.
I visited Toronto in 2021 and saw the Rogers Centre (where the Blue Jays play) and Scotiabank Arena (where the Raptors play).