Montreal Expos (1989)

1989 Regular Season:
Expos vs. St. Louis Cardinals

      1989 was the 21st season of Expos baseball, the only Canadian franchise in the National League. Olympic Stadium had been home to the Expos since 1977, after being used for the 1976 Olympics. The team was coming off a 81-81 season in 1988 and were looking to take the next step and compete for a playoff berth. Montreal was led by General Manager Dave Dombrowski and Manager Buck Rodgers (who had been with the team since 1985).
     Growing increasingly tired of the business of baseball, the struggle to attract free agents to Montreal, and declining attendance due to mediocre play, owner Charles Bronfman nevertheless decided to make one more attempt at going "all in" for a championship. Telling Dombrowski that money would not be an issue, the Expos made a blockbuster trade during the season: acquiring star pitcher Mark Langston from the Seattle Mariners for prospects. One of those prospects, unfortunately, turned out to be future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson. Langston helped Montreal rise to first place at midseason, but the team cooled off down the stretch, finishing with another 81-81 record. Attendance, however, increased to 1,783,533 (10th in the National League). To make matters worse, Langston signed with the California Angels as a free agent after the season.

     Montreal's batting order had some excellent hitters that season. Future Hall of Famer Tim Raines batted .286 on the season, with 9 home runs, 60 RBI and 40 stolen bases, while striking out just 48 times. Andres "Big Cat" Galaragga hit .257, but led the team with 23 home runs and 85 RBI. Third baseman Tim Wallach (featured on the cover), hit .277 with 13 home runs and 77 RBI. As a team, Montreal's batting average was a mediocre .247.

     Dennis Martinez, "El Presidente", had a fine season on the mound, going 16-7 with a 3.18 ERA in 33 starts, striking out 142. Langston went 12-9 as an Expo, the only other starter with a .500 or better record. Langston also had a sparkling 2.39 ERA and 175 strikeouts in his 24 starts. Other starters that year were Bryn Smith (10-11, 2.84 ERA), Kevin Gross (11-12, 4.38) and Pascual Perez (9-13, 3.31). The team's closer was Tim Burke, who saved 28 games and had a 9-3 record with a 2.55 ERA in 84 2/3 innings. As for Randy Johnson, he was 0-4 with a 6.67 ERA, so it's not like he was setting the world on fire before being traded. As a group, the team's ERA was 3.48, 7th best in the NL.

     This is the first Montreal Expos program in my collection, and it came with a bumper sticker. Since Montreal is a bilingual city, this program has a French section and an English section. Tim Wallach, who had been with the team since 1980, was profiled in an article on page 42. There are some baseball history articles as well: one on "Baseball's Smallest Legend" Eddie Gaedel (page 59) and one about the evolution of the baseball glove (page 49). Bob Bailey, an orignal Expo, remembered his days in Montreal on pages 104-107. This program is from a July series against the St. Louis Cardinals. St. Louis took 2 out of 3, with the Expos winning the middle game, 2-0. 

     While the articles are in both English and French, the advertisements are all in French. They include Petro-Canada, Sid's Sunflower Seeds, Saab, Labatt, Maxwell House and Kojax souflaki. The scorecard also includes coupons for Petro-Canada, Olympic Stadium's Salon 76 restaurant and the souvenir stand.

Aftermath: Charles Bronfman would eventually sell the franchise in 1990. The Expos would continue to improve in the 1990s, finishing just 3 games back in the NL East in 1993. They appeared to be running away with the East crown in 1994 when the players strike cancelled the remainder of the season. The strike and the abrupt end to what looked like the Expos' greatest season may have doomed the franchise in the long term. as talented players like Larry Walker, John Wetteland, Ken Hill, Pedro Martinez and Marquis Grissom were either traded or departed via free agency in the ensuing years. Major League Baseball would take over the struggling franchise in 2002, and had the team play a portion of it's home games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After the 2004 season, the franchise relocated to Washington, DC, and was renamed "Washhington Nationals". Major League Baseball is rumored to be returning to Montreal in the future.

Reference:

"1989 Montreal Expos Season Statistics", from baseball-reference.com