The Montreal Expos, Sacre Bleu! Yes Les Expos, what other franchise, in Major League Baseball history, had a weirder existence. They existed from 1969-2004, and only had one division title, in a strike shortened season.
The postseason has only been cancelled once in our lifetimes, during the labor crisis of 1994, and yes, it was the Montreal Expos who held the best record in baseball when that season ended abruptly. Their history is strange, as is this current Major League Baseball season, and the times we currently live in.
So now is the perfect time to reflect back on Les Expos. Playing in a bizarre home stadium that opened extremely late, came in way over budget and never even fully functioned, their bizarre headquarters was a perfect reflection of their strange existence.
Known as “the big owe” because it took multiple decades to finally get paid off, Le Estadie Olympique is a place that you just have to see in real life in order to truly behold its “uniqueness.” It is unlike any ballpark you have ever seen, and ever will see in your lifetime.
The retractable roof never worked and the star players who plied their trade on the harsher than usual astroturf never stayed for the long term. However, the Expos, a team named after a World’s Fair, and almost contracted in 2001, once had the best young outfield in baseball with Larry Walker, Marquis Grissom and Vladimir Guerrero all coalescing at the same time.
Numerous star players came through and donned the Expos red, white and blue including: Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Pete Rose, Randy Johnson, Delino DeShields, Pedro Martinez, Dennis Martinez, Gary Carter…we could go on and on.
So let’s take a trip through history, via the Let’s Get Weird, Sports podcast on Hammer and Rails.com, part of SB Nation. Go to that link to listen to our podcast on the history of the Montreal Expos, on the Spotify, Megaphone and many other platforms.
The Montreal Expos material covers the first 40 minutes, with the last 20 touching on the cancellation of college football, and all the dumb, stupid takes that came in its wake. No college football in 2020? Well, we did try to tell you over a month ago.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for Chicago Tribune.com, on Twitter and his cat on Instagram.