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The Last
NL East Race
by Daniel Paulling
September 30, 2004
Yeah, the Braves have already clinched the NL East
division for the what, googolth time? But has anyone been checking
out the race for last place? The Montreal Expos, four games behind
going into Monday’s action, were as close as one game from
climbing out of the cellar to pass the Metropolitans. Albeit very
unlikely, the Expos can move into fourth place and delivering the
Mets their third consecutive season of ultimate failure.
The Expos’ season has been utter dismay so far, to say the
least. They have been in last place since April 15th,
basically the entire season. They are owned by Major League baseball
and cannot do anything to help their team - literally. Former Expo
Orlando Cabrera, now in the Boston spotlight, perhaps says it best:
“Last year…we were tied for first place for the wild card
and we can’t have September callups [that would have cost $50,000
per player]. We couldn’t do any trades. We couldn’t go
after anybody. The team that won the wild card won the World Series.
We had the possibility to win and they don’t care. They don’t
want us to win.” They were promised a new home about seven
times in the past two years, as recently as finding out in “mid
September [of this year].” But Commissioner Bud Selig has never
formulated a plan that relates to a new Expos home, opening up rumors
that he wants to make the Expos such a poor franchise by 2006 that
the only option for them will be contraction.
As bad as the Expos have had it, the Mets could displace Les Expos
for last place, which would be the third consecutive season that
that’s happened. On July 15th the Mets were fourteen
games ahead of the Expos, and only one game out of first place.
Then the decline began, despite the additions of starting pitchers
Kris Benson and Victor Zambrano, along with outfielder Richard Hidalgo.
On August 5th they were seven games ahead of the orphans
from the north and that number stood at 2 games on September 20th,
the day before a three game series between the two in which the
Mets took 2 of 3 games.
With a payroll of over 95 million, the New York Mets should be better
than this, as the Expos have a payroll less than half of the Metropolitans’.
Alas, they are just barely better than the Expos.
The Mets and Expos meet for the last series of the season. Everyone
needs to be cheering for the Expos to take over fourth place as
one of the feel-good stories of the 2004 season. Oh, and hopefully
we can see some votes for Livan Hernandez as Cy Young and Jose Vidro
for MVP. Anything to get these guys some recognition, which they
most wholeheartedly deserve. Go ahead and join me, you know you
want to. GO EXPOS!
Feel free to leave comments in the forums or
e-mail Daniel at daniel@athomeplate.com.
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