| It had to happen sooner or later. With Nick Johnson and Chad Cordero disabled and Luis Ayala traded, there is no longer a single Montreal Expo on the active roster of the former Montreal Expos, a.k.a. the Washington Nationals. Fewer than four seasons removed from their Canadian abandonment, the Nats have moved on. The New York Mets, however, boast five former Montreal Expos on their active roster: Pedro Martinez, Endy Chavez, Brian Schneider, Fernando Tatis and, of course, Luis Ayala, acquired over the weekend [1] for Anderson Hernandez by former Expo/current Met GM Omar Minaya. This brings to 2008 Metspo count to nine, including DL’d Ryan Church, Moises Alou and Tony Armas and New Orleans Zephyr Claudio Vargas. Other ex-Expos cashing checks in Flushing: Jerry Manuel, Dan Warthen and Tony Bernazard.
As the above photo illustrates, the Mets-Expos connection continues to fascinate [2] me almost as much as it does Minaya, especially now that it is clearly stronger than the Nationals-Expos connection. Why Citi Field was not designed to reflect the rich baseball heritage of Le Stade Olympique (or at least Parc Jarry) is beyond me.
By the way, that’s Juan Rivera’s 2004 uniform top, found in a pile of fairly expensive laundry at this summer’s FanFest. Somebody was selling game-used Expowear for $110 a shirt. It was tempting, but so is paying the mortgage. (Bonus feature: My enormous head is blocking Chipper Jones’ tiny Topps body in the background.) |
