The Washington
Nationals either have a very rich history or a non-existent
one, dependent upon the perspective. After all, the Washington
Nationals team has only been around since the 2005 season.
However, before its move to Washington DC, the franchise
had a rich history as the Montreal Expos.
April 1969
saw the Expos play their first game at home, Jarry Park.
They had a lackluster record through 1977, when they opened
a new park called Olympic Stadium. Expos baseball tickets
sales created a record for that home opening game, one
that was never matched.
1979 saw the
Expos take second in their National League division, but
still no pennant race for the team. This was a tradition
for the next two seasons, with the Expos (now the Nationals),
clinching their division, but losing the National League
Championship and missing a chance to advance to the World
Series.
One of the
great team highlights came in 1991, when Dennis Martinez
pitched a perfect game. The feat is so rare that this
was only the 15th one in Major League history. Then, in
1994 came the one year that the Expos may have had a great
shot at going all the way. Unfortunately, Major League
Baseball went on strike. The poor Expos had what was arguably
their best season ever and they weren’t able to
capitalize on it.
Again, there
followed years of mediocre performance from the team.
In 2002, team owner Jeff Loria was allowed to purchase
the Florida Marlins while the MLB itself purchased the
Expos. The team stayed in Montreal for the 2003 and 2004
seasons, then moved to Washington DC and became the Washington
Nationals—a name that had been used from 1901-1960
by the Minnesota Twins.
For 2005, the
Nationals played at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium
(known as RFK Stadium). Nationals tickets for the first
half of the 2005 season outsold the entire 2004 season
in Montreal. Hopefully, this trend continues, as the team
plans to be at RFK Stadium for a total of three years
while a new stadium is built on the bank of the Anacostia
River. At some point, the MLB has promised to sell the
Nationals to a private group and relinquish its ownership,
though this seems to be a slow process.
In
the meantime, the Nationals have a young team that is
hungry for a pennant. Chad Cordero and José Vidro
are two players that have already been making a name for
themselves, and may be just the start for this team. As
with most things, only time will ultimately tell.
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