Montreal BASEBALL FANGROUP (MEBFG)

Final decade

During the 1994–1995 offseason, Claude Brochu instructed general manager Kevin Malone to conduct a fire sale and cut ties with the team's major stars. Larry Walker left as a free agent, and as the Expos had not offered him salary arbitration, they did not receive any compensation for Walker's departure. This still goes badly with Fans as Walker wanted to stay, and even offerred a hometown discount to stay.  John Wetteland was traded to the New York Yankees, Ken Hill to the St. Louis Cardinals, and Marquis Grissom to the Atlanta Braves.The Expos' attendance flatlined after the fire sale and never recovered; their average attendance would never top 20,000 again during their last 10 seasons in Montreal. How many of us true fans stayed away because of all this.

Kevin Malone resigned as general manager in October 1995, saying "I'm in the building business, not in the dismantling business." ^{This was a gusty move, unfortunately it did not help the team.} Moisés Alou and Mel Rojas left as free agents after the 1996 season,  and Pedro Martínez was traded after the 1997 season, shortly after winning the Cy Young Award. ^{Trading a Cy Young winner right after winning, at the time unheard of.}

The Expos had losing seasons until 2002, except for 1996, when the team finished second with a .543 winning percentage. In 2002 and 2003, the team finished with identical .512 records. After losing superstar Vladimir Guerrero to free agency, look at what he did with the Angels. The Expos finished 2004, the team's final year in Montreal, with a 67–95 record.

In 1998, the Régie des installations Olympiques replaced Olympic Stadium's orange retractable roof with a permanent blue roof. The retractable roof was removed after the Expos homestand ending on May 10, and on May 21, the Expos played their first outdoor home game since September 8, 1991.  During this time when Olympic Stadium was once again an open-air park, Rondell White became the only person to hit a ball out of Olympic Stadium, driving a foul ball out of the third-base side of the stadium in a game against the New York Yankees.If was so nice having an open air stadium seeing a game under the stars in so much better

Purchase by Jeffrey Loria

The final straw the beginning of the end..

On December 9, 1999, American art dealer Jeffrey Loria became the Expos' chairman, CEO, and managing general partner, purchasing Claude Brochu's ownership stake, and naming his stepson, David Samson, executive vice-president. Loria made his initial splash by signing Graeme Lloyd for $3,000,000,  and acquiring Hideki Irabu's $4,125,000 contract  and Lee Stevens's $3,500,000 contrac^t in trades. he total sum of these contracts was nearly 50% of the 1999 payroll.

Loria subsequently lost a considerable amount of goodwill by failing to sign television and English radio broadcast contracts for the 2000 season, as the team tried to increase their revenue from the broadcast rights^. In a small market without the TV rights you cannot survive, this helps the team so much, not considered a very good move.

During the 2000 season, Loria requested additional public funding for the planned new ballpark in downtown Montreal, Labatt Park. However, the municipal and provincial governments vetoed public funding; Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard said that he couldn't in good conscience allow public funding for a new stadium when the province was being forced to close hospitals. In addition, Olympic Stadium still had not been paid for (the debt was not fully retired until 2006).

As a result, the plans for the proposed downtown

ballpark were cancelled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attendance in the 2001 season dropped to fewer than 10,000 per game (lower than some minor-league teams), raising questions about the franchise's viability in Montreal. Felipe Alou was fired at the end of May, ending his Montreal managerial career with a total of 691 wins, the most of any manager in the franchise's history. ^{Still very popular eventhough he had a losing season most fans, that were still fans,  wanted him to stay, so many efforts were tried.} On November 6, 2001, MLB's owners voted 28–2 to contract MLB by two teams — according to various sources, the Expos and the Minnesota Twins, both of which reportedly voted against contraction.

 

Purchase by Major League Baseball

 

 

On December 20, 2001, the Boston Red Sox were sold to a partnership led by John W. Henry, the owner of the Florida Marlins. The purchase was approved by the MLB owners in January. To clear the way for Henry's group to formally take control of the Red Sox, Henry sold the Marlins to Loria for $158.5 million. The deal, which included a $38.5 million no-interest loan from MLB, was approved by the other owners on February 1, 2002. The Major League Baseball owners voted 30–0 to form a Delaware partnership, Expos Baseball, LP, to buy the Expos for US$120 million from Loria. After both deals closed, Loria moved the entire Expos front office and on-field staff, including manager Jeff Torborg, to Miami — leaving the Expos without personnel, scouting reports, and office equipment, including the team's computers. Without a viable owner willing to operate the team in Montreal, it was widely thought that the sale of the Expos to MLB was the first step in the process of either moving the team or folding it altogether.

However, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, operator of the Metrodome, won an injunction requiring the Twins to play there in 2002. Without a second team to join them in oblivion, the loss of the Expos would have left MLB with an odd number of teams, thus requiring one team to be idle every day. With this constraint, it would have been logistically impossible to preserve a 162-game schedule within MLB's six-month season. As MLB could not find a suitable new home for the Expos at that late date, and was not willing to alter the schedule, it was forced to keep the Expos in Montreal for the short term. MLB named former Anaheim Angels president Tony Tavares team president, Mets assistant general manager Omar Minaya vice-president and general manager, and MLB's Frank Robinson as manager. In August, the contraction issue was postponed further, as MLB signed a collective bargaining agreement with the players association that prohibited contraction through the end of the agreement in 2006.

With the Expos four games above .500 in late June and no clearly defined guidance from MLB on the team's future other than a hard limit on payroll, in an attempt to capitalize on one last chance to bring a championship to Montreal, Minaya acquired pitcher Bartolo Colón from the Cleveland Indians in exchange for future All-Stars Brandon Phillips and Grady Sizemore as well as 2008's AL Cy Young award winner Cliff Lee.  Judged by most as not a very good trade, the fans still hate this trade. The gambit did not result in a post-season berth for the Expos, and Colón was traded, less than one season with the Expos and those great prospects were lost,  to the Chicago White Sox during the off-season.

Although their attendance increased from 7,935 per game in 2001 to 10,031 in 2002, MLB decided that the Expos would play 22 of their home games at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2003. Although the approximately 19,000-seat stadium was considerably smaller than Montreal's Olympic Stadium, attendance in San Juan averaged 14,222, compared with 12,081 in Montreal. The Puerto Rican baseball fans embraced "Los Expos" (particularly Puerto Rican players José Vidro, Javier Vázquez and Wil Cordero, and other Latin players like Vladimir Guerrero and Liván Hernández) as their home teamThanks in part to the San Juan games, the Expos were able to draw over a million fans at home in 2003 for the first time since 1997. Except in Montreal it was really hard to see a game on the weekend when 22 of the 80 homegames were not home in Montreal

Led by Vladimir Guerrero, the 2003 Expos were part of a spirited seven-team Wild Card hunt. On August 28, they found themselves in a five-way tie for the lead with Philadelphia, Florida, St. Louis, and Houston. However, MLB, led by Bud Selig, in what ESPN's Peter Gammons called "a conflict of interest", decided that it could not afford an extra $50,000 to call up players from its minor leagues to take advantage of MLB's expanded roster limit during September. Orlando Cabrera has said quite a few choice words on this matter. The budget was some $35 million. This doomed any hopes of reviving the franchise. Minaya later said, "Baseball handed down a decree." They would not be allowed to call up players from the minors on September 1, as it was deemed too expensive. They would have to make do with what they had. "It was a message to the players", Minaya said. "It was a momentum killer." He also stated: "They're a tough group of guys. You cannot ever forget 2003; they were as good as the Marlins, who won the World Series. But nobody knows this because nobody saw Montreal in 2003. What killed us was not getting the call-ups." This restriction was later cited by shortstop Orlando Cabrera as the reason he wanted to leave the team (he would be traded away in July, 2004).

The Expos had a 12–15 record from August 29 to the end of the season, finishing eight games out of the wildcard race. The hunt was over in part to the fact no call-ups could be obtained by the team, right there to the end of August and then the air was taken out.

 

 

 

Final season

The Players' Union initially rejected continuing the San Juan arrangement for the 2004 season, but later relented. Meanwhile, MLB actively looked for a relocation site.

 

On September 29, 2004, MLB announced that the Expos franchise would move to Washington, D.C. for 2005. Later that night, the Expos played their last game in Montreal, a 9–1 loss to the Florida Marlins before a season-high crowd of 31,395 fans. Although the team had worried about fan reaction, there were only a couple of incidents with objects thrown on the field. ^{Yes Golf ball thrown at Expos players and fans booing the American anthemn, not cool.} When the golf balls were thrown the game paused for 10 or 15 minutes and they discussed if it was to continue. Annoucements all over the PA sysyem don't throw items on the field the home team could forfeit the game. It was so tense you could feel it all through teh stade. Not a pleasant time. To commemorate their unfinished 1994 season, the Expos unfurled a banner reading "1994 Meilleure Équipe du Baseball / Best Team in Baseball." The fans gave standing ovations to team stars Tony Batista, Brad Wilkerson,(A very somber Brad)  and Liván Hernández, and applauded loudly up until the final out. They also had players form the 1994 team there throwing items to the fans. After the game, thanks were given to the crowd by Claude Raymond in French, Jamey Carroll in English, and Hernandez in Spanish.

The end of the legal fight to keep the Expos in Montreal came on November 15, when arbitrators struck down a lawsuit by the former team owners against MLB and former majority owner Jeffrey Loria. The MLB franchise owners approved the move to Washington in a 28–1 vote on December 3. Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos cast the sole "nay" vote, resenting the franchise's relocation and intrusion into the Baltimore/D.C. market. (Info Mostly Wikipedia great info on the Expos)

 

 

 

The Expos played their final game on October 3, 2004 at

Shea Stadium, losing by a score of 8–1 to the New York Mets,

the same franchise that the team had first faced,

35 years earlier.

 

Records/Notables

No Hitters:

4/17/1969 Bill Stoneman
10/2/1972 Bill Stoneman
5/10/1981 Charlie Lea
7/28/1991 Dennis Martinez (Perfect)

 

Cycle Hitters: (6)

4/22/1976 Tim Foli
7/20/1978 Chris Speier
8/16/1987 Tim Raines
6/11/1995 Rondell White
6/24/2003 Brad Wilkerson
9/14/2003 Vladimir Guerrero

Manager of the Year: (2)

1987 Buck Rodgers
1994 Felipe Alou
 

Rookie of the Year: (2)

1970 Carl Morton RHP
1977 Andre Dawson OF

Fireman Award: (1)

1985 Jeff Reardon RHP

 

Cy Young: (1)

1997 Pedro Martinez RHP

 

All-Star Games Hosted: (1)
1982

All-Star Game MVP: (3)

1981 Gary Carter C
1984 Gary Carter C
1987 Tim Raines OF

 

Hall Of Fame

Hall of Famers: (4)

Gary Carter C 1974-1984, 1992
Andre Dawson OF 1976-1986
Tony Perez 1B 1977-1979 (Played with the team did not go in as an Expo)
Dick Williams MGR 1976-1981

 

Ford C. Frick Recipients:

Tom Cheek 1974-1976
Dave Van Horne 1969-2000

 

Best Season: 1979 (95-65)

Worst Season: 1969 (52-110)

Could Have Been Season: 1994 (105-57*) *-Projected record from 74-40 record on August 12th

 

More at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Expos