Montréal Expos

From Wiki Gonzalez

The Montréal Expos were a National League team.

[edit] History

The Expos began play in the National League of 1969 as an expansion franchise, and were put on Death Row in early 2002 when then-owner Jeffrey Loria sold most of it to the other 28 Major League Baseball owners. The 29 then operated the franchise in violation of their own rules, which restrict the owner of one franchise from having an interest in another. The objective appears to have been to maximize the sale value of the franchise, by moving it to a far more lucrative market before finding it a new owner, who might then have to pay three times what the franchise was worth in Montréal. The move was accomplished in September 2004, when a hilarious relocation comedy ended with what everybody expected all along, placing the franchise in Washington, D.C. The whole process generated a minor controversy on Primer, with DC fans calling the Expos fans whiners, and Expos fans saying DC fans behaved crassly toward the soon-to-be bereaved.

Or, as another put it:

There's no such thing as the Expos. You might be thinking of the Washington Nationals.

As an interesting footnote to this tale of the death of a team, in 1998-99 there were plenty of rumours that the Expos’ managing partner who preceded Loria, Claude Brochu, wanted to sell the team to William Collins, who was later associated with a failed bid to relocate the franchise to Northen Virginia during 2002-2004. Brochu’s plan was scuppered partly because his partners found Jeffrey Loria was willing to buy a share in the team. Collins was expected to move the franchise to Washington, if the rumours were to be believed.

The Expos had a history of mediocrity, with a few high points. They appeared in the playoffs once, in 1981, but a Blue Monday put an end to that. In 1989, they were top of the NL East after 81 games, but then went 36-45 to spoil fans' hopes. They also were leading the NL East (and had the best record in MLB) in 1994 when the Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig, decided to cancel the season as part of his confrontation with striking baseball players. In 1996 they finished two games out of a Wild Card spot. Curiously, they made respectable showings in 2002 and 2003, when MLB owned them. Their most sustained run came in 1979-83. They also had episodes of decent teams during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Expos fans were fickle, like fans everywhere only turning out in large numbers (which in Montréal were still not very big in relation to other cities) for a winner. In the end one might say they were irritated by the playoff format in baseball, which even with the Wild Card is considerably more restrictive than those in the National Hockey League and the Canadian Football League. “Decency,” an Expos fan might opine, “deserves some acknowledgment.”

Others point out that the culture of Montréal changed significantly during the Expos' tenure there due to government policies intended to drive out her Anglophone population, which made up a substantial chunk of baseball fandom.

[edit] Fans

Primates known to have been Expos fans:

• Philippe
• TangoTiger
• fra paolo
• philistine
• John Brattain