I’m a huge baseball fan, and Who Killed The Montreal Expos?, which you can watch now with a Netflix subscription, is a great deep dive into the history of the doomed franchise and everything that went wrong at the end, leading the team to move to Washington, DC, after the 2004 season. It wasn’t the baseball fan in me that kicked me in the gut while watching it, though. It was the football fan in me. This isn’t a feel-good baseball movie, either. Let me explain.
I Truly Felt The Pain Of The Expos Fans In The Documentary
A little background on myself: I grew up in St. Louis. If you’re a sports fan, that might tell you immediately where I’m coming from. While I wasn’t around when the Browns left St. Louis for Baltimore to become the Orioles in 1954, I’m old enough to have seen the NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals move to Phoenix and the Rams move (back) to L.A. I know exactly how it feels to have my team move.
Watching the first few minutes of the new documentary on Netflix, I immediately empathized with the jilted Expos fans who were clearly still heartbroken over their move in 2004 after years of local officials trying to “save” them. Their pain is my pain. It’s a pain that doesn’t really go away, and while it may be silly in the grand scheme of things, it’s very real. Even decades after owner Bill Bidwell moved the Big Red to Arizona and a decade after Stan Kroenke chased the money in Los Angeles, I have a visceral reaction when it comes to both teams, just like Expos fans.
The Owners Are Always The Villains When Teams Move
The most consistent theme in both Who Killed The Montreal Expos? and in my experience as a fan who lost teams is that the owners are always the villains in the fans’ eyes. Rams owner Stan Kroenke is public enemy #1 in St. Louis. Bill Bidwell is still talked about derisively, even four decades after he moved the Cardinals west. In the documentary, it’s former Expos owner (and later Marlins owner) Jeffrey Loria and his #2 guy, David Samson.
The fans in the film really hate them both, and while that is often irrational, it’s how it is. In all three cases, the owners were doing what they thought was right for their business. But to fans, teams aren’t a business; they are a passion, they are a way of life, they are as important as any other civic institution. On paper, all three moves made sense for those in charge. In fans’ hearts, however, the relocations were knives.
Like the fans in Who Killed The Montreal Expos?, I’ll never be rational about my teams moving. I can’t even watch the NFL anymore, despite still loving the sport. I’m a jilted lover who will never get over it. I’m not alone, and they even talk about it in the movie. Brooklyn Dodger fans are still angry. Seattle Pilots fans are still angry. Any fan of a team that moves will never really get over it. Just like me.