Ides 49: Metros Mild
As the days grow longer, warmer & sunnier, it’s hard not to miss sports, whether that means watching a favourite pro team with a few thousand friends or getting under a pop-fly at your local diamond. Sports have been part & parcel of the arrival of summer forever, so we thought we’d use this month’s Ides to tell another story about a forgotten Toronto team.
The Toronto Metros were the third in a string of unsuccessful professional soccer teams in Toronto. Joining the North American Soccer League in 1971, the Metros teetered on insolvency until 1975 before merging with amateur club Toronto-Croatia.
Metros players had their salaries paid for by their fans from the basement of a Toronto church, landed one of the world’s greatest players (Eusébio) & went on to win the 1976 NASL championship – the first major title won by a Canadian football club. Alas, from there, both the Metros and the entire NASL limped along for a few more years before folding at the end of the 1984 season.
To toast this forgotten football franchise we present this classic forgotten beer: an English Dark Mild. Perfect for a day on the pitch, this is a delicate, malt-forward session ale with subdued hop bitterness & refreshment to spare.
