The Montreal Expos still matter to Canada

  

BURNABY, B.C. (CUP) – One future Hall-of-Famer’s career is ending as another sees his recognized, reminding Canadians of our once-proud connection to the Expos.

It is the dead of winter and most Canadian hearts and minds are focused on their team’s cup chances or gearing up for the inevitable outpouring of national pride that will come with the Olympics.

However, earlier this month the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) announced that the only player inducted into the hallowed halls of Cooperstown this year would be Andre Dawson, a player who started his trip to greatness in Montreal.

The Jan. 6 announcement came only 24 hours after Randy Johnson, another product of the Expos organization, announced the end to his career after two decades of building his own Hall of Fame credentials. Add to that the possible election of radio play-by-play man Jacques Doucet, who covered the Expos in French for CKAC 730 from 1972 to 2004 and is up for the Hall’s Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting.

For Expos fans this is a time to celebrate the accomplishments of their now little-acknowledged team. Gary Carter, catcher for the Expos from 1974 to 1984, was given his pass to immortality in 2003 and wears the Montreal Cap on his plaque; and Dawson’s numbers in Montreal make a strong case for him to become the second Expo inductee.

However, despite the trickle of acknowledgement that comes from the BWAA votes it is still possible to see the resonance of Canada’s first MLB team throughout the two leagues. British Columbia native and former outfielder Larry Walker will be on the ballot in 2011, as will Tim Raines who will return for his second vote. Even baseball’s all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, spent a year with the club. Still active products of the Montreal system include Vladimir Guerrero, Jason Bay, Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, and Pedro Martinez – all of whom are making their own case for a Hall of Fame plaque.

Although the fans of the game may cherish these fleeting moments in the sun as they watch another alumnus bring back the memories of past success, it is a moment that can be lonely thereafter. In a recent interview with the New York Times, Gary Carter said that, although he enjoyed his time in Montreal and that he was proud of the emblem on his plaque, he hoped that Dawson would go in as a Chicago Cub, allowing a team still in existence to honour his induction. Carter’s quotes do nothing to install confidence that Expos fans should expect to see another Montreal player in the Hall soon.

Ultimately it is the Hall of Fame that makes the final decision of which team a player will represent. The problem for fans is that in the five seasons since the Expos were shifted to Washington and re-branded as the Nationals, the 36 years in Montreal are ones that Major League Baseball is seemingly comfortable forgetting.

Expos veteran Steve Rogers echoed Carter’s sentiment saying in the *New York Times*, “When (the Expos) did move, with all the promise in Washington, I was thrilled for them. Yet at the same time, for anyone who played in the halcyon days of the Expos’ franchise, all of a sudden it was ‘Hey, where’s my team?’”

Since the move in 2004, the Nationals organization has done nothing to link the 36-year history of the club before its new Washington home. Meanwhile, as other Major League teams have hosted numerous reunion events and “Turn Back the Clock” games to celebrate their past players, the Expos seem to have been given a fast track to obscurity save in the hearts of their disenfranchised fans.

While Dawson was given a video tribute during a January Canadiens game, and while the banners of retired Expo jerseys hang from the rafters of the Bell Centre, these are the only reminders of the once great organization, save for the fading legacy left in the MLB system and Carters’ bronze plaque that may be joined by an Expo-clad likeness of “The Hawk.”