(unfortunately) GIP

... les Expos sont mortes. vive les Expos.

... I'm one of those fans who stayed away after '94. in my mind, MLB violated the years of faith that fans and commmunities put in it by letting a strike cancel the World Series, and they weren't getting any money out of my pocket if I had anything to say about it... i didn't set foot in the Big Owe for a good five years after that.

still, I remember going to my first game when I was maybe 8, 9 years old... an old neighbor (who passed away many years ago, she was a real sweetheart) had worked for the 'spos first owner before she retired, so she was able to get us tickets whenever we wanted... inbetween those games a few times a year and doing the poor student bleacher thing, I was good for a dozen games a year, easily.

I cried on Dodger Blue Monday, and cheered my ass off for the Yankees that October... to this day, I only have anything approaching hate for one baseball team, and that's the Dodgers.

a friend and I spent about 20 minutes talking to Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd outside his old apartment when I was in college... he was outside getting some air, and we just sat with him and shot the breeze.

my sister had the biggest crush on Gary Carter... until he got traded to the Mets. I went to Carter's first game back with the Expos.

I was there when they retired #10 for Hawk and Rusty. I watched the last three innings of El Perfecto like everyone else did.

Thanks, guys. it may not seem like it, but you'll be missed.

(x-posted to montreal)

amen, brother.

ESPN's Jim Caple sums it up about as well as anyone could...

The fans in Montreal were treated abysmally in all this. They supported their team loyally for years until the 1994 strike ruined what promised to be their finest season. And after that, the city was abused and let down by baseball again and again. As the league repeatedly hinted at the Expos demise, Jeffrey Loria was allowed to purchase the team amid promises that he would oversee the team's renaissance. Instead, he ran the club into the ground, failing to put the games on radio in English at one point, and was rewarded with a sweetheart deal to go to Florida while the Expos were threatened with contraction. They also had many of their home games moved closer to Venezuela than Montreal. And baseball pointed to the low attendance as proof that the game would never be supported in Montreal.

Had any of this happened to a team in the U.S. -- the contraction policy, the shifted home games, the conflict of interests -- there would have been an enormous outcry. But because it happened to a Canadian team, no one noticed. Or cared.

That's the real crime here. Baseball treated a team and a city about as badly as it could and no one paid attention.

If tonight's game is to be the final one at Stadium Olympique, I suggest the fans enjoy some final smoked meat sandwiches, sing "O, Canada'' at the top of their lungs, cheer their Expos and then give baseball the raised middle finger it deserves.

Damn straight.