"In 1969, I said I can't understand why a great city like Montreal can get a baseball team but an equally great city like Toronto can't; there's nobody championing sports.

"I tried to create an interest (as a North York councillor) but it was like banging my head against the wall . . . there was a lot of resistance, people said you're not going to spend public funds to build a sports stadium.

"In early 1970, I decided to pay my own way to the baseball meetings in Florida. (hangs out in the bar at the old Americana Hotel in Belle Harbor, chats up Chicago White Sox GM Frank Lane who points out then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn).

"I said I'd like the opportunity to tell you that Toronto would like a baseball team. He was a big man, 6-5 or 6-6. He put a hand on my shoulder and said: 'Son, where are you going to play in Toronto?' I said 'You give us a team and I'll make sure we build a stadium.' He said: 'Son, let me tell you about the way we do things in baseball. First, you build a stadium, come back and see me and we'll decide whether we want to give you a team.' So, the door is shut. Tail between my legs, I walk out.

"On July 3, 1973 I become chairman of Metro Toronto. My mother always said to me 'My son, if you have a choice in life between smart and lucky, take lucky every time because luck played a major role for us. Many had tried to bring MLB to Toronto before (this new group's key players included Labatt Breweries Don McDougall, financier Howard Howard Webster and the CIBC). Don McDougall deserves as much or more credit than I do because Labatts put up the money while I beat the drums for Toronto (in travelling to lobby MLB cities).

"I really believe if Montreal didn't get a team, Toronto may still not have a team. (The Expos) opened the door . . . the problem to this day is MLB is slow to move, so to expand seemed out of place but to try and move a team seemed to be the more logical way to go.

"I got a call in 1975 from a lawyer in New York named Jim Hunt who asked if we'd be interested in buying the San Francisco Giants and move them to Toronto. We saw Hunt in New York, came to an agreement to buy the Giants and we'd move them to Toronto but the strange thing is we had to keep everything quiet. (In early January of 1976) the Giants board approved the sale and we announced it.

"Then, the mayor of San Francisco gets a temporary restraining order from a local judge that the team cannot be moved. So we go from the joy of acquiring a baseball team for Toronto to feeling it slipping through your fingers. After all that effort, you almost feel like crying because you'd work so long on it. (The Giants) were able to find a local buyer and within three to four weeks, the deal was dead.

"The total price (to relocate the Giants) was $13 million. Paying off the lease was $6 million and buying the team was $7 million.

"Then I get a call from (AL president) Lee MacPhail who says 'We are contemplating expanding the AL from 12 to 14 teams; Seattle would be one and Toronto the other.' Don McDougall and I make presentations on behalf of Toronto in Tampa (for MLB approval) and the team is awarded to Toronto.

"But it doesn't end there. Bowie Kuhn phones me and says 'I'm not allowing Toronto to go into the American League.' It's an emotional roller coaster ride again. (Kuhn wants the NL to expand with Toronto and Washington and put Seattle and New Orleans in the AL)

"Kuhn said he needed three weeks to convince the NL for a unanimous vote (vote was 10-2 in favour); then he wanted two more weeks for another vote. I said, `Commissioner, you're destroying me.' Two weeks later (the NL clubs) vote again: it's 7-5.

"So, we're all happy (Jays granted AL franchise in 1976) and that's the complete story of the Blue Jays."