Monstr Migit: History of the Montreal Expos, 1969-2004

Source: Monstr Migit: Montreal Expos History- 1969-2004

The Expos for the most part were never marketed well in Montreal or the broader Province of Quebec. They seemed to believe that fans would automatically come to their games if they just won or were competitive. Apparently not being aware that Montreal was really never a baseball market and is a big city of over 1M people. In a market of over 3M people with plenty of things to do besides just baseball. And that there were other sporting events to go to besides baseball and not just Canadians hockey but CFL football and pro soccer.

Other pro sports have done well in Montreal because these are sports that Quebecers grow up with, enjoy playing and watching. But that wasn’t the only problem with the Expos. They started off playing in a real ballpark in Jarry Field. But then in the late 1970s move to the huge Montreal Olympic Stadium. Which by that point with its 65-70,000 seats was a football stadium that the Montreal Allouettes played in as well. And pro soccer was being played there. Big mistake on the Expos management part.

The Expos needed to market their club better and actually explain baseball to Montreal, which is not Toronto. A big market near Detroit and other Major League Baseball cities where Toronto already liked and enjoyed baseball before it got there. But Montreal was new to baseball and Montreal Olympic Stadium was simply too big with the fans being too far away from the games and not enough people wanting to go there to watch baseball. And these are the main reasons why the Expos left Montreal for Washington.

 

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US National Archives: You Gotta Have Heart: A History of Washington Baseball

This post was originally posted at The New Democrat

A history of the Washington Senators can be summed up in one word, cheap. And perhaps throw in a names like Bob Short, Clark Griffith and Calvin Griffith to go along with cheap. Unlike the Washington Redskins in the NFL and the Baltimore Orioles just up the road, who are essentially also a local team, especially if you live in Maryland, who were known for winning and paying for the players to win. And having the right coaching staffs to make that happen, the Senators management just wanted to stay in business.

There are other factors as well. Griffith Stadium, even though it was a nice ballpark, was small and needed to be replaced in the early 1960s, which it was. But what the City of Washington should’ve done to allow for both the Senators and Redskins to be successful, was to build a football stadium for the Redskins and a baseball park for the Senators. And under the right management, both clubs would’ve been successful. The Redskins obviously had the right management obviously and the Senators never did.

The City of Washington finally figured out what they need to do make MLB baseball profitable in Washington. The right ballpark and the right management group to run the club. They have both now in Nationals Park, which is one of the best places to watch a baseball game in MLB and has a great fan atmosphere. And the Lerner Family that runs the club and now the Nationals are one of the better run clubs in MLB. Two division titles in the last three years and three straight winning seasons. And now the Nationals are a very good big market club, with a very solid fan base that is here to stay.

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City: Expos Should Come Back to Montreal

Montreal Olympic Stadium

Source: City: Expos Should Come Back to Montreal

Build it and it will come, which is a famous line from a baseball movie. Montreal needs a modern baseball park that can support the team and allow for the team to be popular there. And then the people of Montreal and the Province of Quebec need to support this franchise. With a management group with the resources and commitment to winning and baseball can be successful in Montreal and always be there.

But even if that all happens and that is still and if and a major if, Major League Baseball with the way it is currently set up with twenty-nine franchises in America, would probably not be the right home for the Expos. Not saying that they should be a AAA club. But playing at least half of their games every year in another country and taking long road trips to play just their division games in the National league or American League like they use to, might not work again.

If Canada wants professional baseball again, let alone major league baseball, than their big cities including Montreal needs to step up. And say “we are ready for professional baseball again and perhaps even Major League Baseball”. And build their own Canadian League with MLB being part of that and expanding in Canada. Eight to ten clubs in Canada with two divisions and a national series.

If that were to work, then MLB might be able to expand in America again to support the new CBL and you could see an MLB-CBL merger and create a real North American Continental Series to decide the pro-club championship of North American baseball. But putting the Expos or whatever the new Montreal club would be called back in the National League or moving them to the American League long-term, I don’t believe would work again.

Canada needs to step up with major league caliber ballparks in their big cities. Like Montreal, Ottawa, Hamilton, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and perhaps even in Toronto the Blue Jays long-term and put the Blue Jays in this new major Canadian league to be able to compete long-term with America when it comes to Major League Baseball. And the way pro baseball would succeed again in Canada and be there indefinitely.

 

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Bill Lee: Who Killed the Montreal Expos

The Spaceman

Source: This piece was originally posted at FRS Daily Times

To put it simply what killed the Montreal Expos was lack of support. Lack of support from the fans by the late 1990s they were drawing 5-10K fans a game for their home games. And Expos fans might say that the team wasn’t very good, but when you’re only drawing 5-10K fans a game and you do not even have local media contracts like TV and radio, its hard to have the resources to put good teams on the field.

But even with the lack of support from the City of Montreal and the Province of Quebec, Montreal was a solid, but never a great baseball market in the late 1970s and 1980s and to a certain extent in the 1990s. But by the late 1990s when you are only seven thousand fans a game with is a AAA minor league crowd, you aren’t going to have the resources to compete with the big clubs that are consistent winners who are drawing thirty thousand a game or more like the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves to use as examples.

Then you throw in the fact that the Expos were basically stuck playing their home games in a football stadium that was built for the 1976 Summer Olympics, that held sixty-five thousand fans after moving from a baseball park in Jarry Field, you are now playing in a big stadium where people do not want to go to watch baseball. But would go to watch Canadian football and rock concerts.

But not a very good baseball environment where the seats were far away and where people in Montreal had better things to do and you add that baseball is probably the third or fourth most popular sport in Montreal behind hockey of course, but football and even soccer, the Expos weren’t built to last at least in Montreal Olympic Stadium. Had they ever gotten a real ballpark that seated 35-40 thousand fans and had a management that was committed to winning and staying in Montreal and spending money, but spending money wisely, the Expos are probably still in business today.

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Rusty Staub: Visits Montreal

Source:Rusty Staub– visits Montreal, Olympic, Canada.

“Baseball great Rusty Staub of the NY Mets and Montreal Expos talks about his life in Major League Baseball. Watch some great footage of Baseball Hall of Famer Rusty Staub.”

From Rusty Staub

One of the first mistakes that the Expos made was moving out of a baseball park in Jarry Park and moving into a football stadium in Montreal Olympic Stadium that is huge. People didn’t like watching baseball at Montreal Olympic and if the Expos needed a new baseball park, a football stadium that was fairly well-suited for football and soccer, was not the way to go.

What the Expose needed was to build a modern Jarry Park for the Expos, or perhaps a dome stadium where the roof opens. But design it for baseball, which is how the Montreal Olympic Stadium was supposed to be designed for in the beginning.

What the Expos got instead in the late 70s was a football stadium with a roof that didn’t open and a concrete hard astroturf field in Montreal Olympic Stadium, just when the Expos were starting to become pretty good. And the franchise probably would’ve been saved in Montreal with very good teams that Montreal and the Province of Quebec would’ve supported.

You can also see this post at The New Democrat, on Blogger.

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Bleacher Report: Matt Fitzgerald- ‘Athletics May Reportedly May Play at Giants AT&T Park if New Coliseum Deal Fails’

Source:Bleacher Report– two of the Oakland Athletics.

“Jean Quan, the Mayor of Oakland, confirmed that the Athletics will stay in the Oakland Coliseum through 2015…

From the Bleacher Report 

At risk of stating the obvious: (trust me, not the first time I’ve taken this risk) for the Oakland Athletics to remain in the City of Oakland, they’re going to have to get a new ballpark and perhaps renovations to the current Oakland Coliseum (whatever the hell the current name of choice is) in order to remain competitive and not end of the San Jose, Sacramento, Portland, or Las Vegas.

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Baltimore Orioles: ‘Are 1983 MLB World Series Champions’

Source:Press Box– the 1983 MLB World Series Champion Baltimore Orioles.

“This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Baltimore Orioles winning the 1983 World Series, the last time the Orioles won it all.

For me, 1983 was the most special season imaginable. It was the first season I had my own Saturday and Sunday postgame radio show on WFBR, which held the rights to Orioles games. To be in that spot and tap into the amazing current of electricity that existed in our community back then was almost magical.

In fact, during the early seasons of my show, I was downright cocky at times. A short anecdote might help explain just how “baseball-entitled” some of us felt back in the real era of Orioles magic.

One day during the 1984 season, I distinctly remember doing a score update and I got to the Cleveland Indians score. It must have been late May or early June, and the Indians were losing a game and already well out of first place.”

From Press Box

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ABC Sports: MLB 1982- MLB All Star Game

Source:Phenia Films– I guess this was a hot ticket in 1982.

“1982 All Star Game from Olympic Stadium in Montreal original NBC Broadcast includes pre game show from 7/13/82
This Represented the first All-Star game played outside the USA. Dave Concepcion drills a two run HR to lead the National League to another victory
Digitalized and remastered off original recorded VHS tape and a new audio dub.”

From Phenia Films

The first and last MLB all-star game at Montreal Olympic Stadium. Which is a good thing because this place was basically a football stadium and was simply huge for baseball with an awful concrete field where baseball probably should’ve never have been played.

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Baltimore Orioles: 1966 World Series Champions

Source:Outfield Fly Rule– the Orioles win the 1966 MLB World Series.

“Note: Leverage Index is an average of the leverage of situations, with 1 being average, below 1 being low-pressure, and above 1 being high-pressure.

Since beginning life as the Milwaukee Brewers in 1901, moving to St. Louis as the Browns a year later, and heading east to become the Baltimore Orioles in 1954, the franchise was just never all that competitive. In their first 65 years of existence, they played in one World Series, losing in 1944. They cracked a .600 winning percentage just once (1922), and in 65 years they managed a .500 record or better just 18 times. Between 1946 and 1959, the Browns/Orioles finished in the bottom 3 of the AL in 13 of the 14 years, with the high mark being a 5th place finish in 1957. Times were lean, to say the least. In 1959, the club hired Yankees farm system director Lee MacPhail to be the GM. Things quickly changed.

The tide began to turn in 1960, Brooks Robinson‘s first year as a productive starter. Over the first 6 years of the 60’s they’d be over .500 5 times, winning 90 or more games 3 times. They were on the cusp of something big. In 1965, the pitching staff was stellar, with 7 competent starting pitchers, but the offense was league-average. MacPhail decided to take a job with the league office as the Commissioner’s top aide, but before he resigned, he and successor Harry Dalton began talks to improve the offense. Several weeks after his departure, Dalton finished what they started, trading staff ace Milt Pappas, reliever Jack Baldschun (acquired 3 days earlier from the Phillies), and OF Dick Simpson (acquired one week earlier from the Angels) to Cincinnati for 30 year old former MVP Frank Robinson. With this trade, now considered one of the most lopsided in history, Baltimore went from flawed contender to a team ready to start a dynasty. Robinson won the Triple Crown in ’66, and 65 years of demons were ready to be exorcised.”

From Outfield Fly Rule

“This video is from the Memories on 33rd Street that was released via VHS by the Baltimore Orioles organization in 1992. The narrator of this video is Jon Miller.”

Source:Baltimore Orioles– welcome to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

From the Baltimore Orioles 

If you think about it, the 1966 MLB World Series is not that different from the 1969 MLB World Series. The main difference is that the Orioles got the key hits and runs in 1966 and didn’t get them in 1969 against the New York Mets. But all 4 games in 1966 between the Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers were very winnable for both clubs. It’s just that the Orioles got a little better pitching and key hits and runs when they needed them. The Dodgers didn’t because the Oriole had just a little better pitching in this series.

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CBS Sports: MLB 1992- MLB World Series-Game 6- Toronto Blue Jays @ Atlanta Braves: Full Game

Source:CBS Sports– Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Dave Winfield.

“Toronto Blue Jays 4 at Atlanta Braves 3, F/11 — Dave Winfield picked the perfect moment for his first extra-base hit in twelve career World Series games. With the score tied in the 11th and the Blue Jays one win away from Canada’s first-ever World Series title, Winfield burned Charlie Leibrandt for a double down the left field line to put Toronto up 4-2. The Braves mounted a comeback, but ultimately fell short, 4-3.”

From MLB Vault

This was a great World Series with neither team able to dominate the other, for the most part.

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