FOUL BALLS: When MLB cancelled '94 World Series they killed the Expos
Brad Hunter
Published:
September 15, 2019
Updated:
September 15, 2019 1:11 PM EDT
Larry Walker was awesome that 1994 season. And the Expos didn't give him an offer.POSTMEDIA
The sound was not a slab of ash violently colliding with horsehide.
It was heartache.
In the dustbin, all that was left of the 1994 baseball season was empty stadiums, what ifs and a chilling silence.
The figurative sound was the teary-eyed rumble of a million hearts shattering.
On Sept. 14, 1994, Major League Baseball announced there would be no World Series in that strike-addled season.
The players had walked off the field on August 12. Owners wanted a salary cap. Players said piss off.
Baseball fans across the planet were devastated. An October without a World Series?
Unimaginable.
Yuck. Bud “Small Market” Selig was the acting commissioner of baseball. He was widely blamed for the players’ strike. GETTY IMAGES
But the cancellation hit harder, deeper and was more far-reaching in Montreal and Canada than elsewhere.
“August 12, 1994, is the day the Montreal Expos died,” longtime Expos fan John McDade told The Toronto Sun.
“The strike was the owners’ fault … they wanted more money. Money killed it.”
Our beloved Expos appeared destined for the Fall Classic, sporting the best record in baseball and a six game lead over the Atlanta Braves.
The ‘Spos were talent-packed and had the best manager in the game, wily old Felipe Alou.
Wily old Felipe Alou was at the helm of a team destined to be a dynasty. POST MEDIA
Before players hit the picket line, the Expos won 20 of its last 23 games.
Kevin Malone was the rookie general manager of the stacked team. The ‘94 season haunts him still.
“When I think about it, I can really feel that twinge in my stomach, that emptiness, that kind of sick feeling,” Malone told the Los Angeles Times in August.
“It’s almost like a scar that won’t go away.”
Baseball took more than a decade to recover in attendance and the game was never viewed the same way again.
For the Montreal Expos, attendance dropped by 20% in 1995 —and kept dropping until the team moved to Washington in 2004.
Stars like Moises Alou, right,helped turn the Expos into a juggernaut in 1994. POSTMEDIA FILE
Everyone knew who the villains were.
“The Union basically doesn’t trust the ownership because collusion was a US$280 million theft by [Bud] Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf of that money from the players. I mean, they rigged the signing of free agents,” former MLB commissioner Fay Vincent later said.
“They got caught.”
Matthew Ross was 16-years-old when the World Series was cancelled. And he was a hardcore Expos fan.
Today, he’s the host of TSN 690 in Montreal. Ross is also the grand poobah behind Expos Nation.
Jackie Robinson made his professional debut with the AAA Montreal Royals. The city has a long history of baseball. POSTMEDIA
“For the Expos, 20% of their fan base never came back,” Ross told The Sun.
“’94 was the beginning of the end.”
The past 25 years have spawned a myriad of conspiracy theories about the strike —and eventual departure of the team under the watch of the very same Bud “Small Market” Selig.
“Some people believe after the Jays won the World Series in ’92 and ’93, MLB didn’t want another Canadian champ. I don’t believe it but that view is out there,” Ross said.
In the wake of baseball’s 1994 debacle, the game —and the Expos — hit the skids in the 1995 season.
“Larry Walker wanted to stay in Montreal, they didn’t even make him an offer,” Ross said of the dramatic departure of the slugger and other stars like Marquis Grissom and Pedro Martinez.
PEDRO! POSTMEDIA
For years, the Expos had nurtured a stellar farm system and Ross thinks the team figured that the squad with the 27th smallest payroll in baseball could go cheaper.
“The 1994 team was destined to be a dynasty, there were guys in their prime and some amazing young players,” he added.
Attendance and wealth in baseball are joined at the hip to winning (see Jays, Blue). When the stars go, so do asses in the seats.
Ross said team management showed a “breathtaking lack of foresight” into the realities of the game.
“I mean your closer was the MVP,” Ross said.
Montreal Expos fans show their loyalty at a pre-season game in 2014 at the Olympic Stadium. Phil Carpenter / The Gazette
In 1995, the Expos finished in last place.
There were some flickers of hope but as the team’s fortunes fell, so did their gate.
“MLB and the Expos killed off a generation of fans. There’s no doubt in my mind they would have won the World Series.”
But in baseball, hope spring eternal. A number of franchises —Tampa Bay, Miami and Oakland —are in serious financial trouble.
Blue Jays trip to Montreal overshadowed by talk of Expos return
John Tory cheering for Expos to come back to Montreal
Return of Expos? Young Quebecers would prefer basketball team
“They’ll say the attendance is 5,000 but really, it’s half that,” Canadian expat and Rays season ticket holder Eric Hamblen said earlier this summer.
McDade doesn’t think major league baseball will be coming back to Montreal.
“I don’t think it will happen… there’s other places. And the fans in Montreal were badly burned,” he said.
Former Montreal Expos Vladimir Guerrero waves to the crowd during a pre-game ceremony as the Toronto Blue Jays face the Cincinnati Reds in MLB exhibition play on April 3, 2015 THE CANADIAN PRESS
That’s not the picture Ross paints. His ExposNation Facebook page has about 180,000 followers all thirsting for the team’s return.
The group is a non-profit registered charity whose goal is to bring the MLB back to Montreal.
“The people involved this time have a lot of money, and they’re passionate baseball fans,” he said, rattling names off like Bronfman, Garda, Couche-Tard, and Cirque du Soleil.
And he leaves with a shot at struggling teams in Florida, including the Rays who have said they’re considering playing half their games in Montreal.
“Baseball in Florida is for spring training… that’s all,” Ross said.
“Baseball belongs in Montreal.”
http://torontosun.com/news/national...ncelled-94-world-series-they-killed-the-expos
Brad Hunter
Published:
September 15, 2019
Updated:
September 15, 2019 1:11 PM EDT
Larry Walker was awesome that 1994 season. And the Expos didn't give him an offer.POSTMEDIA
The sound was not a slab of ash violently colliding with horsehide.
It was heartache.
In the dustbin, all that was left of the 1994 baseball season was empty stadiums, what ifs and a chilling silence.
The figurative sound was the teary-eyed rumble of a million hearts shattering.
On Sept. 14, 1994, Major League Baseball announced there would be no World Series in that strike-addled season.
The players had walked off the field on August 12. Owners wanted a salary cap. Players said piss off.
Baseball fans across the planet were devastated. An October without a World Series?
Unimaginable.
Yuck. Bud “Small Market” Selig was the acting commissioner of baseball. He was widely blamed for the players’ strike. GETTY IMAGES
But the cancellation hit harder, deeper and was more far-reaching in Montreal and Canada than elsewhere.
“August 12, 1994, is the day the Montreal Expos died,” longtime Expos fan John McDade told The Toronto Sun.
“The strike was the owners’ fault … they wanted more money. Money killed it.”
Our beloved Expos appeared destined for the Fall Classic, sporting the best record in baseball and a six game lead over the Atlanta Braves.
The ‘Spos were talent-packed and had the best manager in the game, wily old Felipe Alou.
Wily old Felipe Alou was at the helm of a team destined to be a dynasty. POST MEDIA
Before players hit the picket line, the Expos won 20 of its last 23 games.
Kevin Malone was the rookie general manager of the stacked team. The ‘94 season haunts him still.
“When I think about it, I can really feel that twinge in my stomach, that emptiness, that kind of sick feeling,” Malone told the Los Angeles Times in August.
“It’s almost like a scar that won’t go away.”
Baseball took more than a decade to recover in attendance and the game was never viewed the same way again.
For the Montreal Expos, attendance dropped by 20% in 1995 —and kept dropping until the team moved to Washington in 2004.
Stars like Moises Alou, right,helped turn the Expos into a juggernaut in 1994. POSTMEDIA FILE
Everyone knew who the villains were.
“The Union basically doesn’t trust the ownership because collusion was a US$280 million theft by [Bud] Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf of that money from the players. I mean, they rigged the signing of free agents,” former MLB commissioner Fay Vincent later said.
“They got caught.”
Matthew Ross was 16-years-old when the World Series was cancelled. And he was a hardcore Expos fan.
Today, he’s the host of TSN 690 in Montreal. Ross is also the grand poobah behind Expos Nation.
Jackie Robinson made his professional debut with the AAA Montreal Royals. The city has a long history of baseball. POSTMEDIA
“For the Expos, 20% of their fan base never came back,” Ross told The Sun.
“’94 was the beginning of the end.”
The past 25 years have spawned a myriad of conspiracy theories about the strike —and eventual departure of the team under the watch of the very same Bud “Small Market” Selig.
“Some people believe after the Jays won the World Series in ’92 and ’93, MLB didn’t want another Canadian champ. I don’t believe it but that view is out there,” Ross said.
In the wake of baseball’s 1994 debacle, the game —and the Expos — hit the skids in the 1995 season.
“Larry Walker wanted to stay in Montreal, they didn’t even make him an offer,” Ross said of the dramatic departure of the slugger and other stars like Marquis Grissom and Pedro Martinez.
PEDRO! POSTMEDIA
For years, the Expos had nurtured a stellar farm system and Ross thinks the team figured that the squad with the 27th smallest payroll in baseball could go cheaper.
“The 1994 team was destined to be a dynasty, there were guys in their prime and some amazing young players,” he added.
Attendance and wealth in baseball are joined at the hip to winning (see Jays, Blue). When the stars go, so do asses in the seats.
Ross said team management showed a “breathtaking lack of foresight” into the realities of the game.
“I mean your closer was the MVP,” Ross said.
Montreal Expos fans show their loyalty at a pre-season game in 2014 at the Olympic Stadium. Phil Carpenter / The Gazette
In 1995, the Expos finished in last place.
There were some flickers of hope but as the team’s fortunes fell, so did their gate.
“MLB and the Expos killed off a generation of fans. There’s no doubt in my mind they would have won the World Series.”
But in baseball, hope spring eternal. A number of franchises —Tampa Bay, Miami and Oakland —are in serious financial trouble.
Blue Jays trip to Montreal overshadowed by talk of Expos return
John Tory cheering for Expos to come back to Montreal
Return of Expos? Young Quebecers would prefer basketball team
“They’ll say the attendance is 5,000 but really, it’s half that,” Canadian expat and Rays season ticket holder Eric Hamblen said earlier this summer.
McDade doesn’t think major league baseball will be coming back to Montreal.
“I don’t think it will happen… there’s other places. And the fans in Montreal were badly burned,” he said.
Former Montreal Expos Vladimir Guerrero waves to the crowd during a pre-game ceremony as the Toronto Blue Jays face the Cincinnati Reds in MLB exhibition play on April 3, 2015 THE CANADIAN PRESS
That’s not the picture Ross paints. His ExposNation Facebook page has about 180,000 followers all thirsting for the team’s return.
The group is a non-profit registered charity whose goal is to bring the MLB back to Montreal.
“The people involved this time have a lot of money, and they’re passionate baseball fans,” he said, rattling names off like Bronfman, Garda, Couche-Tard, and Cirque du Soleil.
And he leaves with a shot at struggling teams in Florida, including the Rays who have said they’re considering playing half their games in Montreal.
“Baseball in Florida is for spring training… that’s all,” Ross said.
“Baseball belongs in Montreal.”
http://torontosun.com/news/national...ncelled-94-world-series-they-killed-the-expos
