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Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Montreal Expos moving to Washington DC

The 33-year wait for a baseball team is coming to an end as Major League Baseball will announce later today that it is moving the Montreal Expos to DC. In order to placate Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos MLB is taking the unusual step of guaranteeing Angelos a revenues floor.

Meanwhile the Washington DC City Council has told MLB it will approve a $440 million publicly funded stadium for the new team. The financing will supposedly be covered by business taxes on baseball related goods and services (unclear wether this will include the unprecedented move to tax player salaries).

Lauded Expos General Manager Minaya is moving to take the GM position of the New York Mets so the Expos will begin anew in DC.

MLB will sell the new DC team to a private investor in the coming weeks.

My cursory look at the current Expos roster saw two big names: Jose Vidro at second base and Livan Hernandez on the mound. The Expos are currently in last place in the NL East where the new DC team will play. The other NL East teams will be our (and does it not feel nice to say that) main rivals:

Atlanta W 93 L 65
Philadelphia W 81 L 75
Florida W 81 L 76
New York Mets W 70 L 88
Montreal Expos W 65 L 93

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