MONTREAL EXPOS
Established: 1969
Relocated/Folded: 2004
Overall Record: 2755 - 1943 - 4
Playoff Record: 5 -5
Home Ballparks: Jarry Park Stadium (1969-76), Olympic Stadium (1977-2004), Hiram Bithorn Stadium - San Juan, PR (2003-04)
On May 27, 1968, National League president Warren Giles announced that the NL would expand by two teams - the San Diego Padres and the Montreal Expos would join the league paying a franchise fee of $10 MILLION (USD) to seal the deal.
Getting that fee is a tale all to itself. The amount was spread over 10 different people/groups with a good portion of them pulling out when they were somewhat surprisingly awarded the franchise. Charles Bronfman, the owner of Seagram’s Corporation, eventually upped his share and became the ownership group’s principal. With one crisis adverted they had a rather thorny issue to sort out before beginning play in 1969. Where are the Expos going to play?
That $10 million franchise fee is $88.6 million in today’s dollars.
Current commissioner Rob Manfred
hates baseballputs the price tag in and around the $2.2 billion mark for an expansion fee.Forbes put the value of the Padres at approximately $1.7 billion in 2023.
The Expos and stadiums seem forever linked and not in a good way. April 7th was opening day for the 1969 season, a rather quick turnaround from getting the franchise at the end of May 1968 with no ballpark to play home games in. Delorimier Stadium, where the Montreal Royals played games, was in total disrepair and not an option. Autostade, the home of the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes at the time, was considered until they discovered the cost of converting it to a domed stadium was prohibitive.
Jarry Park was a last-ditch effort to answer the Expos stadium problem. It was a community park that was expanded and remodeled to a 30,000-spectator temporary stadium. At a $1 million remodel price tag, Les Expos de Montreal had a place to play. They would remain at Jarry Park until finally moving to the Big O in 1977.
First Montreal Expo draft pick - LHP Balor Moore, 1st Round, 22nd selection, Deer Park HS (TX)
First Game: April 8/1969, W 11-10 v New York Mets
First Home Game: April 14/1969, W 8-7 v St. Louis Cardinals
First Season Record: 52-110, 48 GB
FIRST WINNING SEASON: 1979 (95-65, 2 GB)
A decade of losing took its toll on the franchise and fans. Fans were not going to games, attendance had halved since their debut season, but the 1979 season kicked off a period of competitive play for the ‘Spos. Their window had opened so to say.
Oh so close in 1980 placing 2nd in the NL East, one game back of the division and eventual World Series winner Philadelphia Phillies. Then 1981…
Notable because of a work stoppage and strike-shortened, but from an Expos perspective, it will always be the season that ended on Blue Monday. Montreal took on the Phillies in the Division Series winning the Best-Of-5 three games to two and moved on to face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. Another Best-Of-5 series, the NLCS went to LA for the first two games with the remainder of the series held in Montreal. The Dodgers took Game 1 (5-1) with the Expos getting a split on the road taking the second game with a complete game shutout (3-0) from Ray Burris over a rookie named Fernando Valenzuela.
Game 3 brought the series to La Belle Province and a series lead with a win 4-1 win. Steve Rogers got the win for the now one-game-away-from-the-World-Series Expos. The fourth game was another battle on the mound with a tight battle until the 8th inning where the Dodgers put up 2 runs in their half and then another 4 in the top of the 9th sending the series to a deciding Game 5 with a 7-1 win.
The decider was bumped from Sunday to Monday after the game was postponed by rain/snow/weather.
At this time you may be scrolling back up and saying “There’s a roof on there, what are you talking about?”. True, but not until after 1987 when it was installed.
Montreal took an early 1-0 first-inning lead which held up until the top of the fifth when the Dodgers tied it up. Let’s check back in the top of the 9th, still tied 1-1…
October 19, 1981 will always be Blue Monday. The Dodgers went on to win the World Series (4-2) over the New York Yankees.
The Expos remained competitive through most of the 80’s and early 90’s but never could get back into the playoff picture. Going into the 1994 season, Felipe Alou’s team was coming in with 94 wins the previous year and a roster that contained the outfield of Marquis Grissom, Moises Alou, and Hall Of Famer Larry Walker. On the mound, you had 22-year-old Pedro Martinez, Ken Hill, and Jeff Fassero at the top of the rotation with John Wetteland closing games out. Alou, Grissom, Hill, Wil Cordero, and Darrin Fletcher were named NL All-Stars. This was a team knocking on the door of a playoff and maybe a World Series run. As of August 11, the Expos were leading all of MLB with an astounding 74-40 record. On the morning of August 12, the players went on strike leading to the cancellation of the remainder of the regular season and playoffs.
Montreal was competitive again in 1996, after a last-place finish upon baseball’s return for the 95 season, but the writing was on the wall. The fire sale of players all but told the world what was happening. The end of the Expos was coming and coming pretty soon.
The Big O is a big old dump at this point. The turf laid originally when it opened was still there, and the outfield fence effectively had no padding adding to the danger of playing at the stadium. Free agents avoided the team with Olympic Stadium being one of the reasons. Bad enough to play at for a few series a year never mind 81 home dates. No idea how the Alouettes were playing football on that surface as well. It had become a new stadium or bust for franchise survival. Bust it went. In 2002, the MLB purchased the franchise from then-owner Jeffrey Loria.
In 2002, as part of an orchestrated move with Bud Selig and then-Marlins owner John W. Henry, Loria sold the Expos to a partnership of the other 29 major league clubs for $120 million. In effect, the Expos were sold to the commissioner's office (being owned by the league). Henry then sold the Marlins to Loria for $158.5 million, including a $38.5 million no-interest loan from MLB. The deal was approved by the other owners before Loria and Henry signed the contract, and paved the way for Henry to buy the Boston Red Sox. Loria moved the Expos' entire front office staff, on-field staff, office equipment, and computer equipment to Florida1
MLB formed a partnership with the remaining clubs in the league to run and operate the team. If your team is being run by your competition, how much help are you going to get from your ownership group if you’re in contention? Well, your answer would be what went down during the 2003 season. Relocation rumors abound and seemed to be a formality as franchise contraction was off the table due to the recent CBA. Even with that hanging like an anvil over the team and splitting home dates with San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Expos were in contention. They were in the thick of an NL Wildcard chase. So much so they were in a 4-team tie for that spot as of August 29th. Why is that date key? Rosters expand on September 1st giving the team the ability to call up some of their best minor leaguers for a playoff push. Instead of calling players up the ownership group decided to send players DOWN to the minors. Budget constraints. If anything says it’s over, it was this.
On September 29, 2004, the date of the Expos’ last home game in Montreal (L 9-1 v Florida Marlins), MLB announced that the franchise would relocate to Washington DC for the 2005 season. The Montreal Expos last game was an 8-1 loss to the New York Mets at Shea Stadium putting a bow on a 67-95 final season.
EXPOS RETIRED NUMBERS
#8 - Gary Carter
#10 - Andre Dawson & Rusty Staub
#30 - Tim Raines
#42 - Jackie Robinson
EXPOS ALUMNI IN THE NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME
Gary Carter
Andrew Dawson
Tim Raines
Dick Williams (manager)
Tony Perez
Vladimir Guerrero
Randy Johnson
Pedro Martinez
Frank Robinson (manager)
Lee Smith
Larry Walker
If you want to read maybe the best-told story of the Expos, grab yourself Up, Up, and Away: The Kid, the Hawk, Rock, Vladi, Pedro, le Grand Orange, Youppi!, the Crazy Business of Baseball, and the Ill-fated but Unforgettable Montreal Expos. It’s a fabulous read.
Thank you for checking in today. I normally and will of course say Keep It 80 Grade until the next time but I searched on the YouTube machine I came across something I’ve never seen/heard before. We’ll let this from Annakin Slayd say goodbye today ——
SOURCES, RESOURCES & READING
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Expos
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Montr%C3%A9al_Expos
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/montreal-expos
https://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/montreal-expos-team-ownership-history/