With Baseball’s latest Hall of Fame Class about to be announced in January 2017, two of the four most likely candidates to be elected played for the Montreal Expos. Two Expo outfielders would be a shot in the arm for Montreal baseball fans and their bid for MLB expansion, but is there a third Expo outfielder that Hall of Fame voters are overlooking? Here is some quick and dirty analysis of the Hall of Fame cases for three outstanding players that roamed Montreal’s outfield.
As one of the Commissioner Rob Manfred’s personal favorites for expansion, the Montreal Expos could take the field again in the near future. Building on the legacy of baseball in Montreal would be fantastic as many fans still exist in Canada and Expos gear can still be seen around the world for a club that moved to Washington in 2004.
The Big O (Montreal’s stadium) has been witness to some outstanding outfielders to grace the “legendarily awful turf” and one of them (Andre Dawson) has already been inducted into the Hall of Fame. There are three Expo outfielders on the short list for 2017 with a legitimate case to enter the Hall of Fame. There will be some real drama as well with two of them likely to be just over – or just short – of the 75% threshold for entry.
Let’s look at the candidates…