Montreal BASEBALL FANGROUP (MEBFG)

 

Under new ownership

In the 1989 season, with the Expos vying for a post-season berth, the team traded Gene Harris, Brian Holman, and Randy Johnson to Seattle for Mark Langston. Langston completed the season for the Expos with a 2.39 ERA (tied for the league lead in ERA+ with a 148 rating) and a league-leading 8.9 strikeouts per nine innings.^[Though the Expos led the National League East from the end of June to the start of August, and were two games behind first on September 6, they fell back to finish in fourth with a .500 record. Langston, Hubie Brooks, Pascual Pérez, and Bryn Smith left after the season as free agents. Following a winter of rumours, at the start of the 1990 spring training season, owner Charles Bronfman formally announced his intentions to sell the Expos, saying "After 21 years in baseball it's emotionally very draining. ... After a while, you're just burned out." In November, at the press conference where the sale of the franchise to a local consortium was announced, Bronfman said that 1989 "... was the year we should have won. ... It was a very bitter disappointment." Claude Brochu, the team's President and Chief Operating Officer since September 1986, became the managing general partner of the Expos, representing a consortium of 14 owners, which also included BCE, Canadian Pacific, the City of Montreal, Nesbitt Burns, and Univa (Provigo). The official transfer of ownership occurred on June 14, 1991.

With a new ownership group in place, the Expos traded Tim Raines to the Chicago White Sox in a five-player deal that brought Iván Calderón to Montreal. Starting the 1991 season with a 20–29 record,General manager David Dombrowski (who had inherited manager Buck Rodgers upon assuming the GM position in 1988) fired Rodgers and replaced him with Tom Runnells, who completed the season with a record of 51–61 for an overall winning percentage of .441. Runnells switched third baseman Tim Wallach to first base, a move unpopular with the Montreal fans. The season's most notable highlight was the perfect game thrown by Expos pitcher Dennis Martínez against the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 28, 1991. On September 8, a 56-ton concrete slab fell from the Olympic Stadium roof to an exterior walkway, forcing the Expos to play their final 13 games on the road.

Dombrowski left Montreal in September to become the General Manager for the Florida Marlins expansion franchise, and Dan Duquette became the Expos general manager. Also during the offseason, the Expos made an effort to improve the baseball atmosphere at Olympic Stadium. Home plate was moved closer to the stands, and new seats were added closer to the field. Distant seating sections beyond the outfield fence were closed, replaced by bleachers directly behind the fence. The changes reduced the stadium's capacity from 58,000 to around 46,000.

At spring training in 1992, Runnells held a meeting while dressed in combat fatigues, giving the team's pre-season training the appearance of a boot camp. The team failed to respond to Runnells's attempt at humor, and Runnells was fired on May 22, with a 17–20 record. Felipe Alou, a longtime member of the Expos organization since 1976, was promoted from bench coach to field manager, becoming the first Dominican-born manager in MLB history. Alou promptly returned Wallach to the third base position. Alou led the team to a 70–55 record, for an overall winning percentage of .537. Under Alou, Montreal had winning records from 1992 to 1996, with the exception of 1995, and the team finished second in the National League East in 1992 and 1993.

Dan Duquette left the Montreal Expos in January 1994 for his dream job, general manager of the Boston Red Sox. Kevin Malone, the Expos director of scouting, took over as Montreal's GM.

 

Hope and disappointment in 1994

 

 

 

 

The year 1994 proved to be heartbreaking for the Expos. The team's key contributors included outfielders Larry Walker, Moisés Alou, Marquis Grissom, and Rondell White; infielders Wil Cordero and Sean Berry; starting pitchers Ken Hill, Pedro Martínez, and Jeff Fassero; and the relief corps of Jeff Shaw, Gil Heredia, Tim Scott, Mel Rojas and John Wetteland.

The Expos had the best record in Major League Baseball, 74–40, when the start of a players' strike on August 12, 1994 brought the season to a premature close. The strike dragged on through the fall, forcing the cancellation of the playoffs and World Series. The team was six games ahead of the second place Atlanta Braves and on pace to win 105 games. The strike damaged the Expos' campaign for a new stadium, and the local ownership group chose not to invest additional funds to retain the team's best players.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On June 29th 1994 the Expos complete a sweep of the Atlanta Braves to take over the top spot in the NL East, as the Expos set a record for attendance during a mid-week series. Over the next 6 weeks the Expos would establish the best record in baseball while pulling 6 games ahead of the Braves. By August 12th the Expos sat in first place with a 74-40 record, playoff bound, and well on a pace to win 100 games. However, the magical season would end right there as the players went on strike. The strike would end out whipping out the rest of the season, including the playoffs, and World Series. Many would go on to speculate if the season was allowed to finish the Expos would have made the World Series.