Lost Ballparks
Lost Ballparks with Mike Koser is a podcast that transports you back to the golden age of baseball—through the voices of those who lived it. Hear firsthand stories from players, broadcasters, batboys, clubhouse managers, groundskeepers, umpires, and fans who vividly recall what it was like to spend a summer afternoon at Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds, Forbes Field, Yankee Stadium, Comiskey Park, Crosley Field, and many more beloved ballparks now lost to time.
Lost Ballparks
Best of Lost Ballparks: Dave Van Horne (HOF 2011)
Originally recorded in 2022.
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Dave Van Horne was the play-by-play voice for the Montreal Expos, from their inception in 1969 - 2000. He joins us to talk about those early Expos teams, Jarry Park (the Expos first home) and all of the unique characteristics of that old ballpark and team that made them both feel uniquely a part of the great city of Montreal.
Hi, I'm Mike Hoser, and welcome to the Lost Ball Parks Podcast. On this episode of the Wonderful Parks podcast, legendary broadcaster Dave Van Horn. It is Martinez perfect game, July 28th, 1991. Dave Van Horn was the play-by-play voice for the Montreal Expos from their inception in 1969 through 2000, and then for the Marlins from 2001 to 2021. And he is our guest today on the Lost Ball Parks Podcast.
SPEAKER_02:Do you hear me okay? Perfect. How are you? I am uh I'm fine.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks so much for doing this. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02:You got it.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, so Dave, you at 27 years old, you were named the first voice of the Montreal Expos, a position that you would hold for the next three decades.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, I think that's the goal of every minor league broadcaster. I'd been working in the International League, broadcasting the Richmond Braves games. They're the first three years that they had their franchise in Richmond 66, 67, and 68. And of course, every minor league broadcaster is always looking for an opening somewhere in the major leagues, and expansion gave me an opening to apply at Montreal, and one thing led to another, and I got that job and got into Major League Baseball.
SPEAKER_00:And I really want to dive into your time with the Montreal Expos, and we'll do that here in a minute. But first I want to talk about some of the old lost ballparks that you broadcast from. Over the course of your 50-plus year career, you must have broadcast from how many ballparks?
SPEAKER_03:In over 54 major league venues. Uh, and that doesn't count spring training.
SPEAKER_00:Uh, other than your home ballpark, which one was your favorite to broadcast from?
SPEAKER_03:I will say this when the weather was right and the ballpark was packed, the atmosphere at Wrigley Field is hard to beat. I always enjoyed working in Dodger Stadium because of their rich history. And every time I went into that ballpark, I thought of Koufax and Drysdale and all those great Dodger teams that played there and a ballpark steeped in terrific history, and I always enjoyed working there. I am happy that when I broke in, I got to see a lot of the older parks, Connie Mac Stadium. I got to do baseball games in Crosley Field, and I got to do games in Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. So there are some of the major league cities where I've done games in three different uh major league ballparks in in those cities. And uh I've enjoyed I enjoyed all of them.
SPEAKER_00:Dave, let's start with your experience broadcasting from Pittsburgh's Forbes Field.
SPEAKER_03:Forbes Field, I remember because when you got up to the broadcast level, you had to duck and dodge a lot of girders and steel beams and everything to duck down and make your way uh into the broadcast booth.
SPEAKER_00:And then from high up at Forbes Field, you would have had a perfect view, not just out to you know the brick wall and the outfield, but beyond the wall into Shenley Park.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly. It was uh and and another ballpark, of course, steeped in tradition. At that time at Forbes Field, the uh batting cage that was used for both teams, of course, during batting practice, was still on the field, but not at home plate. It was out in center field, tucked away out there some 450-55 feet away from home plate. And uh and I remember going to the broadcast booth and watching the great Bob Prince broadcast from his booth there.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, Dak Ellis now, one after go, and you don't have that big one in the hopper.
SPEAKER_03:And uh that was a thrill for me because I had listened to Bob growing up.
SPEAKER_00:And since you began your career in 1969, you would have been able to catch the tail end of Crosley Field in Cincinnati, which had all kinds of unique details.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, there there was a terraced portion of the outfield, and outfielder was chasing down a fly ball. He actually had to run uphill and then continue along the plateau of the outfield to make a catch. I always remember the uh the clock. A lot of the old ballparks uh had a very prominent uh standard clock. And uh Duke Snyder, who I worked with for a lot of years, told me, he said, I won a watch here one time. I said, How'd you win a watch here? He said, I hit a home run off that clock. And and uh he said, The Long Jeans, I think it was Long Jeans, uh Long Jeans and Boulevard were sponsors of clocks in a lot of major league ballparks back in the day. He said, I still had that watch at home.
SPEAKER_00:Some of your broadcast partners throughout the years included Don Dry's the LP Wee Reese, and for 15 years in Montreal, Duke Snyder. Did any of those guys share any stories about Abbotsfield, their days at Ebbotsfield in that ballpark?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah. They loved talking about the games in the ballpark were one thing, but the camaraderie among the players was really something and the way the Brooklyn fans took to those teams. Duke told me that sometimes they they would drive to the ballpark in uh I think it was Carl Farillo's convertible. So the convertible we'd be driving through the streets of Brooklyn, making their way to Flatbush into the ballpark, and this convertible with about five of the Brooklyn Dodgers in there, and people were coming out of their house to wave at them as they drove by. And uh the closer the to the ballpark they got, the more fans they would see. And he said it was very exciting to touch bases with the fans that way, riding in the convertible to the ballpark.
SPEAKER_00:We had Carl Erskine, who was a member of the 1955 world champion Brooklyn Dodgers on season one of the podcast. In fact, our very first episode ever. We were talking about back in those days, everyone had the radio on. You could walk from city block to city block on a hot summer day with windows open, doors open, and follow the progress of a game.
SPEAKER_07:Cold Bank set, now the strike one fits. Slow curve, a little high, just off the target.
SPEAKER_03:There's no question about that. I think that's one of the big changes in baseball broadcasting on the radio these days. I was fortunate to experience that in Montreal. Russ Taylor, my my first partner, he lived in NDG, Notre Dame de Grasse, a suburb of the city of Montreal. And he said that during the summer nights, people could walk up and down the streets and hear the broadcast because people were sitting either on their front porches or in their backyards, and they would have the radios on. So uh those early years in Montreal, we experienced some of those same things that Brooklyn fans enjoyed in following the Dodgers all those years.
SPEAKER_00:In 1969, Dave, Major League Baseball added four new franchises: the San Diego Padres, the Kansas City Royals, the Seattle Pilots, who later would become the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Montreal Expos.
SPEAKER_08:I believe that the expansion into Canada by the National League was very much prompted by the exciting aspect of taking baseball, Major League Baseball, out of the United States for the first time and bringing in a new element.
SPEAKER_00:The expo's first home was Jerry Park. The game is underway here at Jerry Park. The ballpark, which initially sat uh, I think somewhere between 1,500 and 3,000 fans and was located about three miles northeast of downtown Montreal, it was meant to be a temporary home for three years at the most, while a new permanent ballpark was being built. It in fact ended up being much longer than that. But I want to start with this. How on earth did the city of Montreal turn that amateur 3,000-seat ballpark into a 28,000 seat Major League ballpark in just eight months with a winner, you know, with a Montreal winner to contend with?
SPEAKER_03:It was really a remarkable achievement to pull that off. It was an exciting time, but for those uh workers that had to work on that site at Jerry Park, Jerry Park, as you know, is a great big huge municipal park. And this little ballpark was tucked away in the southwest corner for the workers, uh, the steel workers, and everybody else involved. It was quite a challenge to get through that winter and to get the ballpark built.
SPEAKER_00:By the end of March 1969, there had actually been so much snow that accumulated and so much frost that there was legitimate genuine concern that the field would not even be playable by opening day.
SPEAKER_03:There was, and as a matter of fact, by today's standards, the field was not playable. The the frost had not yet come out of the field. So on the dirt portion of the infield, which had been groomed beautifully, it looked just great until you stepped on it. And when you stepped on it, it was spongy, and uh the players actually would have their feet sink down an inch or two into the ground. It was uh decided after meeting with both teams that nobody would complain about the field conditions. We'd get on with the game, and uh history was uh in the making with the first game played outside of the continental United States. It was an official major league game. The Expos had the St. Louis Cardinals in town for that home opener. It was remarkable because the players who reached first base would take their lead away from the bag on the dirt portion of the infield and then step to the inner diamond grass to make their way and run to second base in a comfortable way. And they did the same thing from second to third. They would run on the edge of the infield grass because uh it was just almost impossible to run without getting hurt, but nobody complained. They played the game, and wouldn't you know the uh the Expos won that game and beat the Cardinals?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so listen, well, let's backtrack for just a second. April 8th, 1969, the Montreal Expos played their first game in franchise history at Shay Stadium, Canada's first Major League Baseball team.
SPEAKER_03:Well, it was, of course, an historic uh afternoon at Shea Stadium. Uh things that I remember most, uh, other than the fact that the Expos won that game, that uh Tom Seaver was matched up against Jim Mudcat Grant. Neither one of them were involved in the decision when it was all over. Uh, both teams were going through the bullpen's uh in rapid fashion. But the thing that I remember most was right before the first pitch, everybody in the ballpark standing for the playing of both national anthems. And when the uh Canadian national anthem was sung by the world-renowned Maureen Forester of Canada, I looked over at my partner Russ Taylor, and Russ had tears running down his face. Uh, it was such an emotional moment for him, and I realized how this moment was for Canadians everywhere. And it was a very touching moment for me to witness that and to watch that. And then, of course, the Expos went on and won the ballgame.
SPEAKER_00:Now, in that first Montreal Expo lineup, the right fielder, Le Grand Range, Rusty Staub. I just I I really can't tell you enough about the way the fans here have made most of the players here feel. Rusty was an all-star his first three seasons in an expo's uni. And honestly, that guy did more to ingratiate himself to the city of Montreal, probably than any other player and the franchise's history.
SPEAKER_03:There is no question about it. He did. He was a great ambassador for Major League Baseball because during the offseasons he traveled from coast to coast in Canada uh to talk to people about Major League Baseball and about the Expos specifically. And of course, at that time, they had the entire nation uh to themselves because the the Blue Jays had not yet come into being. But uh Rusty Staub was a great ambassador for the ball club. He was uh the one that led the way and in no small part responsible for the fact that in those early years, while this was an expansion team not winning many games, Rusty Staub was a star player, and uh he got the fans involved in that franchise, and they turned out one million or more strong each and every year, except the last two years that they were uh at at Jerry Park. They they fell under the million mark, but they drew well. Uh, the radio and television ratings were terrific, and Rusty was largely responsible for a lot of that.
SPEAKER_00:I wonder how many hours he actually spent learning the language.
SPEAKER_02:Je travaille très fort uh toute la saison.
SPEAKER_03:He wanted to become as conversational in French as he could. He worked at it, he made the effort, and they loved him for that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I remember him talking about hey, the reason why I'm doing this too is because, like, if a if a little kid comes up to me and asks me for my autograph or he wants to talk about baseball, I want to be able to have a conversation with him.
SPEAKER_03:That was exactly it. And as soon as Rusty uh got a little handle on some conversational sentences and words and so forth, he used them right off the bat, and he won the hearts of baseball fans and Canadian fans everywhere.
SPEAKER_00:Another fan favorite from that team was 28-year-old Coco LeBoy. These people here, they guys have baseball, and uh they come to see us every day there, who had previously never played in a major league game, but ended up actually hitting 18 home runs his rookie year in 1969.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, Coco was uh very popular, and he picked up one of the, not the writers, but the he picked up one of the uh rookie of the year awards. Fans loved him. He always had a smile on his face, loved playing the game, played the game the right way, played hard, and uh the fans took to him uh immediately, as they did to many of those early expos, but uh none more so than Rusty and then and then Coco LeBoy uh right on Rusty's fields.
SPEAKER_00:If you want to get a sense of what how much appreciation the folks in Montreal felt toward this team, just look at footage of the parade through downtown Montreal for the home opener when tens of thousands of fans showed up to support the team. And before they had even played a home game, it looked like they had won the World Series.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly. Uh, the city had not seen that many people line the sidewalks for a parade since the last Montreal Canadiens Stanley Cup. They were the ones that drew the big crowds to victory parades. And all of a sudden, here come the Expo's an expansion team that was having trouble winning on the field, but they had no trouble winning the hearts of uh fans, and they turned out early and often that first year.
SPEAKER_00:The Expo's home opener was April 14th, 1969, against uh the St. Louis Cardinals at Jerry Park. It was so cold and it snowed so recently that there was actually a giant snowbank between the right field fence and the public swimming pool. And the ballpark reconstruction, which was rushed, uh as we talked about, was not complete. Not all the seats have been installed, so folding chairs from a local funeral home were used to complete the seating. Do I do I have that right, Dave?
SPEAKER_03:Yes, you do. As a matter of fact, obviously, uh young broadcaster and uh uh this big day, the home opener. So I got to the ballpark early, and once I parked the car and took my uh briefcase upstairs to the broadcast booth, I went back downstairs and I looked down the left field line, and there were three or four large sections that had not yet had seats installed. And there was Jim Fanning, the general manager of the ball club, with his sleeves rolled up on a cold, windy day, and he was putting these folding chairs in place. We learned later they had been rented from several different funeral homes. And uh so they were trying to find somebody that had a lot of folding chairs, and they found them at funeral homes across Montreal and took them to the ballpark. And Fanning was among those down that line uh erecting chairs.
SPEAKER_00:Unbelievable. So you're really the first Montreal Expo's representative that I've had on the podcast to date that can really give a detailed description of the Expo's first home ballpark. So if you could kind of walk us around, what were some of the unique characteristics of Jerry Park that stood out to you and that made that ballpark memorable?
SPEAKER_03:Well, uh yes, several things. The weather came from left to right for the most part, the winds and breezes and so forth. And so the municipal swimming pool that was beyond the right field fence became a target for the likes of Willie Stargil and Willie McCovey and other strong left-handed batters, including Rusty Stobb. I don't recall that Rusty ever hit one into the pool, but Pops uh hit one into the pool. The fans just loved the fact that Willie Stargil hit a ball into that swimming pool and McCovey took aim on that pool as well. Uh so that was one thing we always look forward to. But during the early part of the season, each year at Jerry, April weather was not good. I mean, it could be 72 degrees one day and it'd be 32 the next day with snow flurries, and that was something to contend with. The sharp wind that came across the opening between the left field bleachers and the left field stands, there was an opening there, and wind came blowing through there right across the diamond. And the shortstop, Bobby Wine, and the second baseman, Gary Sutherland, actually put cotton in their right ears because that wind was so cold and so harsh that they were having trouble maintaining concentration out there and uh not getting headaches. So they played with cotton balls rolled up and put into their right ears to protect against that wind in early April. So I certainly re remember all that. But the fun part of Jerry was the summertime. When the weather turned and it got warm and nice, the place was packed for almost every game. As I said, they drew over a million that first year. And you had some colorful people in that ballpark. Some of them worked there as concessionaires. You had the peanut vendor that uh would throw bags of peanuts long distance right on the mark to people that were looking for a bag of peanuts. He'd be maybe a section of seats and and maybe 15 rows away, and he would wind up and make the throw like a major league outfielder and put those peanuts right in the hands of the consumer. It was wonderful to watch. And then you had the dancer, Claude Desjardin. He was a chef at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. He came to all the games, he loved it. And when the organist would start playing, the dancer would dance up and down the aisles behind home plate in that section of seats, and he became very popular and an attraction.
SPEAKER_00:And the usherettes with the uh with the go-go boots.
SPEAKER_03:The usherettes with go-go boots and the pillbox hats dressed out in those blue, mostly blue with some red and uh white trim, they became very popular too. It was really a terrific place to be. There was one fellow who came up from, I think it was upstate New York. He bought two tickets every time he came to the ballpark, usually right behind home plate. And he brought with him from his farm one of his ducks. And so he had a seat for the duck. Are you kidding? Not kidding.
unknown:Oh my god.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was uh it was something to see. Every once in a while he'd hold the duck up by the feet and the duck would flap its wings. It was incredible. There were a lot of characters that came to Jerry Park and entertained the fans as much as the team did on the field.
SPEAKER_00:And then, of course, you had Claude Mouton, the uh PA announcer at Jerry Park, who was every bit as unique as the ballpark itself.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, Claude Mouton had this great basso voice, and he made a couple of players really famous, including the backup catcher that was there in the early years, John Bacchabella. And when Claude Mouton would introduce him, he would pronounce his name John Bacchabella. He would sing the name like an Irish tenor.
SPEAKER_04:The catcher, number 12, John Bacabella.
SPEAKER_03:And uh that caught on with the fans. They absolutely loved Claude Mouton, who also was one of the PA announcers for the for the Canadians. But Claude was a wonderful man and had a way of uh entertaining the fans the way that he did the announcements over the PA system, of course, in both languages.
SPEAKER_00:And by the early 70s, organists had become a fixture in ballparks. But when you heard Fern Lapierre, and am I saying that right? Fern Lapierre? Fern Lapierre. When you heard him play, there was no mistaking, you were in Montreal at Jerry Park.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and he is the one that at some point, and I don't remember exactly when it was, but he started to play the chorus from Valderie Valderrah. And that became a really big thing for the fans. When the Expos would take the lead in a ball game or be rallying, uh something exciting happening on the field that involved the Expos, he would start to play either between innings or between hitters, Valderie Valdera, and the entire ballpark would join him and sing the chorus.
SPEAKER_00:So, David, in those first couple of weeks of this new franchise, you had the team's first win against Tom Severs Met, the home opener, and then several games later, the team traveled to Philadelphia for a series with the Phillies at Connie Mac Stadium. When the players would arrive at the ballpark, their shoes were in front of their lockers in the clubhouse. And if you had a ball in your shoe, if you were a pitcher and you had a ball in your shoe, that meant you'd be the starter for that night's game. Well, that night, Bill Stonem got the ball. And went out and threw the expo's first no-hitter less than a month into their existence.
SPEAKER_03:Stoney's no-hitter uh was incredible. That was the ninth game that the Montreal Expos played. It was the ninth Major League game that I broadcast at Shy Park, Connie Mac. It was renamed Connie Mac Stadium, the old ballpark in Philadelphia, where I saw baseball games played by the Phillies and the A's as a youngster. I grew up about 65 miles north of Philadelphia. So the place that I got to see Major League Baseball was Philadelphia. So there I was sitting up there in my first year as a Major League broadcaster, and nine games in, Bill Stoneman pitched the first of his two no-hitters. So it was not only thrilling for Bill, for the Expo's fans and for the franchise that early in their life, uh, but it was absolutely a huge thrill for me.
SPEAKER_00:Uh in 1974, the kid, Gary Carter, a 20-year-old catcher with a smile as big as the city, made his Expo's debut.
SPEAKER_03:Gary Carter came up and was immediately uh a big fan favorite, namely because of that smile. He too went to school on the French language and tried to learn as much French. He moved into Montreal with his family, Sandy and the kids. He became an integral part of the city. But in those early years, uh early days of his major league career, they had not yet found the position for him because they had a former number one uh draft by the name of Barry Foote, young man who's a catcher from North Carolina. And Barry Foote was the number one catcher on the on the team.
SPEAKER_00:I remember Warren Cromartie talking about how they got the or how he got the nickname the kid. Gary was still uh, I think down at triple A, and teammates used to kid Barry Foote and say, Hey, do you hear the kid got a home run today? Do you hear what the kid did today? He's gonna come up and take your position. Do you hear about the kid?
SPEAKER_03:It spread quickly. And in those days, manager Gene Mock did the same thing. He started always referring to him as the kid. Gary was very animated, loved talking to the media, loved the microphones because Gary was just he was one, he was always available. He didn't go seek out the media, but they sought him out because they knew that winner lose a game, he'd talk about the game and the particulars about the game.
SPEAKER_00:By 1977, Dave, the expos were playing at Olympic Stadium. The transition was not exactly smooth, yet the team and the energy in that ballpark and the love the city had for its no some oars was palpable, wasn't it? Even at Olympic Stadium.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was. It didn't take long. They put together a terrific farm system during the 70s. And by 1979, they competed for the first time. They won 95 games and they competed, did not get eliminated until the final weekend of the regular season. They got eliminated by the Pittsburgh Pirates, who went on to win the World Series. In 1980, it was the last weekend of the season when the Expos were eliminated. And the Phillies went on to win the World Series. From 79 to 94, a 16-year period, the Expos won more games than any other National League team.
SPEAKER_00:And you think about the players on the team: Gary Carter, Broadway Bill Lee, Andre Dawson, Ellis Valentine with that arm, Tim Rains, Steve Rogers. They gave the people of Montreal something to hope for. And as you said, in 79, the Expo's first winning record. And I do want to talk about 81 because the Expos make the playoffs for the first time. And talk about the moment they defeat the Phillies in the National League division series.
SPEAKER_04:The Expos win. Oh, look at this. Gary Carter, everybody out there jumping on top of Rogers.
SPEAKER_03:Steve Rogers led the way. Terrific job on the hill. And in the uh game that put the Phillies away and that the Expos won to beat the Phillies, a two to one game. Steve Rogers had a hit and drove in a run. He did it all. And if you look at his career record now, it's just amazing what he did. The number of innings pitched and his earned run average and the way he comported himself, but he was huge in that Philly series.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and they advanced to the, as you said, the National League Championship series against the Dodgers. And with and with the series split at two games apiece, the fifth and final game was decided at Olympic Stadium.
SPEAKER_01:Here's the Dodger lineup. Dave Loebs and Bill Russell and Dusty Baker. Steve Garvey in the cleanup spot. He's had a magnificent series so far. Ron Stay in the fifth spot. Rick Monday, the veteran in right field, Pedro Guerrero, Mike Stocha, and Fernando Valenzuela.
SPEAKER_00:The game was, I think, tied one-to-one going into the ninth. Steve Rogers comes into the game, retires Steve Garvey, faces Ron Stay, who hits a ball deep to the warning track and left, and then Rick Monday comes to the plate. And despite, by the way, a career, I think he was like 150, 160 uh batting average against Steve Rogers, Rick Monday does the unthinkable. A home run over the wall just beyond Andre Dawson's reach. It was the closest the Expos ever came to a World Series. And folks, I think, still feel that loss in Montreal.
SPEAKER_03:There is no question they do. Steve Rogers was on the mound because uh closer Jeff Reardon was not available. Uh his back, uh he always had a bulky back, and his back uh just wouldn't allow him to take the ball and go out there and do what he did so well for so many years in closing out games. And so Jim Fanning, who was managing the club at that time, Jim Fanning called upon Steve Rogers. Uh-huh. And it was a simple decision because Steve Rogers was the best pitcher that the Expos had at that time. He had been absolutely brilliant in the playoff games and uh in the season leading up to the league championship series. And uh wouldn't you know he made a mistake with a pitch and Rick Monday took advantage and hit it out. I remember sitting beside Duke Snyder, we were doing the game on television, and uh when that half inning ended the top of the ninth and the Dodgers had the two to one lead, Duke and I were talking about it. We said, No problem. This team will Come back. They've come back all year. They've scored runs. They've done the improbable time and time again. They'll do it again. This game's not over. At that particular moment, we may have underestimated the Monday home run.
SPEAKER_00:They were not able to mount a comeback in the bottom of the ninth. And after the game, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, and Warren Cromarty sat on the bench for an hour at Olympic Stadium, stunned and in complete disbelief, knowing that they were that close to a World Series. There were two trades, Dave, in Montreal Expo's history that took the breath out of the city more than any others Rusty Staub, Gary Carter to then to the New York Mets after the 84 season. And then after a nearly a decade of being gone, uh the kid comes back to Montreal in 1992. And in his final game playing against his former teammate, Andrew's announcement of Chicago Cubs. Carter had one of the most memorable moments of his Hall of Fame career in Montreal Expo history.
SPEAKER_03:His former teammate. That happened several times. It happened one time when Curtis Pride delivered a big game-winning hit with a double at Olympic Stadium, and the stadium went absolutely wild. Of course, Curtis was deaf. And so he couldn't hear the fans. But he said after the game, he said, but I felt that he said, My chest was actually vibrating because the noise level was so loud in the ballpark. Same thing happened when Gary hit that ball, coming back and getting one more glorious moment as an expo.
SPEAKER_00:Dave, I can't help but think of that 1994 team with Larry Walker, Pedro Martinez, Alu, Grissom, Cliff Floyd. When baseball went on strike in 1994, just to set the stage, the expos were 74 and 40 and on pace to win 110 games. When the player strike happened, the World Series canceled for not just the fan base, but the players and also the broadcasters. That had to be devastating.
SPEAKER_03:It was really the end of the franchise. They survived until 2004, but it that was really the end of the franchise. The 94 season, best record in all of baseball, getting better and better as the season went on. If I'm not mistaken, I think they won 21 of the last 23 games they had played at that point. The strike ended baseball for that year, not only for the expos, but for everybody. And as it turned out, 94 was also the season that there was a big project underway to get a new downtown retractable roof ballpark built for the expos. And of course, that project was washed down the drain along with uh the season that the expos had had. And by the time the next year got underway, 95, which was just an absolute nightmare. 95 started out with replacement players in spring training camps everywhere, and then uh finally got things settled and the expos, all of the star players from that 94 team were gone. Right. And uh that was pretty much it for uh for the expos. It was a downward spiral storm uh that took the expos out of there after the 2004 season.
SPEAKER_00:One final question, Dave, and I really appreciate the time. Will, in your opinion, will baseball be back in Montreal? Will they will they will they get another shot at uh Major League Baseball?
SPEAKER_03:If you had asked me that question one year ago, I would have said yes, they're as close as they're uh as they can be right now because they have terrific financial backing lined up, but that has suffered a setback now, not the financial backing, but the chances of getting a team because uh right now you have the ballpark in in Tampa Bay appears to be getting some headway made in being able to stay there in a workable ballpark. And a couple of the other areas Oakland was a big question mark for a while that maybe they'd be sold or moved. Looks like that's not going to happen. And then you have cities like Nashville, Las Vegas. They're certainly in line for a major league franchise, and the next expansion will involve two cities.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_03:And a year ago or two years ago, I would have said Montreal will be one of those two cities. I'm not sure now. I I just I would love to see it happen, but I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I hope it does. It has been uh it has been a great honor to have you on. I listened to you for for many, many decades, and uh it's been a thrill to talk with you.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you. Thanks for the invite, and uh it was uh fun talking.
SPEAKER_00:So many reasons to love the Montreal Expos. A team and a city rich in history with some of the all-time great ball players Gary Carter, Rusty Staub, Pedro Martinez, Larry Walker, Tim Rains, Andre Dawson, Steve Rogers, Vladimir Guerrero, Dennis Martinez, and Dave Van Horn narrated their historic moments brilliantly. My hope is that one day the city of Montreal will have another team. I would love to see those pinwheel hats, the best uniforms of baseball history come back. Special thanks to our producers, Xavier Guerra, Michael Ortman, Mike Dunn, Maddie Zavlakis, and Briggs Buckingham. Thank you for listening, and thank you for supporting the Lost Ballparks podcast.
