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Do the Montreal Expos Deserve a Second Chance at Baseball?

By Josh Sippie

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Baseball is known as America’s past time, but one could argue that the ‘America’ in that statement also includes Canada, seeing as how both Toronto and Montreal have deep, time-forged affections for the game. Toronto still maintains their Blue Jays and will continue to, but Montreal lost out on baseball in their city when the Montreal Expos moved to Washington and became the Nationals in 2004, taking all the history of the club with it.

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And now, Montreal mayor Denis Coderre is meeting with baseball commissioner Rob Manfred in New York to “show Mr. Manfred our love for the sport.” (via the Washington Post).

Few can argue with the affection that Montreal fans show for baseball. The Toronto Blue Jays faced the Cincinnati Reds in preseason baseball this year in Montreal and Olympic Park sold out with 90,000 fans in attendance. After all, the Expos were in Montreal for 35 years before moving away and even before that, the Montreal Royals were a minor league affiliate of the Dodgers where Jackie Robinson prepared for his monumental arrival in Major League Baseball.

With history no longer in question, the next logical question is funds. According to the Washington Post, one of the main hold ups is whether or not the city of Montreal can support of a ‘state of the art facility.’ This ‘hang up’ seems pretty weak given how awful Tropicana Field is and yet the Tampa Bay Rays are still rocking out in it. Olympic Stadium has fallen on hard times, but according to mayor Coderre, the city has an 11 million dollar plan set up. Even in this day and age, 11 million dollars goes a long way.

The problem with Montreal’s financial situation is that the Montreal Expos were founded just after the heyday of the 1967 World Fair, as the MLB rewarded Montreal with the first non-United-States-based team in 1969. The financial situation in Montreal continued to expand with the 1976 Summer Olympics. However, through all of these financial boons on the city, the Montreal Expos were continuing to sputter, finding little success. While plenty of awe-inspiring players passed through Montreal like Vladimir Guerrero, they just never produced prolonged periods of winning.

Montreal could most certainly field another team. They have the fan base, the history and Mayor Coderre claims they have the funds too. There are some hurdles to get through in the logistics of it all, such as how more expansion teams would effect the balance of the divisions, seeing as how every division currently has five teams. Perhaps another city would lose out on their team to Montreal, something that I don’t think Montreal Expos fans would wish on any other city. Also, what will become of the history of the club that they packaged up and shipped away to Washington?

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All those logistical things could be overcome. The key to maintaining a team is success. In 35 years, the Expos only made the playoffs once. That’s one way to lose a baseball team. It’s unfortunate the fans are the ones that get punished in the long run for the shortcomings of their team. However, look at the two most recent expansion teams, the Rays and the Diamondbacks. Both have found successes in their youth. The Houston Astros are one team that’s been around for quite some time without any World Series, but they’re continually flirting with success and that keeps fans engaged.

Montreal absolutely deserves another shot at baseball, but many other cities deserve their first shot as well. In the 1998 expansion, nine cities threw their names in the hat for contention for a new baseball team. It shouldn’t be a shoe-in for Montreal, and it won’t be. There are to many hurdles as is. But their name will be in contention. However, as of now, an expansion in baseball would upset the balance, so we’ll have to see what Rob Manfred thinks about that.

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