It's got to be really tough when you're not wanted. There are 30 teams in Major League Baseball. Of them, 29 have owners. There is, however, one team that is so financially unattractive that not one billionaire was willing to take a risk by purchasing the franchise. This lone runt plays north of the border. The Montreal Expos have no private boss. They are run by the league.
Montreal is undeniably a hockey town. But in the past, the baseball counterparts to the Canadians were able to draw a hearty backing, capable of supporting the team both emotionally and financially. Then came 1994. In the summer of 1994, the Expos were well on their way to a division title, lead by names like Larry Walker, Moises Alou, John Wettland, and Pedro Martinez. But their comfortable lead over the Braves turned out to be meaningless when the players' strike cancelled the season.
Upon returning from that miserable chapter, baseball has seen team payrolls skyrocket into the hundreds of millions, making it impossible for smaller market teams like the Expos to realistically compete. One by one, Expos fans watched as the aforementioned names headed out of Canada for big money. As each star left, the 'Spos dropped further and further into a perennial second division abyss. Not surprisingly, fan support went on a steady decline.
Now, the Expos are lucky to draw 5,000 to Olympic Stadium for a game. In an effort to revitalize the franchise, Jeffrey Lurie purchased the team before the start of last year. But his efforts, like the team's, failed miserably. So, at the beginning of this year, the Expos were left without an owner, without much talent, and without a chance of surviving the upcoming contraction. Simply put, they are a lame-duck franchise.
Montreal didn't even secure a manager until Hall of Famer Frank Robinson took over just before the start of the year. The decision to hire Robinson, who was deemed too old to manage, was considered by many to be the last nail in the Expos coffin.
Well, we're one month in to the season and guess what? Robinson has ridden his two stars, Vladimir Guererro and Jose Vidro, along with an underrated pitching staff, to the head of the pack. Coming into play on Wednesday, the team that nobody wanted is tied with the New York Mets for first place in the National League East. Certainly, if there is one thing certain about the baseball season it's that everybody forgets how long it is. I know that there are still five laborious months left. But nobody could have predicted what the Expos were able to do in April. Perhaps as the season progresses, they will slowly fade into the Canadian sunset. But as for now, there is some good baseball being played in the "Big O." It's too bad there's nobody there to see it.
This is the last News-Letter issue of the year and so this is the last column of my illustrious career. Maybe "illustrious" is not exactly the right word. After all, my intriguing photo has only graced the pages of the News-Letter for one school year. Never the less, I would like to switch gears (if my editors would allow) and use the rest of my space to say thank you, and goodbye.
I would like to thank and congratulate David Gonen and Ron Demeter for having the courage to allow me to offer my opinions in their section. I also want to commend Shannon Shin for her work as co-head honcho of the paper. I haven't known Shannon all that long, but from our conversations I can tell that she reads every column that I submit, and has liked at least one of them.
Now I want to say adios to Johns Hopkins. Johnny, I had a relatively good time here. Many of my courses were interesting and some have even directed me onto a possible career path. The food at Terrace and Wolman was, at the very least, not poisonous, and the many residents of Wyman Park and the Royal Farms corner always had something interesting to say to me when I passed by.
But what I will miss the most is, of course, the friendships that I made here. I have an eclectic group of friends. Some are into science, most love music, and a few are hard-core drug users. But I have grown quite fond of all of them. I can only hope that the friendships that I make in the coming years will be as tight and strong as the ones that I developed over the last four.
I hope they have enjoyed my dry wit and weirdness as much as I have enjoyed their indelible qualities.
So now, to quote from the great Roy Orbison, "Setting suns before they fall, echo to you 'That's All, That's All.'"
I guess the only thing left to do now is head out into the real world and become an adult.
