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Good News for the Expos

Willets Point Dec 20 2006 02:27 AM

Olympic Stadium finally paid off. Oh wait...

MFS62 Dec 20 2006 09:58 AM

WP, do you check out Canadian sports sites on a regular basis? What have they been saying about the Vernon Wells contract? Will he be paid in US dollars or Canadian? Haven't seen that specified in any of the reports in the US coverage of his contract. Later

Yancy Street Gang Dec 20 2006 10:03 AM

I assume that they'd report the amount in US Dollars, not Canadian dollars. It's like when you read about a bridge being built in Europe or earthquake damage in Japan, news articles always quote the costs in dollars, not in Euros or yen.

Frayed Knot Dec 20 2006 10:32 AM

That stadium was a huge money pit from the very start. The mayor up there at the time was very popular and apparently could get just about anything through the gov't. I'm not sure was his particular appeal was but he used to get elected with 90+% margins - something not often seen outside of elections in the likes of cold-war era Bulgaria. The roof was supposed to be ready for the '76 Olympics but wasn't. As a result, there were surfaces down there (part of which became the warning track when coverted for baseball) which were never designed to work when wet. So when American high-jumper Dwight Stones complained about the incompetance which led to slick surfaces on the approach lane his complaints were translated as "I Hate French Canandians" in some of the local papers, leading to a nice little pissing contest in the news. I saw one game up there: lousy place for baseball, cheap tickets, great beer, nice bars afterward

Edgy DC Dec 20 2006 10:51 AM

Anybody remember who was the mascot pre-Youppi?

Johnny Dickshot Dec 20 2006 11:18 AM

No.

Edgy DC Dec 20 2006 12:08 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Dec 20 2006 12:30 PM

They had an unhuggably skinny baseball-headed Pez dispenser named Souki. He was widely reviled by a baseball-loving Montreal and a ceremony was held in which he humbly turned his cheerleading duties over to the more endearing Youppi. His tenure lasted from 1979 to, um, 1978. I guess he's pretty analagous to Mettle.

Yancy Street Gang Dec 20 2006 12:23 PM

I got curious (not in the way that Marv Albert did), got my cat safely out of the room, and typed http://montrealexpos.com into my browser to see what would happen. And I ended up redirected to the Washington Nationals official web site. I can understand MLB wanting to keep ownership of the domain name, but they really ought to put some Expos content up there. Very few people who care about the Expos are looking for Nationals information. MLB should use that domain to house whatever Montreal Expos content they may have left over. WAIT! It gets worse! http://www.brooklyndodgers.com takes you to the L.A. Dodgers web site! http://www.philadelphiaathletics.com and http://www.stlouisbrowns.com and http://www.kansascityathletics.com/ and http://www.milwaukeebraves.com/ haven't been swallowed by MLB and appear to be available for purchase from domain squatters. http://www.seattlepilots.com/ and http://www.washingtonsenators.com/ contain exactly the kind of content that they ought to. http://www.newyorkgiants.com/ is, of course, owned by the NFL team. http://www.bostonbraves.com/ may not even exist. (If not, I'm tempted to grab it!) So, as for defunct franchises, MLB only seems to have dug its claws into the poor Brooklyn Dodgers. It ain't right. That domain needs to be liberated.

Willets Point Dec 20 2006 04:07 PM

MFS62 wrote: WP, do you check out Canadian sports sites on a regular basis? I saw the article on Fark.com. That this humongous debt is finally paid off two years after the main occupant has jetted for another city is just so depressing.

G-Fafif Dec 20 2006 06:14 PM

I've been schlepping through a well-meaning, richly detailed history of the erstwhile Big O tenants for several months, Remembering the Montreal Expos. It's more a collection of anecdotes and somewhat random reminiscences than a straight-on trip through the seasons. There are some laughable errors within (the Mets traded Mike Torrez to Montreal; the Mets and 'Spos swapped Bob Bailey and Clay Kirby; the Mets and Dodgers played in the 1988 World Series) and the translation from Canadian to American feels a little rough, but it's got a good heart. I still kind of miss the Expos, though more in theory than reality.

SteveJRogers Dec 20 2006 06:30 PM

Yancy Street Gang wrote: I can understand MLB wanting to keep ownership of the domain name, but they really ought to put some Expos content up there. Very few people who care about the Expos are looking for Nationals information. MLB should use that domain to house whatever Montreal Expos content they may have left over. Actually the Team History section is Wall-To-Wall Expos, including the Expos retired numbers that appear to have been "unretired" for the Nats! This is the case with all of the teams, including the Seattle Piolts, linked to the Brewers history section! Well just in terms of the "All Time Roster" info but you can find info on the Piolts on the site. Granted yes Expo Info searchers probably wouldn't think first about looking at MLB's Nationals site, but it does have a treasure trove of historical data. Now what the real shame is that there aren't any other comphrehensive independant sites out there soley dedicated to one singluar team's history (B-R, B-A and other comprehensive baseball sites are great, but I like the singular focus, of an UMDB) the way UMDB and MBTN are.

Edgy DC Dec 20 2006 11:03 PM

The moment the Nationals unretired those numbers (Tim Raines's was retired for like four months, wasn't it?) they became untrustworthy stewards of the Expos legacy.