Post by IceCat on Jun 20, 2019 20:47:01 GMT
Any astute baseball fan usually had a favorite team in the other league in addition to their primary favorite. No surprise in my case who carries my primary loyalty - your 2018 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox. Growing up, my favorite National League team was the Montreal Expos. I say WAS, because as you all know MLB carpetbagged them to Washington in 2005. The Nationals/Expos franchise is to this day one of just two teams (the Seattle Mariners are the other - sorry HF) that have yet to win a league title and thus an opportunity to play in the World Series. I remember vividly the two times the Expos came closest to that pinnacle of success, and both occurred during seasons marred by labor disputes.
The 1981 season was split in two by a mid-season work stoppage, which prompted MLB to split the season in two (unequal) halves. The Expos were the best team in the NL East in the 2nd half of the season and played a best-of-five division playoff against the team with the best record in the first half, the Philadelphia Phillies, which Montreal won in five. They then faced the Los Angeles Dodgers for the pennant, which in those days was also best-of-five. The fifth and deciding game at Le Stade Olympique on 19 October will forever be remembered as "Blue Monday" not just because it actually was on a Monday (it was postponed by a day due to rain - Olympic Stadium didn't have a complete roof in those days) but because Rick Monday hit a ninth inning solo homer to give the Dodgers the winning margin in a 2-1 decision.
The 1994 season is regarded as the beginning of the end for baseball in Montreal. The Expos actually had the best record in MLB and led the NL East by six games on 12 August when another work stoppage brought the season to a premature end. The collective bargaining agreement that resulted when future Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor ordered a stop to the strike did not result in a meaningful revenue sharing agreement, and the key components of the 1994 team were traded or allowed to leave via free agency. The 1995 Expos finished dead last and attendance plummeted. MLB's other 29 teams took over the franchise in 2002 after a failed bid to terminate the franchise the year before (the Minnesota Twins, the other team targeted for termination, filed an injunction blocking the move so the whole effort was abandoned). During the 2003 and 2004 seasons MLB experimented with playing part of the Expos' home schedule in San Juan, Puerto Rico. At the end of the 2004 season MLB announced that the team would relocate to Washington to become the Nationals.
When I opened my Twitter feed today I noticed that Montreal was trending worldwide at #1. I come to find out that MLB gave preliminary approval to the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays, who unlike the Expos/Nationals have actually been to a World Series, to play part of their home schedule in Montreal as early as 2023.
www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/mlb/tampa-bay-rays-montreal-split-1.5183234
I've never been to the Rays' home stadium in St Petersburg but of course we all know that most baseball purists have few kind words for the aging facility, which opened in 1990 before the Devil Rays even existed. The existence of the new facility was a convenient negotiating tactic by the Chicago White Sox to extract public funding to replace Comiskey Park, and for 3 NHL seasons it served as home for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The fact that the Rays may now be playing part of their schedule in Montreal's Olympic Stadium, whose own shortcomings since its opening for the 1976 Olympics have been well documented despite being a comfortable and convenient place to watch a game, stretches MLB's credibility. Why not just relocate the team outright so that the city and provincial governments can be encouraged to help out with a new facility?
Kevin
The 1981 season was split in two by a mid-season work stoppage, which prompted MLB to split the season in two (unequal) halves. The Expos were the best team in the NL East in the 2nd half of the season and played a best-of-five division playoff against the team with the best record in the first half, the Philadelphia Phillies, which Montreal won in five. They then faced the Los Angeles Dodgers for the pennant, which in those days was also best-of-five. The fifth and deciding game at Le Stade Olympique on 19 October will forever be remembered as "Blue Monday" not just because it actually was on a Monday (it was postponed by a day due to rain - Olympic Stadium didn't have a complete roof in those days) but because Rick Monday hit a ninth inning solo homer to give the Dodgers the winning margin in a 2-1 decision.
The 1994 season is regarded as the beginning of the end for baseball in Montreal. The Expos actually had the best record in MLB and led the NL East by six games on 12 August when another work stoppage brought the season to a premature end. The collective bargaining agreement that resulted when future Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor ordered a stop to the strike did not result in a meaningful revenue sharing agreement, and the key components of the 1994 team were traded or allowed to leave via free agency. The 1995 Expos finished dead last and attendance plummeted. MLB's other 29 teams took over the franchise in 2002 after a failed bid to terminate the franchise the year before (the Minnesota Twins, the other team targeted for termination, filed an injunction blocking the move so the whole effort was abandoned). During the 2003 and 2004 seasons MLB experimented with playing part of the Expos' home schedule in San Juan, Puerto Rico. At the end of the 2004 season MLB announced that the team would relocate to Washington to become the Nationals.
When I opened my Twitter feed today I noticed that Montreal was trending worldwide at #1. I come to find out that MLB gave preliminary approval to the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays, who unlike the Expos/Nationals have actually been to a World Series, to play part of their home schedule in Montreal as early as 2023.
www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/mlb/tampa-bay-rays-montreal-split-1.5183234
I've never been to the Rays' home stadium in St Petersburg but of course we all know that most baseball purists have few kind words for the aging facility, which opened in 1990 before the Devil Rays even existed. The existence of the new facility was a convenient negotiating tactic by the Chicago White Sox to extract public funding to replace Comiskey Park, and for 3 NHL seasons it served as home for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The fact that the Rays may now be playing part of their schedule in Montreal's Olympic Stadium, whose own shortcomings since its opening for the 1976 Olympics have been well documented despite being a comfortable and convenient place to watch a game, stretches MLB's credibility. Why not just relocate the team outright so that the city and provincial governments can be encouraged to help out with a new facility?
Kevin
