The Montreal Expos Franchise Memorial Thread

[marlinfan]

I was watching the game and became rather depressed watching many people cry and how people stood there for 10 minutes just looking around and wondering why did things go so wrong. I wish I never have to experience an event like that in my life.

Last out: Mordecai to Sledge. (The ball was given to Frank Robinson after the last out.)

[Waffles]

I took this at what turned out to be the last Expos home opener in Montreal:

This last Rally Twist's for you, Montreal.

Sauvez Nos Expos

[NJTank]

Saw this on Yahoo.

[JQK]

Am i saddened by the loss of baseball in Montreal, no.

Had Montreal showed more support for the team, maybe there would be more sympathy for this very screwd up situation. I understand that Montreal got screwed in 1994, and that is the main reason most fans never came back. However, you then can't complain when the team leaves because of no support.

I'm sorry for the few Montreal fans that gave a damn about the team. But there aren't too many of them around.

Maybe if Montreal can muster up more support, they can get the Devil Rays when they eventually move.

[Swiss]

And what about the Montréal retired numbers???

Will Washington inherite all them? Among Walter Johnson and Clark Griffith?

[JQK]

I would imagin that if Washington picks up the "Senators" name, they will take the Senators retired numbers and leave the Expos numbers in Montreal, for some future team.....

[Swiss]

Maybe leave all that Montréal numbers to a new minor team...

...but I think that's not just with all those men today in the Hall of Fame.

The Orioles didn't remember any St. Louis Browns' members if anyone was inducted to the HOF.

[NJTank]

The Browns were a terrible franchise with few stars, perhaps only George Sisler is worth remembering.

[rockchalk]

Maybe they will do like the St. Louis Rams, who have a St. Louis football ring of honor that honors all of the best football Cardinals, plus the famous Rams from LA. I think this would be the best solution.

[Frenchie]

Saw this on Yahoo.

Is he sad to see the Expos leave or because his Youppi is missing an eye?

[See Red]

This latest series with the Dodgers brings only one thought to my mind in terms of the situation with the Expos.

Can the Rockies be next, please?

I'm not sorry for the Expos fans either. Show up and support your team or don't do it and you'll lose 'em. They chose the latter.

Just out of curiosity, does anybody know how many people attended this final Expos game?

[Phil]

The fact that the Expos fans didn't turn out was as much at fault with the MLB and the Expos owners as with the fans.

-It was the Expos owners that kept the 'Spos in that the Big Owe, perhaps one of the worst ballpark locations in history.

-It was the MLB whose financial situation is totally lacking parity, meaning the Expos could neither afford to field a truly competitive team once the payscale got totally out of whack.

Needless to say, if all parties involved really had wanted baseball to succeed in Montreal, it would have.

[Brauny1280]

The final attendance was 31,395 which is more than the four prior games combined. It was their largest crowd of the season by over 10,000. As for the Rockies hater, Colorado still fills up their fairly new stadium, which in my opinion is one of the nicest around. They even drew over 30,000 this summer when the Expos played them, FOR ALL THREE GAMES.

The 31,000 for the last game does sound high though, I wonder if a lot of people just bought tickets for memorabilia?

[NJTank]

Check out my front page for my Expos farewell headline

http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/

[JQK]

The fact that the Expos fans didn't turn out was as much at fault with the MLB and the Expos owners as with the fans.

-It was the Expos owners that kept the 'Spos in that the Big Owe, perhaps one of the worst ballpark locations in history.

-It was the MLB whose financial situation is totally lacking parity, meaning the Expos could neither afford to field a truly competitive team once the payscale got totally out of whack.

Needless to say, if all parties involved really had wanted baseball to succeed in Montreal, it would have.

Baseball would have succeeded in Montreal if the team gave a damn.

How long have the Cubs been just awful. They play in an old, crumbling ballpark, and their postseason history after 1908 is laughable. Fans still go to the games. Yea, Wrigley has that party atmosphere, but the people show up. Wether the team is good or bad, the fans show up.

Montreal basically said "If we are not good, we won't show up".

Ok, that's fine. Then you lose your team.

Bottom line is that the Montreal fans are the reason the team is gone. Montreal is a rather large city, a large market, and if they had showed up and gave a DAMN about their team that now MLB is "robbing" them of, they might have had the cash to keep their talent that the various owners kept selling off.

It's a simple formula:

Fans show up, team is successful.

Fans do not show up, team fails.

[Grish]

I am going to miss the tri color hats... maybe DC can bring them back....

as for the fans and mlb .. here is the best article on it..

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/stor...&page=caple_jim

[Phil]

The fact that the Expos fans didn't turn out was as much at fault with the MLB and the Expos owners as with the fans.

-It was the Expos owners that kept the 'Spos in that the Big Owe, perhaps one of the worst ballpark locations in history.

-It was the MLB whose financial situation is totally lacking parity, meaning the Expos could neither afford to field a truly competitive team once the payscale got totally out of whack.

Needless to say, if all parties involved really had wanted baseball to succeed in Montreal, it would have.

Baseball would have succeeded in Montreal if the team gave a damn.

How long have the Cubs been just awful. They play in an old, crumbling ballpark, and their postseason history after 1908 is laughable. Fans still go to the games. Yea, Wrigley has that party atmosphere, but the people show up. Wether the team is good or bad, the fans show up.

Montreal basically said "If we are not good, we won't show up".

Ok, that's fine. Then you lose your team.

Bottom line is that the Montreal fans are the reason the team is gone. Montreal is a rather large city, a large market, and if they had showed up and gave a DAMN about their team that now MLB is "robbing" them of, they might have had the cash to keep their talent that the various owners kept selling off.

It's a simple formula:

Fans show up, team is successful.

Fans do not show up, team fails.

You fail to realize that MLB has built into the Chicago market for years... they never really had to establish a baseball tradition there, it grew naturally with baseball. Not so with Montreal. Baseball failed to aggressively market the Expos with the intention of making them successful.

The Cubs don't necessarily need to attract new fans to put butts in seats. Montreal needed that marketing to attract and develop fans and put butts in seats. If a product doesn't sell, it is arrogant of the producers to blame the customers for not buying their product... obviously they have not done something to effectively make customers want to pay for their product.

[JQK]

Baseball was put into Montreal because there was a demand for it. Montreal baseball was amazingly popular when it made it's debut. MLB did not need an aggressive marketing of the product, because the producted was wanted. However, after an extended time period of losing, fans stopped going. Other than a few blips of success here and there, the fans never really returned. 1994 was, for all intents and purposes, the end of Montreal baseball. While baseball was eventually forgiven and accepted back into most other markets, Montreal never came back to baseball. Montreal gave up on the Expos. Baseball could have spent a half-billion dollars in Montreal, and no one would have showed up. They could have built a new ballpark, and no one would have showed up.

Montreal gave up on the Expos and on baseball. Why is it such a suprise that baseball gave up on Montreal?

No one in Montral has any reason to complain about this. Baseball didn't screw you over. You screwed yourselves over.

[See Red]

As for the Rockies hater, Colorado still fills up their fairly new stadium, which in my opinion is one of the nicest around. They even drew over 30,000 this summer when the Expos played them, FOR ALL THREE GAMES.

I know, I know. I don't hate the Rockies and I understand that they are towards the top of the league in terms of attendance. I'm just frustrated that this team seems to make no effort towards improving. The franchise is truely embarassing and if you never went to a game and saw how many people went to them, you would never knew this franchise existed because nobody talks about them. I listen to sports talk radio fairly often and this morning was the first I've heard of the Rockies mentioned in months, and it was to talk about how embarassing they are towards the city.

They owe it to the league, in my opinion, to go out there and play competetive baseball even though they're out of the race and the way they're letting games slip against the Dodgers are ridiculous. They really are costing the Giants a shot at the postseason, which wouldn't be bad if they were actually playing the Giants. They haven't fired their awful manager, they trade away any talent or fan favorites they've gotten and they can't get it through their heads to build a team that can hit. They constantly go after pitching -- and it hasn't worked, and will never work.

I was half joking when I said I hoped they'd be next -- but I'm truely embarassed of this team. They're a laughing stock in baseball, just as the Expos were of late. The Broncos wouldn't stand for it, the Avalanche wouldn't stand for it (They can't even be second in their division without coaches being fired), and not even the Nuggets would stand for it, as they went through GM's and coaches in an effort to get better.

[See Red]

Accidentally double posted. Me sorry.