And then there were two. After next season, the Ottawa Lynx (AAA International League) and Vancouver Canadians (Class-A Northwest League) will be the last remaining Canadian-based minor-league baseball teams. That with the news that the Edmonton Trappers have been sold to Nolan Ryan, of all people, and will be moved to Round Rock, Texas after the 2004 season. The team will become the AAA Pacific Coast League franchise of the Houston Astros, replacing the New Orleans Zephyrs; the Double-A Astros franchise currently in Round Rock will move to Corpus Christi. And what will become of the Expos' AAA farm team that currently occupies Edmonton? Start drawing your own dark conclusions about that.
It's a shame that yet another Canadian baseball team has gone to the US (Alberta lost both Calgary and Medicine Hat last year), but you can't really blame the PCL for wanting to abandon a city that's thousands of expensive air miles away from the bulk of its clubs' locations; even within their own Northern Division, the Trappers were grouped with Tacoma, Portland and Salt Lake City(?). And it could get worse. From first-hand experience, I wonder how much longer the Lynx will hang on here in Ottawa; they're way below the local sports-scene radar. It's quite possible that in five years' time, Toronto will be the only major- or minor-league baseball team in the country, and that would be terrible for the game in Canada.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20031024030947999