So after they stole the Expos, moved them to one of my favorite cities in North America, gave them the lamest name in the history of baseball, signed a gaggle of crummy overpriced free agents, and tried to bury any and all memories of the team's 35 years in Montreal... how does this ex-Expos fan feel?
Yeah. We hates them. They stole the Precious.
This is going to be a pretty bad team. Not a bad, bad team; but a garden-variety bad team. Overpriced, underperforming, and without any real identity. And yet they have great ballcaps and the awesome Jose Vidro. Life's not fair.
Vidro, as I've mentioned before, is (along with Orlando Hudson) my favorite player in baseball (I'm down to two favorites now that John Olerud sold out and Miguel Tejada plays for the Orioles). I like Vidro so much that I can't root against him, which is a bad conflict since otherwise I want this Nationals team to lose 130 games and be a failure and a laughingstock. Heck, I even want them to be contracted now.
So, riven with this internal strife, I decided it would be more fun, instead of previewing the Nationals, to preview some of the Expos content coming at Batter's Box this year. First up, I am going to play out The Season That Never Was... 1994. The first movement of the Symphony of Betrayal.
Thanks to the Miracle of Science that is Diamond Mind Baseball, I am able to replay the Expos' 1994 season as if the strike had never happened. This is taking rather a lot of preparation, but once April is here, we shall once a week be transported back to the heat of August 1994, and a group of exciting pennant races that were saved by a last-minute intervention by, oh, let's say funk/soul superstar James Brown. The Godfather of Soul brought together the warring owners and players and made them see the errors of their ways, bringing them together in a spirit of brotherhood and love rather than torn apart by hate and violence... you gotta care about your brother man... so many problems in the streets...
OK, sorry, I got carried away there. Anyway, the strike was averted and the season carried on as normal on August 12th. I'll go week-by-week as the pennant race unfolds, then the Division Series, LCS and World Series, all with a special focus on the Expos. Can they maintain their big lead? Will they manage to do what the 1981 team could not, and make it through to the Fall Classic?
Stay tuned. And if you are interested in the Nationals, check out District of Baseball, one of the finer team-oriented fansites out there. And they haven't even played a game yet!
