The longest goodbye has ended.
It took Expos president Tony Tavares only a few words to transform nearly a decade of rumors into cold, hard reality. First he told the players. Then he appeared at a packed news conference in the basement of Olympic Stadium to confirm what had been glaringly obvious for months:
After 36 years, the Expos have played their last game in Montreal.
They will be based out of Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington, beginning next season with a new ballpark scheduled to be ready in 2007 or `08.
Major League Baseball will continue to operate the franchise while an auction is held to determine new ownership.
Let the record reflect that the Expos lost to the Marlins on Wednesday night, 9-1, in their final Olympic Stadium appearance before a crowd of 31,395, the largest of the year and only the third of more than 20,000.
There was additional security, but that couldn’t prevent some ugliness.
In the top of the third, the game was delayed for 10 minutes after two golf balls were thrown from the stands and Expos manager Frank Robinson pulled his team off the field. While the umpires were sorting things out, a handful of “Bud (Stinks)” leaflets fluttered from the upper deck some Montreal fans blame commissioner Bud Selig for orchestrating the first franchise transfer in 33 years.
In the bottom of the sixth, two baseballs were thrown but the Marlins remained on the field. Before the game ended, at least two more hit the field but were quickly retrieved and the game continued without a delay. A fan ran onto the field in the bottom of the ninth but was quickly hustled away.
There also were signs like the one that showed pictures of Selig, former club president Claude Brochu and ex-owner Jeffrey Loria. Across the top it said: Expos Hall of Shame. Underneath was written: “Merci de Rien!” – Thanks for nothing.
Much of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was drowned out by boos.
For most, however, the mood was melancholy.
“It’s a day when the sun sets in Montreal and a day when, I guess, the sun rises in Washington,” said Tavares, who arrived three years ago to run the team when MLB took over the franchise after Loria departed to buy the Florida Marlins.
“It certainly is a sad day for Montreal. On an emotional level, I feel that. From a business standpoint, though, it’s a terrific day for baseball.”
Yes, baseball is a business. We are constantly reminded of that. But it’s also about people. The players will be fine. General manager Omar Minaya has reportedly already landed a top-level job with the Mets.
Still, there are about 40 full-time front office employees and Tavares conceded that, because of visa problems, few will move with the team. There are also about 1,200 people who have lost part-time jobs connected with having a big-league team in town.
And there are, of course, the fans. Anybody who has watched an Expos game on television has seen Allan Mansell. He’s the stoic guy in the Expos cowboy hat who sits in the bleachers for every game. He has been a regular since the expansion team started play in 1969. Since he retired in 1999, he’s missed only four games and that’s because he had a broken hip.
What will he do now?
“I’m going to have all winter to think about that,” he said. “I guess I’ll jump in the car and go watch them. I’ll definitely go to some of their games.”
Katie Hynes has also been an Expos fanatic since the beginning. With nearly waist-length red hair, she’s been a fixture in Section 107 for years. She gets tears in her eyes when she allows herself to think about life without the Expos.
In an eerie coincidence, the Expos Wednesday night honored their 1994 club. It was 10 years ago that Montreal had the best record in baseball when the ruinous strike began on Aug. 12. The World Series was canceled and, before play resumed the next season, the Expos had cut their payroll by getting rid of Larry Walker, John Wetteland, Marquis Grissom and Ken Hill.
Many point to that as the moment when the irreversible slide of the franchise began. Fans became disenchanted, which would later help undermine support for a new downtown stadium.
Walker, now with the Cardinals, doubts that was a turning point.
“There would have been a difference for about a year or two,” he said earlier this week. “But once they started losing again, things would have gone back to the way they were. When (original owner Charles) Bronfman got out, that was pretty much it.
“It’s sad that the baseball fans up there are going to miss out on it. But it’s a sinking ship. Something had to give.”
Now it’s over and even the artificial turf will be taken up, shipped to Toronto and reinstalled at SkyDome.
Baseball in Montreal was Jackie Robinson playing for the Royals of the International League in 1946, the year before he broke the major league color line for the Brooklyn Dodgers . . . The original group of 30 players selected in the expansion draft, including Maury Wills, Coco Laboy and Bill Stoneman, who went on to pitch two no-hitters and later became the team’s general manager . . . Tiny Parc Jarry, with a swimming pool behind rightfield and the public-address announcer who would invariably introduce the Expos catcher as John Botch-a-BAY-la . . . The old tricolored hats that looked like beanies.
Baseball in Montreal was Rusty Staub, Le Grande Orange, the franchise’s first star . who threw to first base.
Baseball in Montreal was the Expos. Coach Claude Raymond, the first native of Quebec to play for the Expos, spoke. And with those words it was over. Finally, over.

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