MLB

Expos fans to get another chance to cheer 1994 squad

Montreal's baseball fans will get a chance to applaud the 1994 Expos for their memorable, strike-shortened season next March at Olympic Stadium.

Club had majors’ best record before strike

Two Expos fans, seen here at a Aug. 12, 2004, game at Montreal's Olympic Stadium, remember the strike of 1994. The Expos had the best record in baseball, at 34 games over .500, when the season ended prematurely in mid-August. (Francois Roy/Canadian Press)

Montreal's baseball fans will get a chance to applaud the 1994 Expos for their memorable, strike-shortened season.

Former manager Felipe Alou has confirmed to The Canadian Press that he and other members of that dominant squad will be at an exhibition game next March at Olympic Stadium.

Alou says he doesn't know exactly what's planned but he'll be sure to make it up from the spring training camp of the San Francisco Giants, for whom he's a scout.

The Expos were enjoying the best season in their history that year -- with an outfield of Larry Walker, Moises Alou and Marquis Grissom, and with a young Pedro Martinez entering the season as the team's No. 4 starter.

They had the best record in baseball, at 34 games over .500, when the season ended prematurely in mid-August. Most of the key regulars never returned.

The Expos were dismantled before the next year's Opening Day, one of the periodic fire sales that crushed the local fan base. The Expos moved to Washington a decade later.

Montreal's Olympic Stadium will host its first baseball games since the Expos' departure, with two exhibition contests next spring between the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Mets.