MONTREAL – Talk to any Montreal Expos fan, and they’ll tell you about what could have been. The strike-shortened 1994 season still hurts.
“That’s why I’m a football fan today,” Claude Laforest said while laughing.
Expos fans will get a chance to pay tribute to the 1994 roster on Saturday, March 29 at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.
READ MORE: Twenty years later, Montrealers will get to toast the 1994 Expos
A special ceremony is planned prior to a Blue Jays-Mets pre-season game.
A number of players from the 1994 Expos have confirmed their presence for the celebration.
“Felipe Alou, Moises Alou, Jeff Fassero, John Wetteland. They’ll all be there,” confirmed former Expo Warren Cromartie.
He’s part of a group that is promoting the return of major league baseball to Montreal.
On Tuesday, Cromartie held a news conference to discuss the tribute event, and he also announced the results of a new survery, which shows most Montrealers are in favour of a return of “Nos Amours.”
According to a Leger Marketing poll carried out among nearly 1,600 Quebecers, 69 per cent of the general public supports the idea of bringing a Major League Baseball team back to Montreal.
But Cromartie said that his group’s first real test will come on March 28 and 29, 2014.
For the Expos to have a shot at a comeback, Cromartie believes the “Big-O” must be “packed” for both games.
“I can’t emphasize how critical it is for the fans to show up to these games. The whole world will be watching,” he noted.
Tickets went on sale a few days ago, and already around 40,000 have been sold.
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