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2003 Montreal Expos
Manager: Frank Robinson (83-79) 83-79, Finished 4th in NL East
Attendance: 1,025,639 (16th of 16)
Ballpark: Big O and Estadio Hiram Bithorn (Puerto Rico)
Scores: http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MON/2003-schedule-scores.shtml
Highlights: Very hard as fans to handle home games in Puerto Rico you try to go see a weekend game and they were not even in Montreal.
In an attempt to bring the struggling Expos more revenue Major League Baseball schedules the Expos to play 22 home games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as baseball continued to seek new ownership and a permanent home to the lame duck franchise. Despite continued doubts about their future the Expos remained competitive on the field, as they challenged for the wild card all season while posting an impressive 39-20 record at Stade Olympique. However, on the road the Expos struggled posting a terrible 31-50 record. As the season wore on the Expos extensive travel schedule created by their 22 games in Puerto Rico would have a toll as they faded out of the Wild Card race in September finishing in fourth place with a record of 83-79. Following the season the Expos continued to remain in Montreal and in limbo, were forced to watch two more all-stars leave as they traded Javier Vazquez to the New York Yankees and lost Vladimir Guerrero to Free Agency.
Although their attendance increased from 7,935 per game in 2001[3] to 10,031 in 2002,[4] MLB decided that the Expos would play 22 of their home games at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2003. Despite being a considerably smaller facility (it seats approximately 19,000) than Montreal's Olympic Stadium, attendance in San Juan's Hiram Bithorn Stadium 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 team (as well as the Latin players from other teams), all the while hoping the team would make a permanent move to Puerto Rico. Expos players held clinics and made personal appearances on behalf of the team in Puerto Rico Thanks 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. One important part Wikipedia left out how can a team be supported when they are here 1/4 weekends.... 22/80 home games not at home.
June 24, 2003 - Brad Wilkerson hit for the cycle in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. August 26, 2003 - The Expos rallied from being down 8-0 and 10-3 to claim a 14-10 win against the Philadelphia Phillies and be within two games of the National League Wild Card. It was the second biggest comeback in Expos history.
Many players state that the reason the were not competitive in the final third of the season in that the team refused to get callups as there was a 50,000$ fee.
