Quote:
Originally posted by AaronSJ@Sep 29 2004, 06:56 PM
I also grew up as an Expos fan - Tim Raines was (and still is) my favorite player ever. We used to make an annual weekend trek from N.B. to Montreal to catch a weekend series - it used to be the highlight of my summer.
I was in Montreal last week and went to two games for old times sake. To be honest, I almost had tears in my eyes. It was very sad seeing a major league baseball game with 3,000 fans in a 50,000 seat stadium (and a good portion of them made the trek from NYC to watch the visiting Mets).
I'll be sad to see them go, but their time has come. The franchise deserves a home where the fans will support them rather than embarass them.
I wonder if the Blue Jays are next?
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Yeah, I was also a huge fan of "Rock" Raines and remember him being MVP of the 87 (86?) allstar game in Oakland. I remember when Vince Coleman was stealing 100 bases a season, and people were calling him the best leadoff guy in baseball. They were overlooking all the other contributions that Raines and his 70 steals a year were making to the Expos.
I do agree that if they can't build a proper place for the Expo's to play and draw fans than they might as well relocate them to a place that will. I have no doubts that Washington DC will be a better home for the franchise whatsoever. The big O and the 76 Olympics in Montreal, just looks terrible in hindsight. I guess at the time Canada had no money whatsoever, and a young population getting established in the work force, so I can see why things were done so cheaply. I'll also admit that nowhere in Canada had ever tried to take on a project that size before, and is likely a reason why a lot of those mistakes were made and why things were done so poorly. I'm sure it did a lot to rev up some national pride at the time, but it cost future generations millions, and was far too ambitious for anyone's abilities at the time. Judging by the SkyDome, it doesn't appear that too many lessons were learned either.
