The Orlando Cabrera Incident

The New York Daily News’ Filip Bondy has an entertainingly hyperbolic piece on the Yankees-Expos “rivalry”. According to Bondy, it started with the 1967 World’s Fair in Montreal trying to outdo the previous one in New York. Bondy places Expos SS Orlando Cabrera at the center of the current conflict. Cabrera made the final out of David Cone’s perfect game in 1999. But last season, he exacted some revenge by homering off of Cone, then flipping the bat towards the pitcher’s mound. Bondy’s satire runs until the end, when he refers to Montreal as one of the best factory outlet stores in the major leagues. Anyway…

Baseball in Montreal is in a sorry state, with the recent dismissal of longtime manager Felipe Alou, an attendance that has reached five digits only three times since the season’s first series, and rumors that baseball will eliminate two teams as early as next season. Having recently visited the city and spent an afternoon in the shadow of Le Stade Olympique, the ‘spos have been on my mind. The apathy with which the city views the team saddens me; I would not be surprised to find that I have more fond memories of Tim Raines’ career than most Montreal residents.

The blame should be shared by (who else) the team’s ownership, which seems to be playing out the string before relocating or folding, and the city’s tax base, which is unwilling to fund another stadium to replace the concrete money pit that is the Big O(we).

Montreal is a historic city from a baseball standpoint. Among other things, the city was Jackie Robinson’s first stop once he signed with the Dodgers, the year before he broke the color barrier in the majors. At their peak, the Expos had three Hall of Fame-caliber players, in Tim Raines, Gary Carter, and Andre Dawson. Their 1994 team, which featured Pedro Martinez, Larry Walker, and Moises Alou, had the best record in baseball when the strike pulled the plug. They couldn’t afford to keep those players once their contracts came up, and the team has never been the same.

Major league baseball is a precious gift to any city. If fans don’t support it in Montreal, it ain’t EVER coming back. I hope for the sake of the few Expos fans in Montreal that an ownership committed to keeping the team there can be found. But I’m not optimistic.