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Goodbye 'Spos!

© David Newman

In Quebec, baseball has always had a popular appeal. A sport of the working class along with wrestling and hockey, baseball was accessible to anyone and amateur leagues of the upper classes made way to professional teams. Frankie Robinson the first African-American professional baseball player played his first game in Montreal with the Royals. In 1968, Montréal was granted a franshise in the National League, giving Canada its first Major League Baseball team.

Fronted by Montreal Businessman Charles Bronfman, the Montréal Expos saw the light of day in May 1968. Their name comes from the International Exposition in Montreal held in 1967. The Expos play at Jarry Park until the 1977 season when they move to the Olympic Stadium. The Expos began to compete with the better teams of the league a in the late seventies and early eighties finishing their playoff hopes sometimes days before the end of the season (or one day, as in the 1979-1980 season).

In 1981, the Expos win their first title, by defeating the first half winners of NL East Philadelphia Phillies (the season had been interupted by a strike) 3 games to 2. The Expos would go on to lose to the Dodgers. The Dodgers later win the World Series.

Nineteen-Ninety-Four would be the beginning of the end for the Expos. In 1994, the Expos had the best team in baseball, leading all teams in Major League Baseball. But then, the season is interupted by a Strike which ends the season, the best the Expos have ever had and will ever have in Montreal.

The team was sold to Jeffrey Loria who was hailed as the saviour of a troubled franshise. He promised to keep the team in Montreal and to build Labatt Park to replace the Olympic Stadium but the Labatt Park plan fell through and the team began to lose the confidence of its fan base as rumours of the team leaving began to apear.

The team's troubles escalated and in 2002 the team was appropriated by the League. Despite the fact that everyone knew the Expos would leave Montreal, they managed to stay a couple seasons more, although sharing their home schedule with Puerto Rico, making their chances of success in Montreal slimmer.

And now the Expos are dead (as of tomorrow) and are going off to Washington, D.C.

When I was younger Baseball was up there. Hockey was there too but Baseball was the game we played on the street or at the park and at school. Plus, the Blue Jays were winning pennants. But while Love of Hockey remained in Canada, Baseball slowly relinquished the number two spot for many to Basketball or Football. And with waning support due to Player Strikes, and over-priced players and tickets, baseball became, in the past few years, the sport it was easy to go get tickets for.

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