Expos Baseball

In the my mind, Andres Galarraga, will always be an Expo. The number of these players dwindle more and more as time goes on. The best former Expos are already associated with other teams. Pedro is a Red Sock, Randy a Mariner, Larry a Rockie, and Moises a Cub. Vidro, if he has any sort of longevity at all, will be the first National. Maybe Vlad will be remembered in the white, blue, and red. Maybe. But Andres, with apologies to Denver, to me Andres belongs to Montreal.

It is a relief that it didn't end the way it could have for Andres and Les Expos. Andres was home grown in the Expos minor leagues, signed as an 18yr old in 1979. He had breakout 2nd year in the majors in 1987, followed up with a more impressive 3rd year, earning him his first All-Star appearence. It seemed that a star's career was blossoming with every unbelievable stab at first base. Something went wrong though. An injury noone knew about? A personal malise? We don't know, but for the next two seasons, the average dipped and questions arose. Was what we saw just a flash in the pan? An injury-plagued horror story of a 1991 season presumably answered that question for the franchise. Andres was shipped off to the Cardinals in the offseason.

Andres suffered a broken wrist at the break of the season in St. Louis and struggled again. Even before the power explosion of the mid to late 90's there was little room for a first baseman hitting under .250 with 10 HRs, regardless of how he shined in the field. Andres went back to the Expos after the season and the team said "thanks, but no thanks." It sure seemed like the right decision at the time. A young Cliff Floyd was slated to take over at 1st soon. Andres had no place in Montreal. Still, I thought it was a harsh way to deal with someone who I immediately identified with the 'Spos. Here it could have ended.

Then came the second chance. A small contract for an expansion team. Nothing more than a chance to play everyday until they found someone better, younger, or both. The thin mountain air revitalized Andres. A .370 average for the Rockies, gave him the batting title, a first for an expansion player and a Venezuelan. Andres was a huge figure in the clubhouse and the Rockies were in the playoffs by their third season. He was a hero in Latin America, a leader in the community, and a favorite of baseball fans everywhere. For the next five seasons he was everything he was supposed to be following the 1988 season. Galarraga headed for greener pastures in 1998, signing with the Braves. He had a great season, proving that it wasn't a change in altitude, but in attitude, that got Andres back on track.

Then came the cancer. It was the middle of 1999 when he was diagnosed. Cancer had taken his father away from him two decades previous. "Lucky" for Andres it was a treatable Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The process still took a terrible toll on his body. He gained 30 pounds, felt terrible. Andres was out the entire 1999 season. But remarkably, by the late fall, he was ready to get back to what his life was about. He worked daily. The tumors disappeared. He was ready to play baseball again. His 2000 season was nearly as good as 1998, as his years in Colorado. He hadn't just beaten cancer, he'd knocked it back so far it was as if it was never there and 1999 never existed.

Comeback player of the year wasn't good enough for the Braves, who aimed to get a top notch free agent (they ended up with Rico Brogna). Andres was forced to move on again. This time to the Rangers. The AL didn't suit Andres and he was soon back in the Senior Cirucit, protecting Barry Bonds as he headed toward 73.

Then came the homecoming. It had been over a decade, but it felt to me like he had just been there. Maybe it's because I stopped buying baseball cards around '90. Signed with the Expos for the 2002 season to split time wiith Lee Stevens, an early season trade gave Andres the starting job. It wasn't the same Galarraga as in years past. He was 41 now, a little slow with the bat, a little slow in the legs, but it didn't matter, it felt right. Some guys just belong to teams.

The past two seasons, Andres hung around to see if he could get to 400 HR. He said it was for Venezuela, but you know it was in good part for him, to put that last stamp on his career that seemed on the brink of ending twice. In the end he didn't get it, choosing to bow out in Spring Training this year. Playing at a level he wasn't accustomed to just wasn't fun. With the Expos now residing in DC, there's no chance for that one-day contract, to see him in the old hat one more time. 2002 will have to suffice.

At the age of 43 he had amassed an large amount of impressive stats. 5-time Al-Star, 2 time Gold Glover, 399 HR, 1425 RBI, .288 batting average. Andres' .370 average in 1993 for an expansion franchise remains one of the highest marks in recent years. His 1996 stats of 47 HR and 150 RBIs (most RBI in 30+ years when he accomplished this) are still impressive.

Surprisingly, a lot of time can pass when you don't have a team to write about anymore. (For those of you somehow only tuned to exposbaseball DOT blogspot DOT com, my Nationals blogs have moved to nationals.mostavaluablenetwork.com. I'll fix the links...sometime)

I finally buckled to the peer pressure of noone and got myself a Baseball Prospectus membership. While perusing through back material, ran into a gem of a piece speculating on who would be the last ever Expo. Sort of a depressing version of my "would any current National make the hall of fame" blog. Sort of.

Well after listing some other last players (including the last Seattle Pilot, Fred Stanley, who I once dressed up for Halloween. Yes, that's right I dressed up as Fred Stanley. I could explain it to you, but it would take too long.) They toss out their potential last Expos, listing 10. In no particular order, Chad Cordero, Shawn Hill, Macier Izturis, Brendan Harris, Chad Bentz, Livan Hernandez, Juan Rivera, Brad Wilkerson, Nick Johnson, and Vlad Guerrero.

They end up choosing, for a variety of reasons, Vlad. I'm going to disagree for two reasons.

1) I think that back problem will flare up again. Something about the way Vlad plays, all loose swinging and such, makes me worry about his back. Then again he reminds me of Dave Winfield who didn't exactly retire early.

2) He's a complete hacker. Whenever the bat speed goes, he will be a cannon arm novelty. Sure that's years down the road, but I can see a 35 year old Vlad batting .220. For those of you that think he might learn patience, don't bet on it. He's been so good at what he does, it hasn't been much of an issue. In fact he's getting worse at taking a pitch. He's going to crash hard, and I wouldn't bet on it taking until he's 42. (38 maybe)

I could go with Nick Johnson (I love a good walk) but he'll get injured reading this column. I could go with Juan Rivera, but he gave Vlad the nickname "Walky McWalkerson". If Chad Cordero was lefty, he'd be my choice, as lefties can last forever. But he's not. So who do I choose.

I'm going to gamble with Brendan Harris. Why? No good reason. Just a feeling. If he has a good season in in the next couple years, he's got the bat control and defensive versatility that managers love to keep on the bench. He'll be that veteran presence guy who retires at 38. Beating Vlad by about a month or so.

There was a comment in a recent MLB.com Q&A that bothered me. I'll let you read.

Any chance that records held by the Senators will be added to the Nationals' record book? -- Ron C., Largo, Md.

Here's what Tavares said about the records last November: "... In our media guide, we're talking about having a page of records from the old Senators, a page of records from the Expos and a blank page writing our own records in Washington. This is a new team. The record is going forward here. We'll start with that."

The "Expos page" idea is unfortunate but I don't think this is out of line with what other franchises do. You appeal to your fan base as much as possible. Most don't give a damn where the team came from or what they did last year. That was something else that doesn't involve "their team". They want new unis, new logos, and new records. I can't blame the fans. Rooting for a team is a very personal thing. You protect it when people make fun of it. You don't want to share it with bandwagon fans. And you don't want to believe it once belonged to someone else. I imagine it would be like your new spouse keeping pictures of her ex around.

What bothers me is the inclusion of the Senators page. The Senators v.1 are the Twins, the Senators v.2 are the Rangers. Either of those teams should note the records of their franchise in the minimal way expected. This Nationals team has no ties to the Senators other than location. To honor them with a page in the stat-book as well as the Expos, would be giving them equal importance in this franchise's history, which is short-changing the 'Spos to a degree I can't go along with. The existence of the Expos allowed for the existence of the current DC team. The existence of the previous Senator franchises, at best stoked baseball memories in the over 50 set. At worst it showed DC was not a good baseball market. At least give the Expos a greater sense of importance in their own franchise.

Thank you Jim Caple. Thank you for keeping up with the Expos in some manner. Really he's the only one I've seen on the websites I frequent that did more than a passing "Too bad." article.

For your information, The Nationals are currently one of only 5 teams without a mascot and I assume they'll have one soon. The others are the Yankees, the Dodgers, the Cubs, and the Los Angeles, California, USA, Earth Angels Baseball Club Incorportaed of SouthEastern Anaheim, Ballpark District. (The Heightened Emotion Monkey of Rallying is not an official mascot) .

Cleveland is a thing called "Slider". The Red Sox have the god-awful "Wally the Green Monster" The White Sox is a mess called Southpaw, I can only assume named after the cheap beer he drinks. Take a look for yourself. Ones not there include the Reds "Gapper", Texas' "Rangers Capitan", KC's Sluggerrr (spelling correct - you see it's a LION!) , and San Fran's Lou Seal (I hear he won't come back where he belongs).

Hmmm I think it's time to rate the mascots.

Thank you Jim Caple. Thank you for keeping up with the Expos in some manner. Really he's the only one I've seen on the websites I frequent that did more than a passing "Too bad." article.

For your information, The Nationals are currently one of only 5 teams without a mascot and I assume they'll have one soon. The others are the Yankees, the Dodgers, the Cubs, and the Los Angeles, California, USA, Earth Angels Baseball Club Incorportaed of SouthEastern Anaheim, Ballpark District. (The Heightened Emotion Monkey of Rallying is not an official mascot) .

Cleveland is a thing called "Slider". The Red Sox have the god-awful "Wally the Green Monster" The White Sox is a mess called Southpaw, I can only assume named after the cheap beer he drinks. Take a look for yourself. Ones not there include the Reds "Gapper", Texas' "Rangers Capitan", KC's Sluggerrr (spelling correct - you see it's a LION!) , and San Fran's Lou Seal (I hear he won't come back where he belongs).

Hmmm I think it's time to rate the mascots.

While reading up on the (ill-advised) quest for Esteban Loaiza, I read a quote that interested me.

"Nothing against the city of Montreal, but any time you can add a team to the eighth-largest television market and factor in those ratings that that market can produce, it's a plus," Bell said.

I'm not going to tell you that Montreal is a better TV market, or baseball market, or farmer's market than DC (though maybe if there was such a thing as a cheese and beret market). Instead, the quote got me thinking about where Montreal would fit into the US TV market. Obviously there will be future expansion / moves, the question of whether Montreal will be considered again has a lot to do with it's relative size.

Since television market information for Canada is limited, I'll have to extrapolate from population data. Montreal would rank as something like the 16th largest city in the Canada/US Mega-Country, slightly more coffee drinkers than in Seattle, slightly fewer retirees as in Phoenix. In TV Markets - that would put them somewhere around 12-15.

There are no larger TV markets without a team. Of about the same size - Sacramento (19th) wouldn't have a team beacuse of its proximity to San Fran and Oakland. Which by the way I find curious. Sacramento is about 90 miles from Oakland/SF. That's roughly the same distance between NY and Philly, and Philly and Baltimore, and twice the distance from Baltimore to DC. It should get a look, but it won't - because it's still considered SF/Oak Sphere of Influence. Baseball needs a Boxer Rebellion. (Hey High School World History reference shout out! There ain't no rebellion like a Sugar Mama Boxer Rebellion. yeah, yeeahh!) Orlando is 20th, but I don't like their chances either. If we had some space shifting technology from the 30th century that allowed the Devil Ray and Marlins to play in the same stadium at the same time but with only one audience, there still would be only 12 thousand people there. Florida is the Atlanta of sports states. Then you get to Portalnd (24th), which is a good market but probably 70% the size Montreal.

This seems to indicate that Montreal would get another look soon. Ha! I forgot about the exchange rate. One Canadian is only worth 4/5th an American. Montreal is actually even smaller than Portland! Actually, there are two good reasons why I believe this won't happen. First I think the MLB wants to move West. They want to be on the coast of Tupac and Ice Cube, for the simple reason that they don't want to fit any more teams in the East or the Central. They want to pump up the 4 team West. The second reason is that they want to perpetuate the myth that baseball failed in Montreal (rather than expose the reality of MLB killing it).

Where will baseball eventually end up, giving that expansion/movement is inevitable to some degree? Well Portland is a gimme. It has everything MLB wants. Western Time Zone, no conflicts with nearby teams, a probably sweet deal with the city. I don't believe they'll be in Vegas anytime soon. The gambling is an issue, but not nearly as much as the fact that Vegas is a lousy TV market (because of it's peculiar population make-up and a suburbia consisting of tumbleweeds and iguanas). With Vegas out, it becomes a crapshoot. The Norfolk to Raleigh/Durham to Charlotte corridor becomes an option, as well as Nashville, or Salt Lake City. The sizes of these cities brings up a curious option - Vancouver. It would allow MLB to claim that it didn't give up on Canada and would give it another Western team. Though Seattle might have an issue with this choice.

Making a guess into the future: The next team (for sale or movement) will go to Portland. That I'd put money on. The team after that (expansion usually happens in 2s) well.. if it's expansion I'd say Salt Lake City. (If you think the lack of interest will matter to the MLB, think again. Remember that other cities showed more than DC, but MLB waited till they got the deal they wanted from DC.) If it's a new team (or an eastern city movement) I'd guess Charlotte.

Pictures will still be in Expos uniforms for a good 2 months now...maybe three.

Larry Broadway, looking fashionable

I imagine new pictures will be taken during Spring Training. Turn, turn, turn.

Travelling a little further down the rails on the HOF train, I was wondering who will be the last player making it toe Cooperstown with a MON on the plaque? Assuming none of our rookies or youngsters surprise we've got relatively few candidates.

Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez are locks. I'd imagine Pedro will retire after Randy, but it will be close. They should be in around 2011 or so. Anyone of Lee Smith, Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, and Vlad Guerrero (if he keeps up his pace) could make it. Obviously Vlad would be the last. Giving him 8 more years and a year or two for induction...2018? Carl Pavano and Larry Walker have an outside chance, but I wouldn't bet on either.

So all Expos fans - clear your schedule for the second half of the next decade. It'll be your last chance to celebrate Les Expos.

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This is the new home of my Nationals related blogging. Two Solariums, quite a find. All will be moved and nice and ready by the end of this weekend, but posting has already begun. I'm sure this will increase my readership by leaps and bounds as anti-Expo Washington sites will be forced to acknowledge my presence, now.

The original and still the best exposbaseball DOT blogspot DOT com will still be bringing you Expos news and the occasional random thought. Such as

Jack Morris and the quotable stat
Originally the stat to quote for Jack Morris' HOF case was "Most wins in the 80's" Then people realized most wins in the 80's doesn't mean you have the most wins from '78 to '88 or '81 to '91. It was just an arbitrary 10 year period and when you start looking at such things you get a lot of non Hall of Famers leading the lists. So now the quote is "Won 36 more games than any other pitcher during the time period in which he pitched". That got me thinking. Who exactly did he outduel? The 80's weren't exactly known for it's pitching (or it's hitting, for that matter. It was the decade of the Stolen Base and Slap Hitter) The list...

Jack Morris... 233
Bob Welch... 192
Dave Stieb... 174

Hmm. That's a mighty mediocre list Morris beat out there (to be fair I think Nolan Ryan is 4th or 5th - but he didn't get in because of his win total). Is "Better than non Hall of Famers" now all it takes to get in? I'm pretty sure that Tim Wallach was better than say Mike Pagliarulo and Dean Palmer.

Put Tim Wallach in the hall!