Who Killed The Montreal Expos? is a documentary about the first major league baseball franchise to be located outside of the United States. From 1969 to 2004, the Expos played in Montreal, Canada. The documentary shows how the Expos became a source of pride for the people of Montreal and how it also became a source of one of their greatest heartbreaks when, after years of financial mismanagement, it relocated and became the Washington Nationals.
I guess one reason why I could relate to this documentary was because, before they got the Nationals, Washington had two baseball teams known as the Senators. The first Senators moved to Milwaukee in 1961 and became the Twins. The second team to be known as the Senators relocated in 1971 and became my team, the Texas Rangers. Sometimes, it’s hard for me to believe that my beloved Rangers once had a different name and played for a different city. I can’t imagine how much it would hurt if the Rangers ever announced that they were leaving Texas. But, as the Expos showed in 2004 and as the Chicago Bears are showing right now, even the most storied of franchises can relocate.
Who Killed The Montreal Expos? offers a lot of theories of what led to Montreal’s team leaving from Washington D.C. A players strike in 1994 ended a season that could have taken the Expos to the World Series. In 1995, several bad trades led to the Expos going from being the best team in the league to the worst. The team was in need of a new stadium but could never seem to raise the funds to build one. The documentary puts most of the blame on the second-to-last owner, an American who a lot of people think was planning to move the team all along. In the end, it doesn’t seem like there was just one reason for the Expos leaving Montreal. It was a perfect storm of hardships and mistakes and, unfortunately, it was the baseball fans of Montreal who suffered.
I don’t know who’s to blame. I just know it hurts when your team leaves. Montreal, I hope your Expos return soon! And I pray my Rangers never leave Texas.
Through the Shattered Lens 