This weekend is recognized by many as the Easter long weekend. Also, for Major League Baseball teams, this is the final tune-up before the beginning of a new season next week.
The Toronto Blue Jays are playing their final two Spring Training games in Montreal this weekend against the National League’s Cincinnati Reds. The thoughts and questions that may come to mind for Toronto fans are “why?” or “this is so stupid.”
Where to begin in trying to understand the concept of games being played in Montreal?
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The city of Montreal had a baseball franchise from 1969 to 2004, nicknamed the Expos (now the Washington Nationals, who happen to be the 2015 favorites to win the World Series). From 1969 to 1976 they were Canada’™s only professional baseball team, as the Toronto Blue Jays only came into existence in 1977. The closest the Expos came to achieving greatness was in 1994. To fans in Canada, it is also the year that killed the franchise as a result of a significant baseball strike. It all but destroyed the love for the game in Montreal and that passion never seemed to return to the city.
The writing was on the wall a decade later during the 2003 season. That season, they didn’t even play all of their 81 home games at Olympic Stadium, as they took to San Juan,˜ Puerto Rico for 22 ‘home’ games. Pending free agents didn’t want to go to Montreal and even players on the roster didn’t appreciate playing at the ‘Big O.’
Montreal’s Olympic Stadium: Credit – USA Today Sports images
Why do the Toronto Blue Jays and MLB insisting on going back to Montreal? At some regular season home games, the Expos had 1,100 people total in the stands. Yes, you are reading that properly — one thousand, one hundred. It had been painfully obvious that the citizens of Montreal did not care about baseball back then, so what would lead MLB to believe that they care now?
Why did they decide to go back to Olympic Stadium in Montreal? Seriously? Canadians do care about baseball, but Montreal is not the only major city north of the border that they could have considered as a venue for these games. There are plenty of baseball fans in Vancouver who show up in groves to Safeco Field when the Mariners host the Blue Jays. Converting BC Place there or maybe even Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton might not be that much of a stretch logistically.
District on Deck
Another thought as to why it is not a good reason to go to Montreal with these games is that other than a few select players, there is nary a connection between the Blue Jays franchise and the now defunct Expos. If there were heated rivalries between the two baseball clubs in the past, equivalent to hockey’s Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens, then it might make sense.
Toronto and Montreal never played each other until inter-league play was introduced in the late 1990’s and by that time Expos fans had become tired of the game. If each city had had a hand in building up one another and making sure that they remained afloat against the other 28 Major League teams, then I guess it’s sensible. However, the Blue Jays were one of the 29 teams who voted to relocate the Expos to the city of Washington.
Finally, if the Blue Jays are smart they would need to consider some of their prized assets on the roster. Competing in and winning the World Series, as it always should be, is the goal for this fall. Playing baseball games in Montreal could affect their future. It has™ always been of the belief that the turf in Montreal is dreadful for players manning the field, just as it is at Rogers Centre. So why subject the players to two extra games on an artificial surface?
History shows that nothing of substance can come from playing games there, aside from a mild monetary boost to Montreal’s short-term economy. Sure, there may be some nostalgia behind pro sports being played in Montreal. But until the city can get a new stadium, why doesn’t MLB just keep baseball away from Montreal as they decided to do a little over a decade ago?