French connection

Montreal's Expos strike a chord with the author

On the back page of a New York tabloid Monday morning, fresh off the Montreal Expos' third straight win over the Mets, a headline blared, "CONTRACT 'EM NOW!"

The scream paid the Expos the highest form of compliment you can get from the gritty underbelly of New Yawk: a smart, chummy, quasi-insult that begrudgingly pays respect. When New Yorkers address you with things like "You're killin' me, man" and "Get a load of this guy," it usually means you belong.

When the Mets and the rest of the National League East checked their 2002 schedule and saw 18 games against the nearly extinct Expos, they rubbed their batting gloves together and purred in anticipation. There are 12 to 14 wins right there, they must have thought. Well, here we are, 1/8 of the way through the season and look who's in first place. Going into Tuesday's games Montreal has a one-game lead largely because it has scored more runs than any team in the NL. Belong? I think so.

The Montreal Expos: America's Team. You have to adore them, at least a little bit. Really, is there a baseball fan anywhere -- Braves, Mets and Phillies fans included -- who doesn't have a warm spot for these guys? You want to ruffle their helmets with your hand and say, "Attaway boys!" The Expos are baseball's sad sack underdogs. They're Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree. They're Little Orphan Annie.

They have a leadoff hitter, speedy Petey Bergeron, who's barely batting manager Frank Robinson's weight and yet has scampered home 20 times already, more than anyone else in the league. "With this lineup we're always dangerous," Bergeron recently explained.

Huh? Last year Montreal was 28th in the major leagues in runs scored. One magazine's preseason power poll had the team ranked 30th of 30 and, by way of analysis, suggested the Expos we're lucky to be included on the list at all.

Oh, we knew about Vladimir Guerrero. A name like that -- from Russia, con amor -- sticks in your craw. So does .307, 34, 108 (with 37 stolen bases to boot) -- Vladdy's vital stats from 2001. We also knew about Jose Vidro, El Capitan of the infield. But catcher Michael Barrett? Who is he and what is he doing hitting .404? And isn't Lee Stevens supposed to be over the hill?

The Expos don't have much pitching depth, and a staff that relies heavily on folks like Tomo Ohka and Graeme Lloyd won't remind anyone of the old Montreal guard of Steve Rogers and Jeff Reardon. Yet you look around the NL and you'll see that there aren't many teams with much pitching to talk about. You think, maybe the Expos can hang around a little while longer.

They are lovable in spite of being the company team. You hate rooting for a club run by big, bad Major League Baseball. Then you look at the way Bud Selig outfitted Montreal's management with minorities, a bold example for the rest of his sport. It was a wonderful, Clintonesque move, to appoint the qualified Robinson as manager and the whipsmart Omar Minaya as GM. Those guys have put out a team that actually knows what it's doing out there. The Expos play good all-around ball. You watch them and you forget they're playing for MLB. They look like they're playing for their scrappy little selves.

The Expos start a series against the Milwaukee Brewers Tuesday night, and guess which team the average baseball fan is pulling for? It's the principle of the thing: The Brewers, of course, are owned by the commissioner's daughter. Montreal's contraction seems almost certain. But maybe the team doesn't need to disband just yet. Maybe it can relocate, player roster and management staff intact, somewhere else. I'd take them in my backyard.

The Expos drew as as many as 11,500 fans to their games against the Mets, many more than the 4,000-5,000 they typically bring in. No matter how well the Expos play, they aren't going to attract strong crowds unless they start airing old Canadiens games on a jumbo screen. Yet I, for one, am thinking about taking a summer stop through Montreal, where I'll buy a ticket and root for the home team.

CONTRACT 'EM NOW? No way. Let's give 'em a hand.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy takes sides every Tuesday at CNNSI.com.

 

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