Expert: Sebastien Robert - 2/22/2006

Question
Sebastian:
I'm not sure if you received my other question, but we were wondering why Montreal received the first franchise outside of the U.S. in 1969, and what other cities were in the running?  Also, can you tell me how many times the Expos changed their uniforms over 35 years?  Is there a website that has pictures of these different uniforms?

Thank you

Answer
Hi Pam,

The Expos just simply outbid other cities in the US for the franchise, simply because baseball wanted to bring a franchise of any kind back to the city that had been host of the Brooklyn/LA Dodgers' AAA farm team for over 50 years. That franchise was taken away in 1960, partly because the Dodgers had 2 AAA teams back then, and they decided to keep only 1, in St. Paul, MN. Montreal had just completed a successful 1967 World's Fair, and had a brand new subway system, to go along with the upcoming 1976 Olympics (and the new edifice that comes with them). And a rich owner too to back 'em up, Seagram's lord Charles Bronfman. Unfortunately, I haven't found any record of what other cities were in the running. All I know is San Diego was the other expansion team and two AL teams were added, KC and Seattle.

The Expos changed uniforms 2 times, for a total of 3 unis. They had their original ugly ones, then got even uglier and finally were respectable when they made their last change in 1992.

Here's a few sites where you can find pics of old expos unis:

http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nl/mtlexpos/exposimages.html

http://www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=203

http://www.sports-wired.com/store/products/18_photos.shtml

This link shows you Ron Fairly in the Expos first road uniforms:
http://www.strictlymint.com/online_store/store/images/19998.jpg

Hope this helps

Seb