When the Mets leased New York

I've been sitting on a recent article by Tyler Kepner in The New York Times because I haven't had the time to finish all the research I'd intended for this post. The piece included an interesting statistic (and echoed some of what I wrote upon Andre Dawson's induction): Kepner points out that, from 1979-83, the Montreal Expos ranked no lower than fourth in the National League in attendance. After watching the team's demise at the beginning of this century because of a lack of fan interest, that is an eye-opening note to those of us who became baseball fans as children in the '80s, because most of what we know in baseball has been about big markets drawing the fans while the small markets suffer -- especially for those of us who grew up around the big markets like New York.

Montreal clearly suffered with its mausoleum-as-ballpark, and the strike in 1994 with the Expos leading the NL East (Kepner points out that they were on pace to win 105 games) was probably the last great hope for baseball in Montreal. If that team -- with Cliff Floyd, Moises Alou, Marquis Grissom, Larry Walker, Pedro Martinez and John Wetteland had won the division, it might've sparked passion in the team, which could've led to revenue -- perhaps a new ballpark -- and the retention of all those great young players.

But back to the attendance. In the New York area, we tend to think of the Yankees as kings of New York, with the Mets second. But there have been periods when the Mets were the more popular team. The Mets reached 3 million fans in a season in 1986, long before the Yankees first did it in 1998. And from 1984 through 1990 (the Davey Johnson years), the Mets outdrew the Yankees, 16,345,325 to 15,542,726. The Mets ranked higher in the Majors in attendance than the Yankees in each of those years, never ranked lower than fourth overall after '84 and ranked second from '85-87 and first in '88. Granted, it's a very small stretch in the nearly 50 years of Mets-Yankees co-habitation in New York City (My god! We're coming up on the Mets' 50th anniversary!), but it's worth noting that, while the Yankees have generally owned the town throughout, they at least leased it to the Mets for a time.

Team Attendance and MLB Rankings, 1979-90
	Expos	Rank	Mets	Rank	Yankees	Rank
1979	2,102,173	8	788,905	24	2,537,765	3
1980	2,208,175	7	1,192,073	19	2,627,417	3
1981	1,534,564	4	704,244	18	1,614,353	3
1982	2,318,292	4	1,323,036	18	2,041,219	7
1983	2,320,651	4	1,112,774	23	2,257,976	6
1984	1,606,531	17	1,842,695	11	1,821,815	12
1985	1,502,494	17	2,761,601	2	2,214,587	7
1986	1,128,981	24	2,767,601	2	2,268,030	7
1987	1,850,324	17	3,034,129	2	2,427,672	6
1988	1,478,659	22	3,055,445	1	2,633,701	5
1989	1,783,533	20	2,918,710	4	2,170,485	12
1990	1,373,087	23	2,732,745	4	2,006,436	14

Last of the Expos

The fans in Washington have taken to the Nationals as everyone — outside of Peter Angelos — expected. You'll even see some Expos caps in the crowd at RFK Stadium, as I did on Saturday, a sign that those who come out to the ballgame aren't simply there because it's the new fad in town. These folks know their baseball.

Up in Vermont, the Expos name lives for one more season. I seem to remember the reason being that Major League Baseball — perhaps in an attempt to try to make everyone forget not only how badly baseball in Montreal crashed in the final years there, but also how poorly MLB has handled the situation (they still don't have a new owner for the Nationals, despite having had the bids in hand for months) — decreed that the Vermont Expos must have a new nickname for next season. (I'm pulling for Green Mountain Boys or Chunky Monkeys.) If any team should be allowed to keep the name, it's Vermont, located as it is along the Canadian border. I like the idea of holding onto that piece of history, but it's not meant to be.

The Expos are struggling on the field, though, with the worst record in the New York-Penn League. And the copy desk at the Rutland Herald is struggling too, if they (and their writer) think the road to RFK goes from Vermont to Savannah to Potomac to Trenton to New Orleans. Wrong capital city there. (But how appropriate that the team, which has been in existence for decades, has the Senators nickname? I can't believe it's taken me 2/3 of the season to realize that.)

As I plan to do with the naming contests for the Norwich Navigators and the new State College team, I'll stay on top of the naming developments in Vermont.

Reggie strikes out with A's one last time

I had no idea that Reggie Jackson attempted to by the Oakland Athletics. It's a shame it didn't happen — is there a better way to promote baseball than to have its first black majority owner be a Hall of Famer returning to own a team he once played for?

It's not that Reggie was outbid for the franchise that retired his number last year; he wasn't given a fair shot at making an offer. In May, the commissioner's office told Jackson to sit tight and he'd be given a chance to make a bid. They didn't give him that chance until December, at which time the current owners of the Athletics had already reached a deal with Lewis Wolff, the Los Angeles real estate developer who will become the team's new owner. Wolff is currently the vice president for venue development for the team. That is, he's been trying to figure out where to get the A's a new stadium, and apparently he's still going to do that in the Bay Area.

But what really makes this whole deal stink is that Wolff is not just an acquaintance of "commissioner" Bud Selig, he's his freakin' fraternity brother. Do you think Wolff, in his efforts to find a place to build a new stadium for the A's, will look for anything but a publicly financed venue? Would Bud accept anything less?

The thing is, Bud's done this before. Remember contraction? One team involved, the Montreal Expos, was eventually "sold" to the other 29 owners and moved to Washington, D.C., two years later than it could have been because Bud wanted to make sure he gave Orioles owner Peter Angelos enough of a sweetheart deal.

The other team was the Minnesota Twins, a small-market club that, in the three seasons since the C-word was first uttered, have finished ... um, wait, let me look it up here ... Ah, yes: First, first and first, with records of 94-67, 90-72 and 92-70 from 2002-2004. Why the Twins? Perhaps because the owner, Carl Pohlad, is a dear, close friend of Bud (also mentioned in the Nightengale column in the previous link) and would have stood to receive a nice "contraction package," no doubt worth more than the team might bring were it put up for sale.

It's a shame the way things go down sometimes.

Au revoir, Montreal

I watched as the ball fell into Mike Mordecai's glove just behind third base on the carpet of le Stade Olympique. Mordecai, himself a former Expo, tentatively jogged to the dugout, wondering if there should be more. It was, after all, the final out of the final play for baseball in Montreal. There was some history to it.

Before he reached the dugout, a coach came out and took the ball from him, looked over toward the Expos dugout on the first-base side, and tossed a one-hopper to Montreal manager Frank Robinson, who acknowledged the gesture with his index finger in the air and a nod of his head.

With that, baseball in Montreal was over.

The listed attendance was 31,395. Most of the closer shots, particularly from the outfield and foul line cameras, showed packed stands. But after the game, the view from behind the plate showed an empty upper deck down the lines and in the outfield. In the end, about 15,000 fans could have walked up to the window minutes before the first pitch and gotten a ticket to the last baseball game in Montreal.

I nearly did that. Not for last night's finale, but for Tuesday's penultimate game. Late Monday night, the Washington news began to leak out, and I knew I had Tuesday off. It was nearly midnight, but I had to check. I quickly ruled out flights ($500) and the train schedule didn't fit mine (I would have had to take an overnight trip back to be in New York Wednesday morning in order to get to work by 10 or 11). Greyhound was perfect: Just a little more than $100, roundtrip, I could be in Montreal after a nine-hour bus ride (shorter than the train, actually) and get on an 11:30 bus home that would allow me to be at work in time. But the bus north was leaving Port Authority at 8:30 or 9 a.m., and it was already midnight and I just didn't have the energy to pull it off. It also occurred to me that I was doing this solely for the historical aspect of it and that Olympic Stadium is a dump. I was more upset at not getting to visit the truly historical original Comiskey Park before its demolition than I am about missing out on baseball in Montreal. As I sat around the house on Tuesday while the leftover rain and wind from Hurricane Jeanne darkened the skies and soaked the ground, I was glad I wasn't spending the day on a bus cruising up through New York State to Quebec.

Tomorrow, the Expos begin a three-game series at Shea to close out their tenure as the Montreal Expos. They'll play their final game in the same stadium in which they played their first in 1969. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to make it out to Sunday's finale. It will be a gameday decision.

I think baseball in Washington is a good idea. I don't think Bud Selig and MLB went about it the right way -- making Orioles owner Peter Angelos happy shouldn't have been their first priority -- but the important thing is that they got it done. And in my opinion, I think the Texas Rangers should continue to hold onto the Washington Senators name. There's no need to go back there. That was last century, the team of Walter Johnson and, for a few years at least, Harmon Killebrew (in its first incarnation). That was the American League team. Of the possibilities, I think my favorite would be the Washington Grays, a permanent homage to the Negro Leagues and its teams and players. It would do as much, if not more, to honor them and Jackie Robinson than retiring every team's No. 42.

As we enter this final weekend of the season, I've got a fantasy team in a money league with a secure hold on second place (for the second straight year, I'll win back triple my entry fee) with an outside shot at the title if I can get good starts from my remaining pitchers (and those I can pick up off the wire and remain under the innings limit) and my hitters get hot and pick me up the points available in runs, home runs and the four-way tie I could cause with a one-point boost in batting average. It's looking grim. In a public league, I'm currently tied for first and I'm dying to make it into a winner's league next year. In a third league -- points-based scoring -- I secured first place two months ago.

Then there are the real pennant races. The Dodgers can wrap up the division with a win tonight and a Giants' loss in San Diego. If they don't, they'll host San Francisco for the final three games of the season, needing to win at least one, at most two games. The Giants will still have a shot at the wild card, currently the Astros' to lose with a 1/2-game lead over both San Fran and the Cubs (pending the outcome of Chicago's game in progress against Cincinnati). Then there's the AL West, which has the Angels up on the Athletics by one game entering this afternoon's games. Tomorrow, the Angels will be in Oakland for a final-weekend showdown. So much drama!

What a great game.

Citizens Bank Park

For my 93rd major league ballgame, I visited my 18th major league ballpark. Sunday afternoon, Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Phillies vs. Expos.

It was indeed a gorgeous day for a ballgame. Sunny, an impossible blue sky, about 70 degrees with a light breeze. I entered the park through the right-field gate, right near the chaos that is Bull's BBQ -- Greg Luzinski's stand -- and the surrounding picnic tables and benches. To my right was Ashburn Alley, a stretch of local and unique food stands, attractions for the kids and a jersey customization shop. I walked to the right down the Alley looking for my lunch options. It was about 12:30, an hour before the first pitch, and already the lines for the cheesesteak stand were long.

I kept walking.

On the left were the tiered bullpens, then right field. Fans snaked their way through the Phillies Hall of Fame above the bullpens and hung out along the railing, eating their recently purchased food and awaiting the pitchers' warmups. Once I passed center field and turned the corner to left, I found myself beneath the gigantic scoreboard (with Harry K's restaurant embedded in it) and looking out through the gates at the desolate sand pit that was once the site of Veterans Stadium. As antiseptic and plain as that stadium was, it seemed to have more character in its surrounding areas than this scene did. But that assessment is not fair, since that site is now a construction zone as they continue to clear it. I'm sure that once that work is complete, the landscaping will return.

I was also walking in the shade of the scoreboard and, moments later, beneath the right-field stands. Here, the wind became cold, and I was glad, despite the warm sunshine and near-70-degree weather, that I wore jeans. I wondered if I should've put on that long-sleeved shirt beneath my Lakewood BlueClaws jersey. I bought a cheeseburger, fries and a Coke and walked over to the standing-room ledges at the back of each section along the concourse to watch the final pregame preparations while I ate. Groundskeepers watered the infield and players from both teams stretched and sprinted along the foul lines and in the outfield. When a touching tribute to Tug McGraw and Paul Owens played on the scoreboard, I had to duck to see the screen beneath the overhang and I cursed the TV montiors hanging over the seats that were showing ESPN's football pregame instead of the Tug tribute, set to Jackson Browne's "All Good Things."

Anyway, like Eric Neel, I think the ledges along the concourses are one of the best additions to any newly built ballpark. It allows for pregame strolling and eating, with a good view of the field, before heading up to your seats in the upper deck. Same would apply to in-game needs for sustinence. Overall, though, I wasn't as impressed with the Cit. Or the 'Zen. Or whatever you want to call it (and why is the corporate name of San Diego's new park banned, as the column said at the top, but Philly's isn't?). I think my impressions were tinted by the seat in the upper deck, just beyond the right-field foul pole, that obscured the out-of-town scoreboard from view and left me with a backdrop outside the stadium of the pit where the Vet once stood. Yet, even during my pregame stroll around the concourse, the downtown skyline out beyond center field was far off and distant, making the city seem even more distant that it actually is. Or maybe I'm just too impressed by PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

After eating, I stopped in the main team store even though I didn't really want any Phillies gear. But when the first thing I saw upon walking through the doors was a red t-shirt with "FLOYD 41" on the back, for Gavin Floyd, I had to make an exception. Just three weeks in the majors, one win (to that point) in his career, and already the first Lakewood BlueClaw to make an impact in the majors and a former No. 1 pick had joined the ranks of THOME 25, BURRELL 5, MILLWOOD 34, WAGNER 13 and even BELL 4. I bought the shirt, then a scorecard along the first-base concourse, and then climbed the stairs up to my seat in the sky.

I wore the BlueClaws jersey because my seat was with a group of fans and employees of the Phillies' Class A team from the Jersey Shore. I spent the game in an aisle seat next to octagenarian fan Mildred, who told me she's now known as Mrs. Claws and, during the team's inaugural season, had stitched a quilt commemorating the first campaign. Since I covered the team at the time, I believe she took my picture one day when I chatted with her and her husband on the concourse and incorporated it into the quilt.

Thankfully, we were in the sun. Unforunately, I'd forgotten my sunscreen and returned with two pink forearms, a red neck and a flushed face. Because of the angle of my seat and the location of the sun, the left side of my face and neck were more cooked than the other. Gorgeous. Kevin Millwood was off the DL and making his first start in like two months. He did OK, but lasted only two innings, which suited us just fine. When the Phillies took the field for the top of the third, out from the bullpen strolled Gavin Floyd. We stood and cheered and sections near us must've first wondered if we were friends and family, then probably realized that there was no way that could be the case considering how far we were from the field.

The Phillies went on to win 7-2, and Gavin got the win for his three innings of relief. Mike Lieberthal homered, giving us a chance to see the big Liberty Bell in action, and Billy Wagner closed out the ninth with two strikeouts. I suppose the atmosphere was a little subdued considering the disappointing season the Phillies have had, considering the expectations back in March. Not yet mathmatically eliminated, but for all intents and purposes, they were done, and here they were playing a glorified AAA club in the Expos.

As for the ballpark, it will be a great place to be some October night when they host a playoff game in a year or two, particularly when the Vet site is groomed a bit. I'm sure it's a great place to spend a summer afternoon or evening. But the location can't compete with Pittsburgh's and Ashburn Alley, while a wonderful attraction on its own, is no Eutaw Street in Baltimore -- for one thing, it's not as wide. And -- something else Eric Neel pointed out -- as I was sitting in my seat high above the field, looking down at the new ballpark, I wondered how great it would look if the 42,000 blue seats before me were a bright, brilliant Phillie red. I realize blue is one of the Phillies' official colors, but it's not the first one people think of, and were they red instead, they might look more impressive (and more filled) on TV when those late-season wide shots show a less-than-full ballpark.

But hopefully, I'll be back in the coming years for more Gavin Floyd victories and more BlueClaw alumni appearances in the bigs.