We’ve all done it before. Sportscenter is showing the highlights from the last Expos game and they show a snapshot of the bare bleachers. Of course, the jokes follow like “It’s easier to catch a foul ball in an Expos game than it is in a Little League game.” But hey, who are we to talk?
To underscore this point, I ask you another question: When was the last time you saw someone holding a “You have to believe” sign at Yankee Stadium? I’m going to go ahead and assume the awnser is gone for a while. It’s easy to be a Yankees fan. You don’t have to believe. They know that each year they will have the talent to compete.
Not so in Montreal. Their slow start is something you just hope doesn’t get worse and they’ve started off bad and I mean really bad. They are the first team to score four runs or fewer in their first 16 games since the 1968 Chicago White Sox. They may or may not be in Montreal next year depending on the offers the team’s owners, Major League Baseball, receive.
So how did it get like this? Is Montreal not the place for a baseball club? The announcement is that Montreal is as good as anywhere. Heck, Montreal finished second in the National League in attendance in 1983 and just missed out on going to the World Series by losing Game 7 to the Dodgers in 1981.
Then baseball started moving into the modern era, where you have two types of teams. Insert team type one, where the owner risks putting more money into the team to keep and bring in talent in hopes that wins will increase attendance and revenue. Then there’s team two where the owner doesn’t keep his talent and puts less money into the team for profit.
Obviously, today in our profit-driven economy we’re going to have most managers picking the second half of the two guys and that’s what happened with the Expos. They saw their talent move through the ’80s. Gary Carter and Andre Dawson went to bigger markets and ranked 1st and 15th in salary in 1988. This is the time the MLBPA gained power with the strike in 1981, a two-day strike in 1985, a strike in spring training in 1990 and the strike in 1994. The players knew they could get more money and they wouldn’t let the owners do anything about it.
MLB had essentially already lost the fight with the players’ association. The effect was that GMs were forced to start putting money in and changing with the times. If one didn’t, the effect was to lose the star players who brought the fans to the stadium.
After having over 2 million attendees in 1983, the Expos would never reach that number again. His attendance problems came to the fore in late 1991 when a giant beam collapsed at the Olympic Stadium. This forced the remaining games on the Expo schedule to be played outside of Montreal. Interest in the Expos was at significantly low levels despite still being a decent team.
Furthermore, they were still losing a lot of good young talent. Among the names were Pedro, Larry Walker and Moises Alou. Tim Raines said: “I feel for the fans more than anything. I think the fans got tired of having good teams and then losing all their good players. Montreal fans were so used to winning, with the Canadiens there. Then there was This is a whole host of things that just turned the fans away.” However, in 1994, the Expos appeared to be a top-tier team with a 74-40 record, the best in the majors. Of course, we all know that 1994 ended up being a bad year for all baseball teams. The following year, the Expos would have lost Larry Walker and the eccentric Ken Hill, who had won 16 games in the previously shortened season and the team finished with just 68 wins in 95.
Attendance continued to drop as it was clear the Expos were just spending the season playing pointless games. In 1998 they fell below 1 million in attendance for the season, the lowest in the league. It continued to get worse and fell below 650,000 in 2001 amid contraction talks.
Major League Baseball then took over the Montreal Expos saying that baseball could never succeed there. Despite this, the Expos continued to play there, although there was obviously a conflict of interest. This conflict of interest really came to the fore when Major League Baseball had them play part of their home games in San Juan. Despite now playing in three different cultures, French, English and Spanish and having a low salary, Montreal pushed for the wild card in 2003, but ultimately fell short.
The longer Major League Baseball continues to own the Expos, the more they are killing the value and perception of the Expos. Of course, any good young player will leave a team where the future of where they play is uncertain. That is the situation right now with José Vidro and Orlando Cabrera and there will surely be problems in the future if something is not done soon.
It seems symbolic that the Montreal Expos’ first home game in 2004 was in San Juan. However, 16 games into the season, it is finally “home opener” for the Expos in Montreal. They didn’t sell out for the game, but hardcore fans say it’s due to a Montreal Canadiens game, hoping that if the Expos make the playoffs, some local businessman will show up and keep the team in Montreal.
Sophomore stud Marlon Byrd begins the game with a hit for Philadelphia. Then 2B Placido Polanco follows with another single. The slow start leads Montreal fans to their traditional method of cheering in which they slam their bodies against the plastic seats and also, in many cases, the empty seats next to them. The noise is so loud you forget you’re not in a domed version of Fenway Park. Claudio Vargas’ pitch is then smashed into the seats for a three-run blast from Bobby Abreu, leaving the stadium suddenly silent. In the middle of the stands, you can see a proud fan instantly rise to his feet holding a large sign that reads, “You’ve got to believe!”