Gallagher: Remembering a sad day in Expos' history

Montreal Expos legend Claude Raymond (St. Jean, Que.), left, consoles Expos outfielder Brad Wilkerson at the final Expos game at Olympic Stadium on September 29, 2004.

September 28, 2024

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

The 2005 National League schedule had been released months earlier and Montreal was on it.

The schedule was released even though Major League Baseball had a relocation committee looking at sites to relocate the Expos.

But until Sept 28, 2004, nothing appeared amiss that a relocation would be done prior to the 2005 season.

Yet, during the Expos game against the Marlins at Olympic Stadium on the 28th, news began circulating on radio stations and sports outlets that the Expos were being moved to Washington.

When Expos vice-president of business affairs Claude Delorme settled into his chair after the game was over, someone asked him, "Are you hearing the rumours?''

When Delorme chatted with me about this scenario for my book Explosion, he said, "We heard those rumours every fricking day. That night, the news was on a few sports stations and then there was more on the 11 o'clock news. When I left that night, there was not just a rumour -- there was the possibility the team would no longer be in Montreal.''

The devastating news was confirmed the next day during a conference call involving commissioner Bud Selig and the owners of the 30 teams.

Delorme showed up for work on Sept. 29 to address the rumours. He called Expos team president Tony Tavares and Pat Courtney, the public-relations guru in the commissioner's office.

Tavares and Courtney said they were unaware of the rumours but Courtney made several calls and phoned Delorme to say the scuttletbutt was not false.

"Claude, it's true. Bud Selig is having a press conference with all the owners at 8:05 a.m. to vote and agree to the move and there will be a press conference at 11 a.m. in Washington,'' Courtney told Delorme. 

What notice time was that? Poor. That's something I've always asked.

"I think the pieces probably fell together. If you are doing it (relocation) for 2005, you needed time to set up, to integrate into Washington,'' Delorme told me. 

"Whether it was coincidence, baseball was always late in their decision making. I can tell you -- Tony, myself, (manager) Frank Robinson would have known about it. It was leaked. I just know it was coming from various sources.''

Prior to this sad news on the 28th, Expos brass was looking at a crowd of roughly 10,000 for the final game on the 29th. When the bad news came down, a flurry of action saw fans purchase close to 25,000 tickets on game day. The crowd was announced at 31,000 and change but the figure was apparently closer to 35,000.

When dealing with reporters prior to the game, Robinson looked up to see the upper deck full of fans, prompting him to say, "Where were these fans in the last few seasons of the franchise?''

Prior to the game during the afternoon, Expos player rep Brian Schneider arranged for the players to go to the team office to say goodbye to the employees who were losing their jobs. There was a lot of tears shed in that office by players and workers.

"100%, it was not fun,'' Schneider told me for the book. "It was very hard. It had to do with the people, and their livelihoods and their careers.’’ 

During the game and following the game, there were many more tears shed in the stands and in the Expos' dugout and on the field.

This is the 20th anniversary of this sad occasion. The Expos went on to play their final three games in New York against the Mets but the hurt and anger and sadness of Sept. 29 far outweighed what went down in New York Oct. 3.

Although the prospects of getting another team in Montreal are bleak, we will never forget the Expos.

Danny Gallagher is signing copies of his book Explosion at Indigo Bay and Bloor in Toronto, beginning at 12:30 on Sept. 29 and then he will make his way to the Rogers Centre to see Expos fans prior to the Blue Jays' game. Terry Mosher, Bill Lee and friends are acknowledging the historical day of Sept. 29 by telling stories at Victoria Hall in Westmount, Quebec at 2 p.m. and film maker Robbie Hart is screening his Nos Amours Expos documentary in Sherbrooke, Quebec at 3 p.m.