Montreal Expos

The Montreal Expos are a Major League Baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Founded: 1969. The first major league team outside the United States.

Home ballparks: Olympic Stadium, Montreal (capacity 43,739 for baseball); Hiram Bithorn Stadium, San Juan (capacity app. 19,000)

Uniform colors: Blue, Red, and White.

Logo design: Stylized M (for Montreal), in which can be seen a lowercase red 'e' (for Expos) and a lowercase blue 'b' (for baseball). Alternatively, the word "Expos" in script.

Division championships won: 1981

League pennants won: none

World Series championships won: none

Franchise history

The Expos joined the National League in 1969, along with the San Diego Padres. Their home stadium was Jarry Park[?], in Montreal. The Expos suffered through 10 straight losing seasons under their first manager, Gene Mauch[?] (1969-1975) and three other managers. In 1979 they posted their first winning record with a 95-65 record, under manager Dick Williams[?]. They would post five consecutive winning seasons, including their only division championship, in the split season of 1981. They 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 these years by a core group of young players, including catcher Gary Carter[?], outfielders Tim Raines[?] and Andre Dawson[?], third baseman Larry Parrish[?] and pitchers Steve Rogers[?] and Bill Gullickson[?].

The Expos had several mediocre years in the mid 1980s under manager Buck Rodgers[?], but rebuilt and under manager Felipe Alou[?], who took the position midway through the 1992 season, finished second in the National League East in both 1992 and 1993. 1994 proved to be heart-breaking for the Expos. With a very talented group of players, including outfielders Larry Walker[?], Moises Alou[?] and Marquis Grissom[?], second baseman Delino DeShields[?] and pitchers Ken Hill[?], John Wetteland[?] and a young Pedro Martinez, the Expos had the best record in major league baseball, 74-40 when the strike forced the end of the season.

The Expos lost most of their star players through free agency and trades, and have posted losing records since 1994, except for a second place finish in 1996.

Montreal is often cited as an example of a small-market team, unable to compete with teams in bigger markets such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Jeffrey Loria[?], the new owner, made some personnel moves, however the future of the franchise in Montreal does not look very strong. Attendance in the 2001 season was usually fewer than 10,000 people. On November 7[?], 2001, Commissioner of Baseball 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.

On February 14, 2002, after a 30-0 vote, Major League Baseball bought the Expos, for US $120,000,000. Frank Robinson was named manager and Omar Minaya as vice-president and general manager. It is possible that 2003 will be the last season for the Expos in Montreal. It seems likely that the team soon will either be eliminated, or will relocate to another city, perhaps Washington, D.C. or San Juan, Puerto Rico.

In 2003, the team played several of its home games in San Juan, despite having the highest percentage attendance increase in 2002 to go with a second place finish in the National League East. Some reports suggest that the team may either split its home games equally between Montreal and San Juan in 2004 or move to another city. Either Portland, Oregon, Washington, DC or Northern Virginia could receive the Expos if they move. There is currently a lawsuit underway by the former team owners against Major League Baseball and the former majority owner, Jeffrey Loria.

Players of note

Baseball Hall of Famers:

• Gary Carter[?]
• Tony Perez

Current stars:

• Orlando Cabrera[?]
• Vladimir Guerrero[?]
• Livan Hernandez[?]
• Javier Vazquez[?]
• Jose Vidro[?]

Not to be forgotten:

• Andre Dawson[?]
• Andres Galarraga[?]
• Randy Johnson[?]
• Larry Parrish[?]
• Tim Raines[?]
• Steve Rogers[?]
• Larry Walker[?]
• Tim Wallach[?]

Retired numbers:

• 10 Andre Dawson[?] and Rusty Staub[?]
• 42 Jackie Robinson

Montreal Expos official web site (English language) (http://montreal.expos.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mon/homepage/mon_homepage.jsp)