The Montreal Expos were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in the National League (NL) East division from 1969 until 2004. After the 2004 season, the franchise moved to Washington, D.C., and became the Washington Nationals.
Immediately after the minor league Triple-A Montreal Royals folded in 1960, political leaders in Montreal sought an MLB franchise, and when the National League evaluated expansion candidates for the 1969 season, it awarded a team to Montreal. Named after the Expo 67 World's Fair, the Expos originally played at Jarry Park Stadium before moving to Olympic Stadium in 1977. The Expos failed to post a winning record in any of the franchise’s first 10 seasons. The team won its only division title in the strike-shortened season, but lost the 1981 National League Championship Series (NLCS) to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team was sold in 1991 by its majority, founding owner, Charles Bronfman, to a consortium headed by Claude Brochu. Felipe Alou was promoted to the team's field manager in 1992, becoming MLB's first Dominican-born manager. He led the team to four winning seasons, including, where the Expos had the best record in baseball before a players' strike ended the season. Alou became the Expos leader in games managed (1,409).
After the 1994 strike, the Expos chose to sell off their best players, and attendance and interest in the team declined. After a failed attempt to disband the team, then a failure to secure funding for a new ballpark, Major League Baseball bought the team ahead of the 2002 season. In their final two seasons, the team played 22 home games each year at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico. On September 29, 2004, MLB announced the franchise would move to Washington, D.C., for the season,[6] and the Expos played their final home game in Montreal.
The Expos posted an overall win–loss record of during their 36 years in Montreal. Vladimir Guerrero led the franchise in both home runs and batting average, and Steve Rogers in wins and strikeouts. Three pitchers threw four no-hitters: Bill Stoneman (twice), Charlie Lea, and Dennis Martínez, who pitched the 13th perfect game in Major League Baseball history. The Expos retired four numbers in Montreal, and nine former members have been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, with Gary Carter, Andre Dawson and Tim Raines' plaques depicting them with Expos caps.
History
Founding (1960–1968)
Professional baseball in Montreal dates back to 1890 when teams briefly played in the International Association. A second attempt at hosting a pro team failed in 1895. The Montreal Royals of the Eastern League were subsequently founded in 1897 and played 20 seasons.[7] The Royals were revived in 1928 and were purchased by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1939 to serve as one of their Triple-A affiliates.[8][9] Under Dodgers' management, the Royals won seven International League championships and three Junior World Series titles between 1941 and 1958.[10] In 1946, Jackie Robinson joined the Royals and led the team to a Junior World Series title in advance of his breaking baseball's color line
Team identity
The Expos logo consists of the stylized letters "eb", representing "Expos" and "baseball", combined to form a large "M", representing "Montreal".[182]
In 1972, the Telemedia radio network brought in Jacques Doucet and Claude Raymond to serve as the Expos' French language broadcast team. Carling O'Keefe brewery, the title sponsor for the French-language broadcasts, convened a meeting of writers and broadcasters across Quebec to establish a French language glossary of baseball terminology. From 1908, there had been a gradual introduction of French baseball terms in the French-language media. The use of French terms gained greater predominance with the resurrection of the Montreal Royals franchise in 1928.[183] However English terms were still in use.[184] Through the efforts of Doucet and Raymond, a more complete French language baseball lexicon was created, including terms such as "balle-papillon" (knuckleball, literally "butterfly ball"), "formation" (lineup), "ricochet" (foul tip), "coup sûr" (hit, literally "sure hit"), and "coup de circuit" (home run, literally "circuit hit", as in a hit resulting in one lap of the bases).[185]
Relationship with the Toronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays joined the American League as an expansion franchise in 1977, and one year later met the Expos for the first time in an exhibition contest, the first of an annual series that became known as the Pearson Cup.[193] The Expos won that first game, 5–4, in front of 20,221 fans on June 29.[194] Eight annual exhibitions were played between 1978 and 1986, with the 1981 game skipped due to the strike. Each team won three games, with two contests ending as ties.[195] The teams did not meet again until the advent of interleague play in 1997.[196] The games boosted attendance in both Montreal and Toronto.[197]
John McHale, then president of the Expos, was a strong proponent of adding a second Canadian Major League team, in Toronto.
Players
Retired numbers
Baseball Hall of Famers
Ten people who represented the Expos organization have subsequently gone on to gain election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Gary Carter was inducted in 2003 and was the first player whose Hall of Fame plaque depicted him with an Expos cap. The Hall's choice for his plaque logo followed initial statements by Carter that he preferred to be enshrined as a New York Met, with whom he won the 1986 World Series. He accepted the Hall's decision with grace, stating: "The fact I played 11 years in Montreal and the fact that the majority of my statistics and accomplishments were achieved there, it would be wrong, probably, to do it any other way."[217]
Andre Dawson became the second depicted as an Expos player when he was elected in 2010. Although he had played the majority of his 21-year career with Montreal, Dawson also preferred his plaque to display a different logo: when the decision was made, he publicly expressed his disappointment, saying it was "a little gut-wrenching" to find out he would not go in as a Chicago Cub while also stating, “I respect the Hall of Fame’s decision to put an Expos logo on my cap, and I understand their responsibility to make sure the logo represents the greatest impact in my career."[218]
Expos records
The players listed here represent the statistical leaders for the franchise's time in Montreal only. For the record holders of the franchise overall, see List of Washington Nationals team records.
No-hitters and cycles
Three pitchers in Expos history threw no-hitters. Bill Stoneman threw the first during the team's inaugural 1969 season.[27] He threw a second no-hitter in 1972.[34] Charlie Lea threw the third, nine years later in 1981.[50] A decade after that, on July 28, 1991, Dennis Martínez threw the 13th official perfect game in Major League Baseball history.[99] Two other pitchers threw no-hitters in shortened games which, after a 1992 rule change, were no longer recognized by MLB as official no-hitters.[236] David Palmer pitched a perfect five innings in a rain-shortened game against the St. Louis Cardinals on April 22, 1984.[237]
See also
- List of Montreal Expos broadcasters
External links
Philadelphia Phillies St. Louis Cardinals
- – Encore Baseball Montréal is a non-profit organization that aims to be the voice of baseball fans in order to maintain interest in baseball in the province of Quebec
- – Registered Non-profit organisation seeking to promote the Montreal market as a viable baseball market, by creating awareness of a fan base in the region.
- colspan = 3 align = center | National League Eastern Division Champions
- -
- width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
- width = 40% align = center | 1981
- width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
References
- Chris Landers. What's the weirdest logo in the history of each Major League team? MLB.com, MLB Advanced Media, February 13, 2019, retrieved February 16, 2019^
- Jordan Bastian. Chen fondly recalls days in Montreal MLB.com, MLB Advanced Media, March 8, 2016, retrieved August 10, 2025^
- Eric Chesterton. 30 years ago, Tommy Lasorda got a mascot ejected for napping on his dugout