Some people may take macabre glee in watching the Washington Nationals basically fail as a baseball experiment – again.
I know a few Montrealers who are happy. But this should be taken with a dash of O’Keefe beer. Who knows how many of these people actually supported the Montreal Expos while it struggled and desperately needed fans to come out and fill the stands? The Expos indeed died a lonely death.
In 1969, the team hit the city with the force of a George Foreman punch and left without a trace like the Mongolian empire.
It’s sad how they left and one would think finding a good home for those lost, stray puppies was the next best thing for its legacy.
Washington is not turning out to be that home. Bad foster parents, bad.
No one is going to the games and no one is watching them. One thing we can say about Montreal, they at least (diabolically?) continued to tune in and listen to broadcasts on the radio a regular basis. It seems the message was: the ownership stinks, the ball park stinks (although I think both were sort of a convenient cop out) but the scent of baseball and the Expos remained soothing on sweet summer nights.
I still firmly believe Montreal is a baseball market. Now whether it’s capable of supporting a professional team in today’s economic environment is another matter. Montreal is not exactly a wealthy town. It’s a big city run like a small town.
Montrealers know a good thing when they see it they just don’t want to pay for it. It really is the perfect place for Bohemians and neo-Beatniks (whoever they may be. Was Kramer a retro beatnik?) when you think of it.
Nevertheless, the loss of the Expos for this sports junkie still hits hard. I shouldn’t complain too much. I got to see the “Team of the 80s” that thoroughly enriched my summers and contributed to my love of baseball. That counts for something.
Now it’s All-Star week-end in New York where majestic Yankee Stadium built by Babe Ruth stands before us all one last time. The Cathedral housed, produced and protected a prolific string of legendary moments. It’s another passing of a great piece of Americana.
During this past week, sports shows have reminisced on previous All-Star games. When they hit the 80s you can always be sure to spot a few powder blues uniform marked by red numbers that defined the Montreal Expos.
Each time I see them it brings me instantly back to a time when innocence, hope and sheer happiness was all I knew. I was a kid that lived by the sights and sounds of sports.
Growing up sobers us up – at least it should. Some cling on to past times leaving a taste of bitterness and a streak of cynicism. Sometimes we just need to let go of the bad times.
This week, Montreal baseball fans should remember Nos Amours. Being upset and angry is pointless. We had them and this is a thing to be celebrated.
Who knows?
Maybe one day they’ll be back.
I haven’t lost my sense of hope.
It’s a shame that baseball is too expensive for a city like Montreal. Ultimately though, Montreal is a baseball city with a strong passion for the sport. The problem was clear, as every smart business person knows, you can only provide sub-par service to your customers for so long before they leave you and in the case of Montreal the fans left after many years of tolerance and dissapointment (lets not forget that attendance was quite good during exciting stretches in 2002, 2003).
There other problem for Montreal is that there is a lack of passionate investors. No one wants to champion a baseball team in Montreal like Bronfman did financially back when the Expos started and Drapeau politically. If we get another duo like those two then the rest could follow suit (i.e. new stadium downtown!). I feel that sooner or later, there will be another investor like Bronfman and politician like Drapeau, I haven’t lost hope in Montreal. However, I don’t realistically think that it’s going to happen until the MLB does something about the outrageous salaries either(but hey, miracles happen!).
Well said.