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Montreal snags baseball franchise

Broadcast Date: May 14, 1968

Play ball in Montreal! Today, the city has landed the first ever Major League Baseball franchise in Canada. Thanks in good part to the success of Expo 67, the team's eventual namesake, Montreal will field their first team for the 1969 season. Congratulations pour in from across the country in anticipation of baseball's biggest stars making Montreal a regular stop. But as we hear in this clip, there's some grumbling too from "that other big Canadian city."

Montreal snags baseball franchise

• Montreal and San Diego became the newest members of the 12-team National League in its second expansion of the 1960s. The first expansion brought the New York Mets and the Houston Colt .45s (later renamed the Astros) to the league in 1961.
• Contrary to what we hear in this clip, the Expos do not play at the Autostade on the old Expo site, but instead made Jarry Park their home for eight seasons. They moved into Olympic Stadium in 1977.

• Montreal beat out Milwaukee, Buffalo and Dallas-Fort Worth for the franchise thanks to a persuasive economic case presented by senior city councillor Jerry Synder. The move stunned many who thought Major League Baseball would never expand outside the borders of the United States. It would be less than a decade before the league put an American League team in Toronto for the 1977 season.

• After 36 seasons, the Expos played their last game in Montreal on Sept. 29, 2004. The franchise moved to Washington D.C. in 2005, where it plays today as the Washington Nationals. Click here for more on Major League Baseball in Canada.

Montreal snags baseball franchise

Medium: Radio

Program: The World At Six

Broadcast Date: May 14, 1968

Guest(s): Margaret Campbell, Allan Lamport, Lew Matlin

Announcer: John O'Leary
Reporter: Bill Paul

Duration: 6:08

Photo: Associated Press

Last updated:
May 14, 2010