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As last visits go, this one will evoke little nostalgia, minimal if any regret and a sigh of relief that the death watch surrounding the Montreal Expos is nearing an end.
The Colorado Rockies likely have come to the province of Quebec for the final
time. Their series with the Expos, which begins tonight at Olympic Stadium,
could be the last the Rockies play there.
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That means after Thursday, the Rockies never again will see the acres of empty seats, hear the air horns echoing throughout the cavernous facility or have to watch the antics of Youppi!, the Expos' mascot.
This is the third year Major League Baseball has owned the Expos. Once a proud
organization with a rich tradition of player development, the Expos have become
a shabby enterprise.
Commissioner Bud Selig repeatedly has said the goal is to announce in midseason
where the Expos are headed in 2005. If so, the Rockies will be saying au revoir
in two days, never to return.
"I won't shed a tear," Colorado first baseman Todd Helton said.
And that's not because the tomb that is Olympic Stadium has been a cruel place
for Helton. His lifetime batting average in 25 games there is .352, and he has
hit nine home runs and driven in 23 runs.
"I like playing there because it's very quiet and you can concentrate when
you hit," Helton said. "It's like golf."
But it's also a gone-to-seed reminder of failed attempts to find new ownership,
build a ballpark in downtown Montreal and give the Expos any hope of surviving.
"I don't feel bad for anybody who runs a business into the ground,"
Helton said. "I feel bad for the fans. I feel bad for the city."
Helton has heard teammate Larry Walker's tales about what it was like when the
Expos were winning and had a following. The noise, the passion and the energy
Walker remembers came to an end in 1994.
That season, the Expos were 74-40 and leading the National League East by six
games when the players went on strike.
Montreal's team included Walker, Marquis Grissom and Moises Alou in the outfield.
They were typical of a team that was young, talented and not a bunch of one-
year wonders.
When the strike ended in April 1995, the team was stripped and sold for parts.
Grissom and Walker were gone. So were pitchers Kenny Hill and John Wetteland.
And, very quickly, 1994 was a bittersweet memory.
"That would've been the year that spoiled Atlanta's 12-year run,"
said Jeff Fassero, a Rockies reliever who came to the big leagues with Montreal
in 1991 and was a starter for the 1994 Expos. "It would have been broken
up. It's disappointing things turned out the way they did. That might have been
something that could've saved that city and that team."
The Expos now are the worst team in the majors. They lost their best player
- and one of the best in the game - over the winter when free-agent right fielder
Vladi- mir Guerrero signed with Anaheim. The Expos are 6-20 with an offense
replete with numbers out of the Dead Ball Era.
They are batting .216, averaging 2.1 runs and, one month into the season, their
leading home run hitter (Orlando Cabrera) has hit three.
Attendance fell to a franchise-worst 642,745 in 2001, MLB turned the Expos into
nomads. They played 22 of their 81 home games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, last
year, the rest in Montreal. They'll do the same thing this season, except the
22 games in San Juan will be played before the All-Star break.
"How can you expect to get fan support when you're playing 20 home games
in Puerto Rico?" Fassero said. "There's no reason for that to drag
on like it has. I think it's time enough to end it. Really, I hate to see it
because I like the city and I like playing there. It's a shame they couldn't
figure out a way to get a baseball stadium in downtown."
Olympic Stadium is in the city's east end. It's an uninviting place in the best
of times. And those are long gone. In the four full seasons between 1979 and
1983, the Expos annually drew more than 2 million and twice topped 2.3 million.
They drew 1.67 million in 1992, Fassero's first full season in Montreal.
In the past two years combined, the Expos drew 1.84 million. They are headed
somewhere else, going nowhere in Montreal. And the Rockies, when they leave
Thursday, aren't likely to return.
"I wouldn't regret it," center fielder Jeromy Burnitz said. "I'm
all for improving our sport, and if that means moving a franchise to a place
that is better suited for the game, I'm all for it."
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