Expos safe at home next year

Some games might be at second venue; Economic value adds weight to split, says official; decision expected next week

 

STEPHANIE MYLES

The Gazette

 

 

Saturday, September 06, 2003

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The Expos will be back in Montreal in 2004, either under a split schedule similar to the one that has them playing 22 games in Puerto Rico this season, or for the full 81-game home schedule.

 

Comments yesterday on that issue from Expos' president Tony Tavares, and Players association associate general counsel Gene Orza, are as definitive a word as fans can get - until and if baseball commissioner Bud Selig makes it official.

 

"They're in Montreal, unless baseball relocates by next year. I don't want to rule that out definitely, though; maybe something will emerge," Orza said.

 

"Several options remain. We'll decide at the end of next week, or shortly thereafter. A decision for '04, and not beyond '04, will be made shortly," Tavares said.

 

"Either Montreal, Puerto Rico, Monterrey, or some split between Montreal and Monterrey, or Montreal and Puerto Rico."

 

What has been ruled out, it seems, is the entire 81-game home portion of the schedule being played in either alternate city. "Maybe 22 games, in Monterrey or Puerto Rico, give or take. There aren't going to be 41 games played there," Orza said.

 

"There's no decision they can make without the approval of the players association."

 

Orza met with Expos players yesterday to try to persuade them to revisit the firm stand they took on a split schedule, in a near-unanimous vote last month.

 

"From an economic standpoint, a split makes sense. But economics isn't the only thing involved here," Orza said.

 

"They believe they were contenders, if not for this. Economics influence competitiveness."

 

Tavares said the players' stand on this will influence the final decision. And that won't come for at least another week, as the players meet among themselves, and may even have Orza return to speak to them during the team's final homestand of the season in Montreal, which begins next Friday.

 

The preliminary draft of the 2004 schedule, Orza said, was crafted as an incentive to get the players to warm to the idea of another set of games in a second home, with enough changes to make extra travel more bearable.

 

But it's all cat-and-mouse now. And Major League Baseball's first errant move as they try to cajole the players into agreeing was to announce, definitively, that there would be no minor-league call-ups to ease the workload of an exhausted Expos team.

 

"They have no September call-ups; how could that be? What team needs them more?" Orza said. "The players are very upset about that. And I think that will colour their attitude about revisiting (the split-schedule issue)."

 

Tavares said the club is substantially over budget, and one reason the decision was made not to call up extra players is because none of the players involved would be starters. "We're talking about fringe players. ... Baseball is just saying enough is enough, that we let you run with the highest payroll in the history of the franchise," Tavares said. "Would we like to have more players? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, we have to be realistic as well."

 

Expos player representative Brian Schneider, who has taken on a mule-like workload with the injury to Michael Barrett, and whose injured ankle would benefit from the call-up of a catcher, said the players have a lot to talk about.

 

"Obviously, our position matters. It's not going to be easy."

 

Schneider said some guarantees the club would not be dismantled if the players gave in on this issue, as were reportedly made in agreeing to it this spring, were logical.

 

"Our sense is that we would love to play 81 games in one place, but we're willing to talk, to discuss a split," he said.

 

Tavares, who was "pleasantly surprised" when he visited the facilities in Monterrey last week, said there are advantages to every option. "In Montreal, there's no dealing with the weather, the travel is good. I can give you pluses or minuses for every situation," he said. "But is Monterrey a viable option? Yes."

 

But in nearly every scenario for 2004 still being studied, there appears to be one constant: Montreal.

 

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? Copyright 2003 Montreal Gazette

Thats good they finally settle things down. I dont like the stadium there but at least they have a place to play

the stadium in puerto rico is crap.

 

 

 

everything about it, no major league game should ever be played in that dump.

 

 

it makes olympic stadium look like pac bell.

i bet McKeon could knock a few out of that stadium in BP