Subj : Expos
To   : Lucien Carrier
From : Ed Grinnell
Date : Thu Jul 20 2000 01:45 pm

Lucien was waived by Sparky Anderson and then ranted:

 LC> Maybe MLB have too much clubs but with all the heavy $alary they pay,
 LC> you have this situation now.

So much has been made about how Montreal is a hockey city and that's the reason 
why MLB hasn't worked there but the fact is that Montreal used to be one of the 
top teams in attendance. Blaming hockey doesn't hold water because the 
Canadiens were far more powerful AND popular when the Expos were drawing 2 
million or more fans.

Even with the problems with attendance, the Expos CAN keep their players 
around. They've let players leave or traded them away when they weren't that 
far away in salary. San Diego did this for years and then they got an owner who 
stopped being cheap. Now, the Padres aren't winning every year, however; they 
are more competitive than before and their fans understand that. The old 
Montreal regime was too cheap and the local media gave them an out by blaming 
the fans for being hockey fans. Hockey is as much of a religion in Toronto and 
yet, they don't seem to have the same problems.

--- TrekEd 1.00
 * Origin: Marge Schott, the cure for Baseball Fever (1:170/1701)

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