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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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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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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NBC Sports: MLB 1981- NLDS Gm 1 Philadelphia Phillies @ Montreal Expos: Full Game

Source:NBC Sports– the 1981 NLDS at Montreal Olympic Stadium.

“1981 NLDS Game 1 – Phillies vs Expos”

From Classic Phillies TV

I wish MLB stuck with the 1981 playoff format with the divisional series and extra wildcards. Five-six teams in each league.

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TSN: MLB 1997- Canada Day- Montreal Expos vs Toronto Blue Jays: Highlights

Source:Global Sportsline Toronto– Canada Day at Skydome in Toronto, Ontario.

“Montreal Expos vs Toronto Blue Jays on Canada Day. Rob Sinclair reporting for Global Sportsline in Toronto.

From Global Sportsline Toronto

The only reasons why Montreal doesn’t currently have a MLB franchise a Major League Baseball Franchise, is because of management and facility. A management team committed to winning that will spend the resources to make that happen, but will also spend them wisely, but also a ballpark that will give them the revenue to support their club, where people will want to go to watch baseball, but also have a good affordable time, as well as a fan base that is committed to the team in Montreal whether that is the Montreal Expos, or whatever new name a possible new Montreal MLB franchise would be called and Major League Baseball could succeed in Montreal in the future.

You get the right management group, organizational structure, right ballpark and MLB baseball could succeed in Montreal, because the reason why the Expos no longer exist and why Montreal no longer has an MLB franchise eight years later, is not because of the market as far as size and wealth, but because of the lack of support this market gave their franchise and how cheaply they were run.

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JS Milla: MLB 1981- ‘The Montreal Expos Win A Playoff Series!’

Source:JS Milla– The Montreal Expos, winning their only playoff series ever.

Source:The Daily Times

“Let’s say it now: The Montreal Expos were winners. True, they never won a pennant, and they never got to play in the Serie Mondiale thanks to an errant fastball in 1981 and a called (player’s) strike in 1994. But the Expos won a heckuva lot of games in the 80s and even the 90s. And they even won a playoff series—the 1981 National League Division Series—thanks to some terrific pitching from Steve “Cy” Rogers, who beat Steve “Lefty” Carlton twice in one week, giving up one run in 17 2/3 innings of work.

If Major League Baseball had introduced the modern wildcard playoff format in the 1970s, you would have seen half-a-dozen additional playoff appearances from the Expos…and perhaps more celebrations like this one from October 11, 1981.”

From JS Milla

The Montreal Expos winning a playoff series in the expanded MLB playoff format in 1981. The Montreal Expos were winners in the late 1970s and into the 1980s, and to a certain extent in the early 1990s. And this guy is right that if the wildcard was around back then and you have 5 teams from each league make the playoffs every year. the Expos would’ve made several more playoff appearances in the 1980s.

But that could be said for a lot of other MLB franchises: the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, etc. So I don’t think that alone makes the Expos special.

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