There are some in Washington that think baseball in Montreal was a failure. But in fact the city was once one of the most vibrant baseball cities in the major leagues. To this day, the baseball fans in Montreal watch games on TV in record numbers in both English and French.
“Triumph and Tragedy: The rise and fall of the 1994 Expos” premiers at 10 p.m. Sunday on the MLB Network. David Gavant, executive producer for the show and the VP of production for MLB Productions spoke to me Friday about the documentary and how the baseball strike of 1994 spelled the end of baseball in Montreal.
In the 10 years that followed the 1994 season, a series of events landed the team in Washington.
Gavant on the 1994 Expos » The 1994 Expos were a young, yet exciting team filled with talent and promise. The team had won 94 games in 1993 and would be satisfied with nothing short of a World Series title. Moises Alou, Marquis Grissom and Larry Walker made up one of the best outfield trios in baseball. By the time the team reached Aug. 11, they had the best record in baseball, as they were 34 games over .500 with a mark of 74-40. And the fans of Montreal were starting to rally behind their team. A three-game home series against Atlanta in late June averaged nearly 44,000 fans per game and in their last two home series, the Expos averaged more than 34,000 fans per night in sets against the Dodgers and Cardinals.
Gavant on the strike » The owners and players union did not come to an agreement in August of 1994 and the team really never recovered. In 1995, gone from the lineup were four of the teams stars: Larry Walker, Marquis Grissom, Ken Hill and closer Jeff Wetteland. All the good will that the team had built up with city leaders was lost and getting a downtown stadium built, something that in 1993 seemed like slam dunk, came close a couple times after 1994, but in the end never happened.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!
