Les Expos R.I.P.

[Knox The Hatter]

Some might remember the Montreal Expos for their "Glory Days" of the late '70s and early '80s, the days of Andre Dawson and Gary Carter and Warren Cromartie. Not me.
I remember watching the Mets on the road, playing Les Candystripers at Parc Jarry, a small makeshift stadium utilized in lieu of the demolished Delormier Downs, the home of the legendary triple-A Montreal Royals, as well as of Jackie Robinson in his lone minor league season. Parc Jarry is best remembered for the big swimming pool on the other side of the outfield wall...not an affectation, but reportedly a utility in use before and after Parc Jarry. The Expos wore these ridiculous, overly colorful uniforms, with a rather foppish tri-colored 'M' logo and caps with red, white and blue panels. They didn't look like ballplayers so much as they resembled decorative lawn jockeys.
The star of the team was a hard hitter named Rusty Staub. He had a head of thick, curly red hair, and the fans at Parc Jarry nicknamed him Le Grande Orange (I imagine this would make Tickledorange a very happy woman, lol). The Expos had other colorful players too. They had a catcher, John Boccabella. The PA announcer in Parc Jarry used to draw out his name..."Bohhhhca-u-beh-llllllaaaaaa!" They also had two guys who were drafted out of the Dodgers farm system. One of them was Bob Fairly, a guy with a hilarious name, and some major league experience behind him. If that wasn't enough, though, right at the same time, they had Jim Fairey. You think I'm making this up? I assure you, I'm not.

The Expos got good gates there at Parc Jarry, until a disastrous '76 when they lost a hundred or so games. The next year, they moved into the horrible Olympic Stadium. You see, this franchise was always screwed. Montreal got the club because they agreed to have a proper major league ballpark for them by the mid 70s at the latest, but it never happened, and how could anyone argue that the Big O was a major league park?

Eventually, they got good, but they never were able to get there. Their only post season was the strike year, '81, and the Dodgers tossed them overboard. They continued to bring up some great talent (Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez and Vladimir Guerrero come to mind), but the franchise was, to me, a joke. They played fourth fiddle most of the time in a city with three professional teams, one of them in another sport being a national icon for greatness, no less. It figured that their best shot came in '94, when the strike blew the season sky high. Now, the Expos are history, and I'm certainly not going to miss them. Washington now gets a third chance, and I hope it works. No more candy striper uniforms and miles of empty seats in a huge dungeon, and no more stars that always wind up on other clubs. Hasta!

 

[naveltkltr1350]

ummm, welcome back Senators??! *looks around, walks away*

 

[milagros317]

I am old enough to remember two different incarnations of the Washington Senators. The first incarnation is now in Minnesota (and has clinched the AL Central this year), while the second incarnation is now in Texas.

Is there any reason to believe that Washington, DC, will sufficiently support the third incarnation?

 

[giantfan121262]

The shameful thing is that the Expos had these budding stars and when those guys began to come into their own, they couldn't afford to keep them mainly because they couldn't draw enough fans to generate the revenues to pay the salaries they were seeking, hence they became free agents and signed on with other teams. They were playing in a city were baseball takes a backseat to hockey.

It's about time they move on to a city that has been starving for a team since the Senators moved to Minnesota (and Texas). In DC, I believe they can generate enough interest where they can put a competitive team on the field.

 

[natural tickler]

Yeah, Mils there is. I was watching Sportscenter today, and they were saying that the city is excited of having a team back in DC. Who knows, it just might work this time😀


besides, the conditions today are better than the other two attempts. Anyhoo, the other two teams weren't exactly great back then, were they?🙄

 

[Mitchell]

I hope DC supports the Expos more then the fans in Montreal did the last few years. The strike really hurt the Expos, as in 1994 they were 6 games ahead of my Braves in August when the strike was called, and might have disrupted Atlanta's run of divisional titles that continued with ease in 1995 after the strike. I've heard that many players dont want to play for the Expos because of the lack of fan support, and high canadian taxes. I think Washington can support then well. It will be nice to turn on an Expos game, and not see 1,000 people sitting in the stands of a dead stadium. I have a feeling Expos games may be rocking the first year in Washington, and maybe now you'll see free agents actually want to go there, instead of everyone wanting to leave.

Mitch

 

[leafstk]

The shameful thing is that the Expos had these budding stars and when those guys began to come into their own, they couldn't afford to keep them mainly because they couldn't draw enough fans to generate the revenues to pay the salaries they were seeking, hence they became free agents and signed on with other teams. They were playing in a city were baseball takes a backseat to hockey.

It's about time they move on to a city that has been starving for a team since the Senators moved to Minnesota (and Texas). In DC, I believe they can generate enough interest where they can put a competitive team on the field.

I agree completely. Montreal does not deserve to have a baseball team and they have NEVER supported them They're fair weather fans, even with their hockey team. But its hard to believe, even when the Expos were leading their division, they could hardly average 9000 fans in attendance.... I say give the team to a place who will appreciate them

 

[Knox The Hatter]

I am, by the way, hoping they name them the Washington Senators.

The first incarnation, for the most part, was owned by the Griffith family. Clark Griffith was a major skinflint who only liked spending money on himself, so the team suffered for many years. Griffith was a bigot who thought that Blacks were inferior in every way. He continued to believe this despite the fact that his club had to share his ballpark (situated in a traditionally Black neighborhood, across the street from the campus of the most prestigious African-American institution of higher learning in the country) with a team that the Washington Senators couldn't beat if they played them every day for three months...the Homestead Grays. Hometown fans of major league baseball in DC had to content themselves with the anomaly of, say, Latin players (new in those days), and pitching staffs comprised of a multitude of knuckle ballers.

Griffith died in 1955, and willed the club to his nephews, who sought greener pastures (to be honest, where there were decent White people), and moved the club to Minneapolis/St. Paul for the 1961 season. That year, the AL expanded, and after threats from Congress, the second Washington Senators were born. For ten years, with financially strapped various ownerships, they struggled, before moving to Arlington, which at first was thought to be a complete disaster. It did take the Texas Rangers a good twenty years to get a good foothold in the market.

I'm hoping they thrive, too. The fans there will support a winning team. They were certainly there during the club's glory days in the 20s and 30s.

 

[Dave2112]

Living as I do only 40 minutes or so from Montreal, I can tell you that the "fans" there are bit hypocritical. The TRUE fans are sad with good reason, but most of the area never supported the team, at least not in the last ten years.

And you guys are dead-on about one thing...the '94 strike absolutely ruined the Expos forever.