Expos will call Washington home
Last Updated: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 | 11:35 PM ET
CBC Sports
Expos president Tony Tavares confirmed Wednesday afternoon what everyone was expecting – at season's end, the Montreal Expos will no longer exist.
"I am here today to confirm the rumours and innuendo on the relocation of the franchise from Montreal to Washington, D.C.," Tavares said.
The Expos, Canada's first major-league franchise, will be relocated to Washington in time to start the 2005 season.
Montreal Expos fans show their feelings during a game in Montreal on Tuesday. (CP/Ryan Remiorz)
It marks the first move by a major-league ball club since the expansion Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers 33 years ago.
"I think everybody took it as a relief," Expos outfielder Brad Wilkerson noted. "For me, it's more than moving on in the game of baseball, it's leaving a city that's meant a lot to myself and a lot of players."
Major League Baseball is still seeking Washington-based ownership for the ball club, which will play out of a refurbished RFK Stadium for three years until a brand-new, $440 million US ball park is built.
"I think everybody is excited about baseball coming to the District," claimed Washington councilman Adrian Fenty. "(But) very few District residents are excited about a full subsidy to pay for this stadium."
Wednesday's confirmation came after MLB officials reached agreement with Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, who claimed a team playing just 65 kilometres away would interfere with his ticket base.
According to the Globe and Mail, the league has guaranteed Angelos a minimum amount of revenue each season, and set a minimum franchise value for the Orioles.
"We understand the impact this move has on a lot of people – a lot of lives, a lot of livelihoods – and I'm very said about that," Expos manager Frank Robinson said.
Tavares cited many reasons why fans were reluctant to support the Expos over the last few years, including broken promises of a new ball park, a declining business base, separatist politics plus the plain fact that everyone knew that the Expos were on life support.
"In my view, there hasn't been hope here since the day that I got here," said Tavares, who was hired when MLB bought the team from former managing partner Jeffrey Loria for $120 million US on Feb. 12, 2002.
"I think that the train had left the station when we started talking about contraction (in 2001) and I think once contraction was taken off the table, it was pretty much assumed that this would be relocated."
Tavares singled out 1994 as the year when things started to go downhill for the Expos.
That's when Montreal, sporting a league-best 74-40 record, wasforced to shut down prematurely because of the players' strike.
"I know when I first got traded here in 1992, all three years I was here, we had fans," recalled ex-Expos pitcher Ken Hill.
"And I know in 1994, we were drawing 25-30,000 fans. If you win, they come."
With a lineup boasting the likes of Hill, Moises Alou, Marquis Grissom, Pedro Martinez, Larry Walker and John Wetteland, the Expos were touted as favourites to win their first World Series.
But they didn't have sufficient financial backing to commit their young stars to long-term contracts so wound up trading most of them for prospects, beginning a cycle that continues to this day.
"I feel sad about the whole story, the way Montreal turned out," said Martinez, a perennial all-star with the Boston Red Sox.
"That's the best city I ever played in. And my memories of the fans are incredible.
"The same way management got rid of players, the fans went away with them and I don't blame them for leaving. How can you just develop great players every year and give them away pretty much to other teams and not be able to keep them for the fans that come to watch?"
Further handicapped by a weak Canadian dollar and scant television revenue, the Expos simply couldn't lure high-priced talent to Montreal.
"I don't know all the history, but I know this stadium sold out back in the day and that baseball took away all their superstars," said Expos rookie outfielder Terrmel Sledge. "They're probably fed up with it – I would be, too."
Jeffrey Loria raised the hopes of Expos fans when he bought the franchise in 1999 and vowed to compete for a pennant, but the love affair proved shortlived.
Loria fought constantly with his 14 limited partners and scrapped the plans for a downtown stadium, which was seen as crucial to the team's survival in Montreal.
Loria eventually sold the Expos to MLB, so he could buy the Florida Marlins in 2002.
Almost immediately, the league started courting relocation bids from various cities and, distressed by the lack of support in Montreal, shifted a portion of the Expos' home games to Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2003 and 2004.
Although the Expos tenure in Montreal was marred by financial and ownership woes, there were plenty of good times, too.
Montrealers initially embraced the Expos when they debuted 35 years ago with an 8-7 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Jarry Park.
"This was probably one of the loudest places to play in baseball for a long period of time," said former Expos outfielder Tim Raines. "When we had Charles Bronfman as the owner and he ran this franchise (from 1969-91), it was on it's way.
"We had a lot of great players (and) the fans enjoyed the game. "They came and had fun and it was enjoyable to be here."
In 1981, the Expos made their one and only playoff appearance by winning the second half of a strike-interrupted season.
But on a day dubbed "Blue Monday," Los Angeles Dodgers' Rick Monday eliminated Montreal with a dramatic ninth-inning home run off Steve Rogers in decisive Game 5 of the National League Championship Series at Olympic Stadium.
"I'm getting flashbacks of great memories – the city, the fans, the great games up there," smiled Gary Carter, a Hall of Fame catcher whose most prolific years came with the Expos.
"My finest memories are when we won the second half in 1981. That was the ultimate."
The same memories Montrealers will likely remember most fondly when thinking of their beloved Expos in the years to come.
with files from CP Online
