On September 29, 2004, our Loves played their last game in Montreal. The Journal offers you a series of reports as part of this sad twentieth anniversary of the departure of our Expos for Washington.
The general consensus is that the Major League Baseball players’ strike in 1994 led to the Expos’ departure. I believe that the trade of Gary Carter to the New York Mets 10 years earlier marked the beginning of the end for our beloved team.
That’s when controlling shareholder Charles Bronfman decided he no longer wanted to play the expensive game of his American counterparts. The bidding war to get the industry’s best players stunk in his face.
He had on his heart the seven-year, $14 million contract he had agreed to with Carter in 1982. He had thrown it in his face during a meeting at his West Palm Beach residence in the winter of 1984.
Bronfman didn’t mince his words. He told Carter he was going to the bathroom when he saw him coming to bat with runners on the trails.
That year, however, Carter had produced a National League-high 106 runs batted in, which he shared with Mike Schmidt of the Philadelphia Phillies. He hit 27 home runs and had a very respectable .294 batting average.
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But nothing worked.
Bronfman blamed Carter for the Expos’ drop to fifth place in the National League East that year.
JdeM
And so it was that on December 10, 1984, Carter was traded to the Mets in exchange for Hubie Brooks, Mike Fitzgerald, Herm Winningham and Floyd Youmans.
Against the current
From that point on, Expos general managers had to deal with tight salary budgets.
Strict spending controls were instituted by Bronfman. The baseball men who succeeded Bronfman as general managers during this period, from Murray Cook to David Dombrowski to Bill Stoneman, had to adhere to them rigorously.
While this philosophy was intended to be responsible, it ran counter to the thinking of the wealthiest owners who spent lavishly.
Instead of looking for a gem, the Expos’ general managers had to scour the market for survivors.
We saw in particular the priceless Perez brothers, Pascual and Carlos, Dennis Oil Can Boyd and Otis Nixon, who still provided good service to the Expos.
The best of that group was undoubtedly Dennis Martinez, who went 100-72 and threw one perfect game during his eight seasons in Montreal.
The Montreal Journal
Too many people around the table
The second warning shot was the sale of the team by Bronfman in 1991 to a group of companies from Quebec Inc. formed by Claude Brochu, due to lack of buyers.
Although far from ideal, this formula by which the fate of a team rests in the hands of several business people was the only one that could ensure the survival of the Expos.
The Nordiques also went through this when the O’Keefe brewery, which owned the team, was swallowed up by the Molson brewery in 1988. Like Brochu, Marcel Aubut formed a consortium of Quebec companies to keep the Nordiques in Quebec.
The Expos did well in 1992 and 1993, and in 1994, their young players matured. The Expos had the best record in baseball (74-40) when the players’ union called a strike on August 12 that was not settled until April 2, 1995.
The Expos’ financial backers have carried out a thorough purge, urging their general partner Brochu and general manager Kevin Malone to liquidate the team’s top employees.
Marquis Grissom, Larry Walker, John Wetteland and Ken Hill were no longer there when operations resumed.
Moisés Alou went on to win the World Series with the Florida Marlins in 1997. That same year, the Cy-Young Trophy was awarded to Pedro Martinez, whom the Expos compensated by trading to the Boston Red Sox.
What a waste!
Nothing more to do
Today, all that remains for people who experienced the Expos are memories that are becoming more and more distant as time goes by.
Charles Bronfman’s son, Stephen, tried to bring a team back to Montreal. But the constant rise in salaries combined with the exponential value of teams made it impossible.
The exercise would cost at least three billion dollars. A concession for the expansion alone would be worth two billion, perhaps more.
There will be no going back.
Farewell forever, our Z’amours.
