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The Falling Canadian Dollar Could Be A Major Roadblock In Any Montreal Bid For Another MLB Franchise
Toronto is the only team in the MLB not in the USA. With that comes foreign currency. For the years of 1990 – 2007, the Canadian Dollar was hovering around the 70 cents mark for the duration (62 cents at its worst). The last economic crash in the USA – had the dollar at par for the better part of the last 7 years, including once reaching $1.10 for every George Washington bill in America in late 2008. The average for the exchange rate had been in the mid 90 cents range for the most part of 2014. The loonie has been in a nosedive since the end of 2014 kicked in – and now it is around 80 cents for every US Dollar. It will cost you $1.263 Canadian for $1 American on today’s market, and it If it looks to go down much more. This economic factor could significantly derail any effort the city of Montreal has to ever regain an MLB franchise.
Chuck Booth (Owner/Lead Analyst): Follow @chuckbooth3024
Follow The MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports
The Canadian Dollar is in a free-fall against the American greenback. I woke up this morning to see that to buy a US $1, it now cost $1.263 Canadian dollars. Effectively that means any club in Canada is at 26.3% Luxury Tax before the season even starts, because the team pays out player salaries in USD, while the money brought in is Canadian currency.
So often people forget that the Montreal Expos problems became occurring not only as the 1994 Player Strike/1995 Lockout fanbase was angry at the MLB, with some of them never to return, but also a sagging loony.
At its worst price, was a 0.62 cent buck vs the USA back in the mid-90’s. With the oil prices being what they are, this has serious ramifications for any impending groups of people wishing to bring back baseball to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The Expos left after the 2004 season, and in some ways it is a total injustice. Perhaps no other franchise has been affected more by the two biggest work stoppages than the Montreal had been.
The 1981 Player strike happened when Montreal was filling Olympic Stadium to the tune of 2 Million Fans per year, and the young nucleus of players such as Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, Gary Carter, Tim Wallach and Warren Cromartie were leading the charge to an uprising NL squad.
Of course everyone remembers “Blue Monday’s” HR to knock the Expos out of the 1981 playoff chase. The 1979 – 1994 teams carried out 12 out of 15 winning seasons, and possessed one of the greatest semblance of a drafting organization ever. Read the rest of this entry
The Best Teams In The MLB From 1980 – Now: SF Cements Their Place From 2010 – 2014 With WS Birth
The Giants won the World Series in 2010 and 2012, and now are in the 2014 World Series – with a great chance to win 3 titles in 5 years against Kansas City. The best teams for the last several years include the Red Sox from 2004 – 2007, the Phillies from 2008 – 2009, and then you would have to place the Giants as the best overall team from 2010 – 2014. Can they keep up the format of winning a World Series every 2 years again this year? The Red Sox (3 Titles), plus the Giants and Cards each having 2 Fall Classics, are the only 3 teams to have multiple World Series Trophies since the 2004 year.
By Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner): Follow @chuckbooth3024
Follow MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports
There is only so much one can read in an article, otherwise I would make these lists up from the turn of the 20th century.
If you gave me enough time as a reader, I promise to backdate this topic with another article featuring the best teams dating back further in years.
Eventually, all of the years may be dissected and we can have a healthy debate on some of my selections. I really started watching baseball in the early 1980’s.
As I became older and discovered ways to research the history of the game, my knowledge and curious mind grew for more information.
I have studied and read baseball stat books and breezed through the odd Bill James novel.
If I ever take a break from writing or baseball park chasing, I may find some time down the road to watch the 9 part PBS documentary that Ken Burns did on baseball’s history.
The Best Teams In The MLB From 1980 – 2017: The Biggest Question Is, Who Owns 2015 – 2017 Mark? Early Favorite Lends 2 Cubs With 3 Straight LCS Appearances, 1 World Series
With 3 straight LCS appearances and 1 World Series – the Cubs can lay claim to the best team from 2015 – 2017. If Houston were to win the 2018 World Series, they could be turned back to the 2015 – 2016 stretch, however Chicago can advance the years if they are able to go farther than the Stros this campaign
By Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner): Follow @chuckbooth3024
Follow MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports
There is only so much one can read in an article, otherwise I would make these lists up from the turn of the 20th century.
As I became older and discovered ways to research the history of the game, my knowledge and curious mind grew for more information.
I have studied and read baseball stat books and breezed through the odd Bill James novel.
If I ever take a break from writing or baseball park chasing, I may find some time down the road to watch the 9 part PBS documentary that Ken Burns did on baseball’s history.
Triple Play Podcast Ep #9: Jays Misery, The Expos Franchise Mt. Rushmore + An Interview With Michael McKnight
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Follow @mlbreportsMonday, May 20th, 2013
The Triple Play Show will have 5 shows per month. Each show will be about 1 hour.
By The Big Ticket Show ( AKA Triple Play Podcast on http://www.mlbreports.com) Follow @bigticketshow
Guests in this Podcast – Ian Hunter of bluejayhunter.com ( Follow @bluejayhunter and Michael McKnight [twitter-follow screen_name=’mcknight_mike_’ show_screen_name=’yes’
On this week’s show we once again find ourselves lamented the Blue Jays futility but this time Ian Hunter of bluejayhunter.com joins in the misery. Chris’ Expos jerseys inspires a trip down memory lane to pick our Expos Mt Rushmore. Finally Michael Mcknight of Sports Illustrated drops in to recount the tale of Brian Cole. Its a must listen. Read the rest of this entry
The Best Teams from 1980-2012: Will Texas claim the title this year from 2010-2012?
Wednesday July.11, 2012
Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)- There is only so much one can read in an article, otherwise I would make these lists up from the turn of the 20th century. If you gave me enough time as a reader, I promise to backdate this topic with another article featuring the best teams dating back further in years. Eventually, all of the years may be dissected and we can have a healthy debate on some of my selections. I really started watching baseball in the early 1980’s. As I became older and discovered ways to research the history of the game, my knowledge and curious mind grew for more information. I have studied and read baseball stat books and breezed through the odd Bill James novel. If I ever take a break from writing or baseball park chasing, I may find some time down the road to watch the 9 part PBS documentary that Ken Burns did on baseball’s history.
Baseball lends itself more to the history than any other sport because of how it has been chronicled throughout their past. Writers, announcers, former players, parents etc.. have always carried on with the stories of America’s favorite pastime. I will never be sold that NFL is the greatest pastime in sports right now. NFL is the greatest gambling sport presently. It is my firm belief that the only reason why the NFL draws in more cash from its sport is because of the gambling factor. If you took that aspect out of it, I believe baseball is the #1 sport. Can you imagine how much attention we would pay to baseball if there were only a 16 game schedule? Enough with that rant, let’s get down to the list. Who were the best teams at any specific time period for the last 32 years? We will start with the Philadelphia Phillies from 1980-1983. Read the rest of this entry
The Demise of the Montreal Expos Franchise: Part 3 of the Expos Article Series
Friday June.29/2012
Note from Chuck Booth: I am attempting to bring the history for each of the 30 MLB Franchises into a 5 part series that will focus on 1. The teams history. 2. The hitters 3. The pitchers. 4. The Team’s Payroll going into in 2013 and 5. (The stadium articles will all be done next summer when I go to all of the parks in under a month again.) To follow all of the updates, be sure to check my author page with a list of all archived articles here.
Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on Twitter)- The Montreal Expos were a model franchise from 1979-1994. They only finished under .500 in 3 seasons out of 15 in this stretch of time. The club simply drafted better than any other Major League team. Long before the Oakland Athletics and Billy Beane came up with MoneyBall, or the Minnesota Twins, Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays showed us that you can have good runs with your baseball teams on a shoe string budget, the Expos wrote the book on it. The Expos were forced to trade away their best talent when they came up for free agency or lose them outright. There was no way the team could ever re-sign the players. It wasn’t even in question. The province of Quebec said good-bye to Hall of Famers: Pedro Martinez, Vlad Guerrero, Tim Raines and Andre Dawson in the prime of their careers with nothing back in return as Free Agents.
Gary Carter was the 1st great player to be traded by the club after the 1984 season. Other great players like Larry Walker, Marquis Grissom, Moises Alou and John Wetteland were jettisoned out the door as part of a 1995 Firesale after the strike/lockout because the team could not pay them after a massive loss in revenue at the end of the 1994 season. With the clock ticking on the Expos brass (financially as soon as the lockout was lifted) the ownership could not pay the bills! It is a sad commentary on this franchise that the two big work stoppages in 1981 and 1994 stifled this franchise-perhaps the most out of any team in the MLB. It all ended up costing the Expos the team and/or a chance to build a brand new ballpark in the downtown core to ever revitalize the interest of the avid baseball enthusiasts in Montreal. This fan base had suffered enough and they made the baseball club pay for it at the turnstiles. They had suffered 7 losing seasons at Jarry Park, a 2 billion dollar scam gone wrong in what was Olympic Stadium, a park that was supposed to be a modern-aged retractable roof that never materialized at all and Quebec was left with the bill. I don’t blame the fans for walking away from the game after the 1994 strike. They had supported the team through many of trials an tribulations-only to be disappointed time and time again by the economics of baseball.
There is a lot more of this article past the video clip, just click on: READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY
For Part 1 of the Article Series, The Expos Hitters: click here
For Part 2 of the Article Series, The Expos Pitchers: click here
For Part 4 of the Article Series, The Washington Nationals Franchise 2005-2012: click here
For Part 5 of the Article Series, The Nats Best 25 Man Roster 2005-2012 click here
A nice tribute video to the club!
The Montreal Expos Draft And Signing Record Was Outstanding: Part 1-Hitters
Friday June.22/2012
Note from Chuck Booth: I am attempting to bring the history for each of the 30 MLB Franchises into a 5 part series that will focus on 1. The teams history. 2. The hitters 3. The pitchers. 4. The Team’s Payroll going into in 2013 and 5. (The stadium articles will all be done next summer when I go to all of the parks in under a month again.) To follow all of the updates, be sure to check my author page with a list of all archived articles here.
Andre Dawson and Tim Raines were perennial ALL-Stars and always had the Montreal Expos in contention every year they played for the Canadian Club.
Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)-I recently saw a bunch of old Montreal Expos had a celebration dinner to honor the late Gary Carter at Olympic Stadium in Montreal. This brought me back to when I was a little kid watching the Expos on the French Channel in Canada. I followed this team before any other in MLB. I was a catcher in little league because of Gary Carter. My friends and I all would ask for Montreal Expos hats and jerseys for Christmas. I would later move on to like the Yankees when Don Mattingly, Dave Winfield and Rickey Henderson joined the club, but I always liked the Expos in the National League as my team. They were a consistent club from 1979-1995. They drafted extremely well and were above .500 for pretty much the entire time. At the end of this article today be sure to watch the documentary from youtube on the Expos Franchise that the Reports has linked for you.
It was unfortunate they had the 2 billion dollar monstrosity of what was Olympic Stadium as their home venue. It was a mistake from the beginning to build a baseball park so far away from the downtown core. The 1994 strike killed the franchises hopes to make their 1st World Series appearance. The team was leading the NL East with a 74-40 record and featured the outfield of Larry Walker, Marquis Grissom and Moises Alou. They had traded away their ALL-Star second basemen Delino DeShields prior to that year for some pitcher named Pedro Martinez. The economics of baseball were starting to catch up on the baseball club. When the lockout was lifted in 1995, gone were Walker, Grissom and great pitchers Ken Hill and John Wetteland. It began a constant cycle of Montreal grooming awesome talent, only to trade the players away before they had to pay them big money. The one constant of the team was an incredible draft record from 1985-2004. Today is part 1 of a 3 part article series in which we will look at the history of the Montreal Expos. I have listed 30 hitters drafted by the Expos Scouting Staff that went onto nice baseball careers. Next week I will look at the pitchers and the third week I will cover the dissection of the proud franchise before the move to Washington. Read the rest of this entry
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