Montreal Expos

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Montreal Expos
Founded: 1969 (Expansion Team)
Relocated: 2005 (to Washington, D.C.)
Stadium:

Jarry Park, Montreal (1969–1976)
Olympic Stadium, Montreal (1977–2004)
Hiram Bithorn Stadium (San Juan, Puerto Rico) (2003-2004)
Uniform Colours: blue, red, and white
Logo Design: A stylized M for Montreal, also forming a red E for Expos, and a blue B for baseball, coming together as "Montreal Expos Baseball." Also rumoured to be C B for majority owner Charles Bronfman. (More common amongst Canadian fans).
Mascot: Souki (1978), Youppi! (1979-2004) [1]
Theme Song: Les Expos sont là (literally: "The Expos are there") by Marc Gélinas
Division Titles won: 1981
National League Championships: None
World Series Championships: None
Geographical Rival: New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies (Toronto Blue Jays in interleague)

The Montreal Expos (French: Les Expos de Montréal) were a Major League Baseball team located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from 1969 to 2004. After the 2004 season, the franchise relocated to Washington, D.C. and became the Washington Nationals. The Nationals retain all the Expos records, contracts, spring training sites, and minor league affiliates.

Contents

[edit] Franchise history

[edit] Creation of the franchise

In 1960 Montreal lost its International League team, the Montreal Royals (an affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers). The move to get a new team for the city was the result of the seven-year-long effort of councilman Jerry Snyder of Snowdon. On December 2, 1967 he presented a bid for a Montreal franchise to Major League Baseball's team owners that was accepted on May 27, 1968. [2] After prominent Montreal businessman Jean-Louis Levesque withdrew his support, Snyder convinced Charles Bronfman, a major shareholder in the world-wide Seagram distilling empire, to lend his considerable weight to the project and provide the funding guarantees required. Bronfman purchased the majority of the shares and was Chairman of the Board of Directors. The other investors and founding directors included Vice-Chairmen Lorne Webster and Paul Beaudry, plus Sidney Maislin, Hugh G. Hallward, Charlemagne Beaudry (Paul's brother), and team President and Executive Director, John McHale.[1]

The Expos debuted in the National League in 1969, two years after Expo 67. This marked the first time in its long history that MLB had expanded outside the United States.

[edit] Social impact of the Expos

In 1977, Toronto received its own franchise, the Blue Jays of the American League. In 1978, a national title between the Expos and the Blue Jays, called the Pearson Cup (after Prime Minister Lester Bowles Pearson), was created. This was meant to be Canada's "baseball cup" and a fundraiser for amateur baseball in Canada. Pearson Cup games were played from 1978 to 1986; each team won three times, and there were two ties.

In 1997, MLB revived this rivalry as part of interleague play.

[edit] The team

The Montreal Expos franchise joined the National League in 1969, and played their first game against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium in Flushing, New York, beating the Mets by a score of 11-10. The Expos took the field for the first time with Bob Bailey playing first base, Gary Sutherland playing second base, Maury Wills playing shortstop, Coco Laboy playing third base, Mack Jones playing left field, Don Hahn playing centerfield, Rusty Staub playing right field, John Bateman at catcher and Mudcat Grant on the mound

From 1969 to 1976 the Expos played their home games at Jarry Park. In 1977, the team moved to the new Olympic Stadium, and remained there until their move to Washington, D.C. in 2004.

The Expos suffered through 10 straight losing seasons under managers Gene Mauch (1969-1975), Karl Kuehl (1976), Charlie Fox (1976) and Dick Williams (1977-1981) (including a 52-110 debut season in 1969, tying their expansion cousins the San Diego Padres for the majors' worst record that year). In 1979 they posted their first winning record with a 95-65 record, under manager Dick Williams. They would go on to post five consecutive winning seasons, and reach their only postseason in the split season of 1981. In the 1981 playoffs, the Expos defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 3-2 in the divisional series, but lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 in the National League Championship Series. Montreal was led through the 1980s by a core group of young players, including catcher Gary Carter, outfielders Tim Raines and Andre Dawson, third baseman Tim Wallach and pitchers Steve Rogers and Bill Gullickson. In spite of the team's talent and promise, the Expos frequently did not perform up to expectations, and stalwarts such as Carter and Dawson would depart by the middle of the decade.

The Expos had several mediocre years in the mid 1980s under manager Buck Rodgers, but steadily improved in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During this period, Expos pitcher Dennis Martinez distinguished himself by throwing a perfect game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 28, 1991. Under manager Felipe Alou, who took the position midway through the 1992 season, Montreal finished second in the National League East in 1992 and 1993.

[edit] The 1994 season: hope and disappointment

1994 proved to be heartbreaking for the Expos. With a very talented group of players, including outfielders Larry Walker, Moisés Alou, and Marquis Grissom and pitchers Ken Hill, John Wetteland, and a young Pedro Martínez, the Expos had the best record in Major League Baseball, 74–40 when the players' strike forced the end of the season on August 12, 1994. They were six games ahead of the second place Braves and were on pace to win 105 games.

The strike hurt the team's campaign for a new stadium, and the local ownership did not choose to invest additional funds to retain the talented players on the team. In 1995, Claude Brochu and Jacques Ménard instructed then-general manager Kevin Malone to release the team's major stars. Many of the leading players said, in retrospect, that they would have been willing to take pay-cuts in order to return in 1995 and compete once again for the World Series.[citation needed] On ESPN, Larry Walker asked rhetorically, "I was willing to take a cut to keep the team together, but I was never offered a contract. Where did the money go? We may never know."[citation needed] This major overhaul damaged the franchise and disheartened its fan base.

[edit] The final decade

After 1994, the Expos lost most of their star players through free agency and trades, and had poor records nearly every season thereafter, except for a second-place finish in 1996, and respectable seasons in 2002 and 2003. In 2004, the Expos were 67–95 after losing superstar Vladimir Guerrero to free agency during the previous off-season.

Montreal was often cited as an example of a small-market team, in terms of potential revenue sources such as broadcasting contracts, unable to compete with teams in bigger markets such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and therefore no longer a viable competitor. (Note in terms of population, its metropolitan area has 3.6 million people, the 16th most populated metropolitan area in the United States and Canada combined.)

Jeffrey Loria, the last owner prior to the team's purchase by Major League Baseball, made his initial splash after becoming the managing general partner in December 1999 by signing Graeme Lloyd for $3,000,000,[2] and acquiring Hideki Irabu's $4,125,000 contract[3] and Lee Stevens's $3,500,000 contract[4] in trades.[5] The total sum of these contracts was nearly 50% of the 1999 payroll.[6]

During the 2000 season, Loria modified the existing plans for a new ballpark in downtown Montreal (which was to be called Labatt Park), demanding more public funds than the governments were willing to put up; the park was never built. A dispute over radio broadcast rights also resulted in the disappearance of Expos games from English radio in Quebec, a major source of publicity and support for the team. Attendance in the 2001 season dropped to fewer than 10,000 per game, and consequently the future of the franchise in Montreal was called into question. On November 7, 2001, Commissioner Bud Selig announced that Major League Baseball would undergo a contraction of two teams, after a 28–2 vote by the owners. Montreal was one of the dissenting franchises.

In February of 2002 the owners agreed to eliminate the franchise along with the Minnesota Twins. On February 14, 2002, after a 30–0 vote, Major League Baseball formed a Delaware partnership (Expos Baseball, LP) to buy the Expos for US$120,000,000 from Jefferey Loria. (Loria then bought the Florida Marlins from John W. Henry, who had joined a partnership to purchase the Boston Red Sox.[7]) After legal manoeuvres prevented the Twins from being shuttered, on August 30, 2002, MLB signed a collective bargaining agreement with the players association, which prohibited contraction through the end of the agreement in 2006.[8] Major League Baseball named Frank Robinson manager and Omar Minaya as vice-president and general manager.

In 2003, the team played 22 of its home games at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico, although their attendance increased in 2002 (from 7,935 per game[9] to 10,031[10]) and they placed second in the National League East. Despite being a considerably smaller facility (it seats approximately 19,000) than Montreal's Olympic Stadium, attendance in San Juan's Hiram Bithorn Stadium averaged 14,222, compared with 12,081 in Montreal.[11] The Puerto Rican baseball fans embraced "Los Expos" (particularly Puerto Rican players Jose Vidro, Javier Vasquez and Wil Cordero, and other Latin players like Vladimir Guerrero and Livan Hernandez) as their home team (as well as the Latin players from other teams), all the while hoping the team would make a permanent move to Puerto Rico. Expos players held clinics and made personal appearances on behalf of the team in Puerto Rico[citation needed]. Thanks in part to the San Juan games, the Expos were able to draw over a million fans at home in 2003 for the first time since 1997.[11] The Expos' season in Puerto Rico was chronicled in the MLB-produced DVD Boricua Beisbol - Passion of Puerto Rico.

Led by Vladimir Guerrero, the 2003 Expos were part of a spirited seven-team Wild Card hunt. On August 28, they found themselves in a five-way tie for the lead with Philadelphia, Florida, St. Louis, and Houston. However, MLB, led by Bud Selig, in what ESPN's Peter Gammons called "a conflict of interest," decided that it could not afford an extra $50,000 to call up players from its minor leagues to take advantage of MLB's expanded roster limit during September. The budget was some $35 million. This doomed any hopes of reviving the franchise. Omar Minaya, the General Manager, later said, "Baseball handed down a decree.” They would not be allowed to call up players from the minors on September 1, as it was deemed too expensive. They would have to make do with what they had. The heart went out of the Expos that day. "It was a message to the players," Minaya said. "It was a momentum killer." He also stated: "They're a tough group of guys. You cannot ever forget 2003; they were as good as the Marlins, who won the World Series. But nobody knows this because nobody saw Montreal in 2003. What killed us was not getting the call-ups."[3]

Orlando Cabrera, who had been the Expos' shortstop, cited that development as a reason he didn't want to remain with the team. [4]

Fan attendance dropped off, and the Expos went 12–15, finishing eight games out of the Wild Card.

The Players' Union initially rejected continuing the San Juan arrangement for the 2004 season, but later relented. Meanwhile, MLB actively looked for a relocation site. Some of the choices included Washington, D.C.; San Juan; Monterrey, Mexico; Portland, Oregon; New Jersey; Northern Virginia; and Norfolk, Virginia. During the decision-making process, Selig added Las Vegas, Nevada, to the list of potential Expos homes. In addition, the Washington Post reported that prior to the move, Major League Baseball was negotiating with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.[citation needed]

On September 29, 2004, MLB officially announced that the Expos franchise would move to Washington, D.C. for 2005. Later that night, the Expos played what would be their last game in Montreal, a loss to the Florida Marlins before more than 31,000 fans. The move was approved by the owners of the other teams in a 28–1 vote on December 3 (Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos cast the sole "nay" vote). On November 15, 2004, arbitrators struck down a lawsuit by the former team owners against MLB and former majority owner Jeffrey Loria, ending the legal fight to keep the Expos in Montreal.

For the history of the franchise after its move to Washington, see Washington Nationals.

[edit] Historic games

  • October 19, 1981 - Blue Monday. In the decisive Game 5 of their only National League Championship Series, the Expos were defeated at home, 2-1, by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Tim Raines opened the bottom of the first with a double against Cy Young Award-winning rookie sensation Fernando Valenzuela and scored on an Andre Dawson double play ball. Valenzuela held the Expos scoreless the rest of the way, however, and the Dodgers tied the game at 1 in the top of the fifth with two hits, a wild pitch and an RBI ground out off Expo starter Ray Burris. The teams remained tied until the top of the ninth, when Expo manager Jim Fanning made a risky decision to relieve Burris with Game 3 winner Steve Rogers. Struggling closer Jeff Reardon was throwing alongside Rogers in the bullpen at the time, but Fanning elected to summon his ace. Rogers retired Steve Garvey and Ron Cey in order, but outfielder Rick Monday homered to put Los Angeles ahead, 2-1, and crush the Expos' hopes of advancing to the World Series. Two-out walks from Gary Carter and Larry Parrish were all that the Expos could muster in the 9th, as Bob Welch preserved the one-run Dodger victory. The Expos lost the NLCS, 3-2, and never returned to the postseason.
  • August 26, 2003 - The Expos rallied from twice large deficit to claim a 14-10 win against the Philadelphia Phillies and put in within two games of the National League Wild Card. It was the second biggest comeback in Expos history.
  • October 2, 2004 - The Expos earned their last win in franchise history, defeating the New York Mets 6–3. Brad Wilkerson hit the last home run in Expos history in the ninth inning, his 32nd of the year.
  • October 3, 2004 - The New York Mets defeated Montreal 8–1 at Shea Stadium, in the final game of the franchise's existence as the Montreal Expos. Jamey Carroll scored the last Expos run and Endy Chávez became the final Expo batter in history when he grounded out in the top of the ninth to end the game. Coincidentally, Shea Stadium was where the Expos had played their first-ever game, in 1969.

[edit] Facts and Figures

  • When the Montreal Expos baseball team played in Olympic Stadium, "The Happy Wanderer" was played to celebrate offensive explosions, with the fans joining in on the chorus.

[edit] Baseball Hall of Famers

Robinson was elected in by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) in 1982. He did not play for the Expos. On October 4, 1974, Robinson became Major League Baseball's first African-American manager when he assumed the reins of the Cleveland Indians.[9] Robinson was the first African-American to manage in both the American and National Leagues.

[edit] Retired numbers

Canadiens Raising the Expos Retired Numbers
Canadiens Raising the Expos Retired Numbers

Note: The Washington Nationals did not retain these numbers (except for #42) as retired after the franchise moved in 2004. On October 18, 2005, the Montreal Canadiens honoured the departed team by raising an Expos commemorative banner, which lists the retired numbers, to the rafters of the Bell Centre.

[edit] Championships

National League Eastern Division Champions
Preceded by:
Philadelphia Phillies		 1981 Succeeded by:
St. Louis Cardinals

[edit] Some notable broadcasters

An Expos jersey and cap lain in tribute
An Expos jersey and cap lain in tribute

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ History of the Expos at the Major League Baseball Official website (English). Retrieved on November 4, 2006.
  2. ^ Graeme Lloyd statistics (English). Retrieved on September 29, 2006.
  3. ^ Hideki Irabu statistics (English). Retrieved on September 29, 2006.
  4. ^ Lee Stevens statistics (English). Retrieved on September 29, 2006.
  5. ^ Montreal Expos (2000). Expos Media Guide 2000. 
  6. ^ 1999 Montreal Expos (English). Retrieved on September 29, 2006.
  7. ^ Mnookin, Seth (2006). Feeding the Monster. How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top.. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster. 0-7432-8681-2. 
  8. ^ MLB.com (2002-08-30). Deal in place, games go on. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-12-28.
  9. ^ a b Montreal Expos (2002). Expos Media Guide 2002. 
  10. ^ Montreal Expos (2003). Expos Media Guide 2003. 
  11. ^ a b Montreal Expos (2004). Expos Media Guide 2004. 

[edit] External links

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