Right on. Also, this week marks the 18th anniversary of the 1994 MLB strike (Thanks Bud). For those who don't remember, the Expos had the best record in baseball 74-40 w/ 5 players in the all-star game (Walker, Alou, Fletcher, Wetland and Fassero). This team was dangerous throughout the entire line-up. The 3 previous years, Montreal always finished second to the Braves who were great in the early 90s. After the cancellation of the season, the Expos didn't resign all those free-agents because managing partner Claude Brochu refused to spend, opting to keep his bonuses for balancing the books so it was the first of many fire sales. Brochu, in an attempt to get funding for a new ball park, started to bash the Big O saying it was too far from downtown, not a good ballpark and unsafe...as a result, folks stopped going to the games (brilliant move Brochu). New "ownership" came in to "save" the Expos but all Loria did was sabotage the team even more ie- let go of land for a new park right in the middle of downtown Montreal, cancelled local/national TV broadcasting "if people want to see a game, they should come to the stadium" was some BS excuse he used.
After many "cash calls" to the other partners, Loria's stake in the team grew until he had complete control which resulted in the famous Expos, Marlins and Red Sox ownership swaps which had Loria leave town for Florida with everything except for the mascot and the Big O. When I say he took everything, he did: coaching staff, trainers, medical records, scouting reports, phones, and computers all left w/ him etc.
To this day, this still makes me sick to my stomach.
Cheers, K
