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1994 Montreal Expos season

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1994 Montreal Expos
1st Place in NL East
File:MontrealExpos 100.png
DivisionEastern Division
BallparkOlympic Stadium
CityMontreal
OwnersClaude Brochu
ManagersFelipe Alou
TelevisionThe Sports Network
(Dave Van Horne, Ken Singleton)

SRC
RDS Network
(Claude Raymond, Camille Dube)
RadioCIQC (English)
(Dave Van Horne, Rich Griffin, Ken Singleton, Elliott Price)

CKAC (French)
(Jacques Doucet, Rodger Brulotte, Alain Chantelois)
← 1993 Seasons 1995 →

The 1994 Montreal Expos season was the 26th season of the franchise. They had the best record in Major League Baseball (74-40), when the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike ended the season and the team's postseason aspirations. From June 1 forward, Montreal transformed into the dominant club in the league, going 46−18 until the strike. In turn, they also produced the most successful season in franchise history in terms of winning percentage (.649). Five Expos represented the National League at the All-Star Game held in Pittsburgh, including Moisés Alou, who had the game-winning hit for the National League.

Offseason

Spring training

The Expos held spring training at West Palm Beach Municipal Stadium in West Palm Beach, Florida – a facility they shared with the Atlanta Braves. It was their 18th season at the stadium; they had conducted spring training there from 1969 to 1972 and since 1981.

Regular season

Opening Day starters

Summary

On April 13, 1994, Pedro Martínez took a perfect game through 71⁄3 innings versus the Cincinnati Reds until throwing a brushback pitch at Reggie Sanders led Sanders to immediately charge the mound, starting a bench-clearing brawl. Martínez ended up with a no-decision in the game, which the Expos eventually won 3–2.[5]

One amusing moment occurred on April 24 while playing the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. With one out in the third inning, right fielder Larry Walker caught a Mike Piazza fly ball and innocently handed it to young fan, six year old Sebastian Napier, thinking it was the third out of the inning. He noticed that José Offerman, already on base, was running at full speed. Walker managed to retrieve the ball from Napier, and held Offerman to third base. Embarrassed, Walker remarked that he "told the little kid that maybe next time I'll give him a ball when there are three outs instead of two. Everybody around him was laughing." Where Offerman was stationed made little difference as Tim Wallach homered on the next pitch, from Martínez, for two runs. True to his word, when the Expos assumed the field in the bottom half of the fourth inning, Walker gave Napier a signed ball, inducing a standing ovation.[6]

The National League suspended Walker four games starting June 24 for inciting a bench-clearing brawl by charging the mound in a game against Pittsburgh.[7]

The Expos team appeared to be reaching its potential in 1994. After June 1, Montreal transformed into the dominant club in the National League, going 46−18 until the players' strike halted the season on August 11.[8] In turn, they produced the most successful season in franchise history as they attained a major league best 74−40 record.[9][10][11] on pace for a 106-win season

Led by an ensemble of rising young stars including Martínez, Walker, Moisés Alou, Cliff Floyd, Mike Lansing and Jeff Fassero, the Expos scored 585 runs (5.13 per game) and allowed 454 runs (3.98 per game) through 114 games by Friday, August 12.[12] Their 1994 pitching staff was very nearly as good as that of their division rivals, the Atlanta Braves, as the Expos finished the strike-shortened season with an MLB-best 3.56 ERA, an MLB-high 46 saves and just 288 walks, the fewest in the Majors.[13]

Walker, with 86 RBIs, was well on his way to his first 100-RBI year; Ken Hill was on pace to win 23 games while Pedro Martínez was on pace to strike out more than 200 batters. Moisés Alou was hitting .339 and on pace to collect more than 200 hits for the first time in his career. Marquis Grissom was on pace to score 137 runs. Two other Expos, namely Alou and Walker, were also on pace to score more than 100 runs. The team was also drawing well at home: through 52 home games in 1994, 1,276,250 fans had attended Expos games, for an average of 24,543 per game. At that pace, the Expos would have had a good chance of drawing two million fans for the first time since 1983.[14] The season, however, was stopped due to the 1994 players' strike. The World Series, for which the Expos appeared to be destined, was never played and Montreal lost many of its players during the next season due to free agency and salary constraints and the team never recovered. The 1994 Montreal Expos team that could have been remains one of baseball's hot discussion points. The franchise would never reach the playoffs as the Expos again. The collapse of the Expos would eventually lead to the franchise's move to Washington, D.C., for the 2005 season to become the Washington Nationals.

When baseball returned for an exhibition series in Olympic Stadium in March 2014, the team was honored during a pregame ceremony, along with a banner with the words On se souvient Édition 1994 (We remember the 1994 season).

Game log

1994 Regular Season Game Log (74–40) (Home: 32–20; Road: 42–20)

Games cancelled

1994 Games cancelled
Legend
Expos win Expos loss All-Star Game Game postponed

Season standings

NL East
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Montreal Expos 74 40 .649 — 32‍–‍20 42‍–‍20
Atlanta Braves 68 46 .596 6 31‍–‍24 37‍–‍22
New York Mets 55 58 .487 18½ 23‍–‍30 32‍–‍28
Philadelphia Phillies 54 61 .470 20½ 34‍–‍26 20‍–‍35
Florida Marlins 51 64 .443 23½ 25‍–‍34 26‍–‍30
Division leaders
Team W L Pct.
Montreal Expos 74 40 .649
Cincinnati Reds 66 48 .579
Los Angeles Dodgers 58 56 .509
Wild Card team W L Pct. GB
Atlanta Braves 68 46 0.597 —
Houston Astros 66 49 0.574 21⁄2
New York Mets 55 58 0.487 121⁄2
San Francisco Giants 55 60 0.478 131⁄2
Philadelphia Phillies 54 61 0.470 141⁄2
St. Louis Cardinals 53 61 0.465 15
Pittsburgh Pirates 53 61 0.465 15
Colorado Rockies 53 64 0.453 161⁄2
Florida Marlins 51 64 0.444 171⁄2
Chicago Cubs 49 64 0.434 181⁄2
San Diego Padres 47 70 0.402 221⁄2

Record vs. opponents

1994 National League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Team ATL CHC CIN COL FLA HOU LAD MON NYM PHI PIT SD SF STL
Atlanta — 4–2 5–5 8–2 8–4 3–3 6–0 4–5 5–4 6–3 3–9 6–1 5–1 5–7
Chicago 2–4 — 5–7 6–6 4–5 4–8 3–3 2–4 1–4 1–6 5–5 6–3 5–4 5–5
Cincinnati 5–5 7–5 — 4–4 7–5 4–6 3–6 4–2 2–4 4–2 9–3 8–2 7–2 2–2–1
Colorado 2–8 6–6 4–4 — 3–9 5–5 4–6 4–2 5–1 2–4 2–3 5–5 3–7 8–4
Florida 4–8 5–4 5–7 9–3 — 2–4 3–3 2–7 6–4 4–6 1–6 5–1 2–4 3–7
Houston 3–3 8–4 6–4 5–5 4–2 — 1–8 2–4 3–3 5–1 8–4 5–5 8–2 8–4
Los Angeles 0–6 3–3 6–3 6–4 3–3 8–1 — 3–9 6–6 7–5 3–3 6–4 5–5 2–4
Montreal 5–4 4–2 2–4 2–4 7–2 4–2 9–3 — 4–3 5–4 8–2 12–0 5–7 7–3
New York 4–5 4–1 4–2 1–5 4–6 3–3 6–6 3–4 — 4–6 4–5 6–6 6–6 6–3
Philadelphia 3-6 6–1 2–4 4–2 6–4 1–5 5–7 4–5 6–4 — 5–4 4–8 4–8 4–3
Pittsburgh 9–3 5–5 3–9 3–2 6–1 4–8 3–3 2–8 5–4 4–5 — 3–3 1–5 5–5
San Diego 1–6 3–6 2–8 5–5 1–5 5–5 4–6 0–12 6–6 8–4 3–3 — 5–2 4–2
San Francisco 1–5 4–5 2–7 7–3 4–2 2–8 5–5 7–5 6–6 8–4 5–1 2–5 — 2–4
St. Louis 7–5 5–5 2–2–1 4–8 7–3 4–8 4–2 3–7 3–6 3–4 5–5 2–4 4–2 —


Notable transactions

  • April 8, 1994: Juan Bell was signed as a free agent by the Expos.[15]

Major League debuts

  • Pitchers:
    • Joey Eischen (Jun 19)
    • Heath Haynes (Jun 1)
    • Rod Henderson (Apr 19)
    • Gabe White (May 27) [16]

Roster

1994 Montreal Expos
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Player stats

= Indicates team leader

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = position; G = Games played; AB = At Bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting Average; HR = Home Runs; RBI = Runs Batted In

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Darrin Fletcher 94 285 74 .260 10 57
1B Cliff Floyd 100 334 94 .281 4 41
2B Mike Lansing 106 394 105 .266 5 35
3B Sean Berry 103 320 89 .278 11 41
SS Wil Cordero 110 415 122 .294 15 63
CF Marquis Grissom 110 475 137 .288 11 45
LF Moisés Alou 107 422 143 .339 22 78
RF Larry Walker 103 395 127 .322 19 86

Other batters

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Lenny Webster 57 143 39 .273 5 23
Lou Frazier 76 140 38 .271 0 14
Juan Bell 38 97 27 .278 2 10
Rondell White 40 97 27 .278 2 13
Freddie Benavides 47 85 16 .188 0 6
Randy Milligan 47 82 19 .232 2 12
Tim Spehr 52 36 9 .250 0 5
Jeff Gardner 18 32 7 .219 0 1

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Player G IP W L SV ERA SO BB
Ken Hill 23 154.7 16 5 0 3.32 85 44
Pedro Martínez 24 144.7 11 5 1 3.42 142 45
Jeff Fassero 21 138.2 8 6 0 2.99 119 40
Butch Henry 24 107.1 8 3 0 2.43 70 20
Kirk Rueter 20 92.1 7 3 0 5.17 50 23

Relief pitchers

Player G IP W L SV ERA SO BB
John Wetteland 52 63.2 4 6 25 2.83 68 21
Mel Rojas 58 84.0 3 2 16 3.32 84 21
Jeff Shaw 46 67.1 5 2 1 3.88 47 15
Tim Scott 40 53.1 5 2 1 2.70 37 18
Gil Heredia 39 75.1 6 3 0 3.46 62 13

Other pitchers

Player G IP W L SV ERA SO BB
Heath Haynes 4 3.2 0 0 0 0.00 1 3
Brian Looney 1 2.0 0 0 0 22.50 2 0
Joey Eischen 1 0.2 0 0 0 54.00 1 0
Gabe White 7 23.2 1 1 1 6.08 17 11
Denis Boucher 10 18.2 0 1 0 6.75 17 7
Rod Henderson 3 6.2 0 1 0 9.45 3 7

Award winners

65th Major League Baseball All-Star Game

All-Star Game

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Ottawa Lynx International League Jim Tracy
AA Harrisburg Senators Eastern League Dave Jauss
A West Palm Beach Expos Florida State League Rob Leary
A Burlington Bees Midwest League Lorenzo Bundy
A-Short Season Vermont Expos New York–Penn League Terry Kennedy
Rookie GCL Expos Gulf Coast League Nelson Norman

[17]

References

  1. ^ Delino DeShields page at Baseball Reference
  2. ^ Randy Milligan page at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ John Vander Wal page at Baseball Reference
  4. ^ 1994 Montreal Expos Roster by Baseball Almanac
  5. ^ "April 13, 1994 Cincinnati Reds at Montreal Expos play by play and box score". Baseball-Reference.com. April 13, 1994. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
  6. ^ Cohen, Alan (December 21, 2015). "Larry Walker". Society of American Baseball Research. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  7. ^ Associated Press (June 24, 1994). "National League suspends Walker". The New York Times. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
  8. ^ Cocoran, Cliff (March 28, 2014). "Le Grand Cinq: The five best teams in Montreal Expos history". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  9. ^ Jaffe, Jay (December 15, 2016). "JAWS and the 2017 Hall of Fame ballot: Larry Walker". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  10. ^ Simmons, Jeff (July 19, 2013). "What happened? Looking back at the 1994 Expos". Sportsnet. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  11. ^ Shea, John (February 10, 2015). "Strike thwarted Felipe Alou's dynamic Expos". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  12. ^ https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MON/1994-schedule-scores.shtml
  13. ^ https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/1994.shtml
  14. ^ https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MON/1994-schedule-scores.shtml
  15. ^ Juan Bell page at Baseball Reference
  16. ^ http://www.thebaseballcube.com/statistics/1994/18.shtml
  17. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
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