Expos brass deny reported Nov. 30 move
Will the long Canadian national nightmare NEVER end? No, not the NHL lockout, silly. I’m talking about the fate of the Montreal Expos. Will they end up in Washington, DC, Portland, Northern Virginia, or perhaps even Zagreb, Croatia? Of course, none of Bud (Satan) Selig’s evil minions are letting the secret out of the Death Star that hovers over Milwaukee.
An early rumor had the Expos heading out of town under the cover of darkness a la Jim Irsay’s Baltimore Colts. Of course, those wags finally realized that even if the Expos did sneak out of town, who would actually notice? Everyone in Montreal would be too busy watching the Canadiens to even be suspicious. Of course, if the NHL lockout continues…nah, they still wouldn’t notice.
Of course, when you’re lucky to draw 5000 fans a game, well, let’s just say that no one is going to confuse Livan Hernandez for Jose Theodore. It’s too bad, really. Except for a players strike in 1994, Montreal may well have had a World Champion to celebrate. Given Montreal’s notorious fickle baseball fans, though, even that likely wouldn’t have ultimately saved the franchise.
Omar Minaya and Frank Robinson should be commended for their yeoman’s work on Montreal’s ongoing, never-ending reclamation project. Yes, it may be tough for “small market” teams to compete financially, but the Expos, being owned by Major League Baseball, have trouble competing financially with even the small market teams. For Les Expos to be able to compete on the Major League level with the resources given to them by MLB is remarkable.
It’s too bad Montreal has proven so inhospitable to professional baseball over the past few years. Going back to old Jarry Park, where Jackie Robinson played as a farmhand for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Montreal has a long and storied baseball history. Of course, playing in Olympic Stadium, which has all the charm and ambiance of a mausoleum (or the Astrodome) hasn’t helped matters. Were Montreal to build a decent stadium, with perhaps 35-40,000 seats and some modern amenities, things might be different. Who wants to watch a losing team in a stadium that should have been demolished as soon as the 1976 Olympics were completed? Well, after this season, it appears the good people of Montreal will no longer have this problem on there hands.
Game on, eh?
