The Montreal Expos are going, going, almost gone. Any day now, baseball commissioner Bud Selig is expected to select a new home for this peculiar franchise, which Major League Baseball took over two years ago in an effort it save it. The Expos will probably wind up in Washington or its northern Virginia suburbs, although Las Vegas, Portland, Ore., and Monterrey, Mexico are presumably also in the running.

What casual baseball watchers may not realize is that the Expos have had a foot out the door for the past two seasons, when they played a portion of their home games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. That unusual step was taken to breathe new life into a team Selig has called “an aberration” for the way it struggles to draw crowds to its notorious ballpark (more on that later).

When the team does finally move, fans will be left to ponder various “what ifs,” including what if, in 1989, they hadn’t traded away southpaw Randy Johnson, one of the most dominant pitchers of his generation with more than 4,000 strikeouts. An even more agonizing question, however, might be: “What if the 1994 World Series hadn’t been cancelled because of a strike?”

Larry Walker , now an outfielder with the Cardinals but then a young star with the ‘Spos, says that he and his Montreal teammates have often asked themselves that question. He thinks the Expos would have made the playoffs and won the World Series if the season hadn’t been cut off.

When the music stopped, Montreal had the best record in baseball (74-40), and conceivably could have gone on to meet the second-best team, the Yankees (70-43) in the Series. If that had happened, who knows, the club might have enjoyed a run of contending teams and reignited baseball interest in Quebec. Instead, it became a low-budget operation that let its best players get away, including Walker, Moises Alou, Pedro Martinez, and Vladimir Guererro.

Things got so bad that baseball’s Commissioner’s office stepped in to run the team, beginning in 2003, naming Hall of Famer Frank Robinson as field manager and giving the club a skimpy allowance to keep afloat but not enough money to assemble a serious contender.

That goes a long way in explaining why the team’s average home game attendance, which reached a high of 28,650 in 1983, has been below 10,000 in four of the last six seasons.

All things considered, Montreal has performed admirably under trying circumstances. Last year, in fact, the Expos finished above .500 with a .512 winning percentage and were far better than the cellar-dwelling New York Mets in the American League East.

This year, it appears they’ll finish last behind the Mets, but will end up with a better record than at least three major-league teams – the Brewers, the Mariners, and the Royals – and could surpass several others, including their Canadian cousins, the Blue Jays.

Going back to that aborted 1994 World Series for a moment, if the Expos, who owned a 6-game division lead, had maintained their winning trajectory, they could have emerged as Canada’s third straight championship team, following Toronto, which won the Series in 1992 and 1993. Ironically, the only time Montreal actually made the playoffs in 1981, the season was interrupted by another strike and the Expos were declared the second-half-season winners of the National League East. They proceeded to beat the Phillies in a best-of-five divisional playoff, but then lost to the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, 3-games-to-2.

Looking back, some may wonder how French-speaking Montreal, with its deep-seated allegiance to hockey’s powerful Canadiens, managed to land a baseball expansion team in 1969, eight year’s before Toronto (Canada’s largest city).

Several factors, beyond having willing investors, favored Montreal. One was the city’s success in hosting Expo ’67, the world’s fair that drew 50 million visitors and established Montreal as a world class city.

Also, minor league baseball had a long tradition in Montreal. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation says the city got its first serious professional team, the Montreal Royals of the International League, in 1928.

In 1945, as a Triple-A minor league affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers, it became the “on-deck circle” to baseball history. Branch Rickey, president and co-owner of the Dodgers, decided to prep Jackie Robinson to break the sport’s color line by having him play first with the Royals.

Another factor in giving Montreal a major-league team was a promise by the mayor to build a new domed stadium, a definite asset when hosting early- and late-season games north of the US-Canadian border. Until this stadium could be built, though, the Expos played in Jarry Park (Parc Jarry), a 3,000-seat municipally owned facility that was expanded to 28,500 seats to make it sufficiently large for major-league crowds.

In 1969 the Expos managed to win their first game in team history (11-10 over the Mets) and within two weeks had their first no-hitter (by Bill Stoneman over the Phillies). But mostly they followed the traditional lowly path of an expansion team, recording 10 straight losing seasons, despite the efforts of Rusty Staub, a carrot-topped slugger affectionately known as “Le Grand Orange” to fans who admired his hitting as well as his willingness to learn and speak French.

The Expos finally moved into their new home, Olympic Park, after it was used, still unfinished, as the main stadium at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. While striking architecturally on the outside, the facility has been called cold and impersonal with its artificial turf and monumental design.

Financially, its been a drag on taxpayers for decades. The innovative retractable roof, which was to hang from a huge concrete arm that soared above the stadium, took many years to complete and has entailed more than $200 million in repairs. Altogether, the mounting bill for building and maintaining this notorious landmark, to be retired in 2006, comes to $2.4 billion, prompting the citizens of Montreal and Quebec to call Olympic Stadium not “The Big O,” but "The Big Owe." With the money spent on what has been called the most infamous venue in sports history, ESPN.com's Jeff Merron says Montreal could have bought eight A-Rods (Alex Rodriguez, baseball’s highest paid player) plus the Anaheim Angels – or the Yankees “with the [K.C.] Royals thrown in as a farm club.”

If the Expos move to the D.C. area, a possibility the nearby Baltimore Orioles oppose, maybe the team will change its name to Metros, or maybe even assume the identity of the old Washington Senators, though hopefully not their losing ways.

You may remember what people jokingly said about that sorrowful franchise: “Washington, first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.”

Whatever the name, the Expos’ clever logo is probably history. So, collectors, you better run out and buy one of those caps with the stylized “M,” which fuses the letters “ELB,” for Expos le Basebol.

Don’t let the name fool you, this guy can coach

A football coach named “Lovie” – you gotta love it. That’s right, Lovie
Smith has replaced Dick Jauron on the Chicago Bears sideline. And the best part is he came to the job, not with some pie-in-the-sky goal of taking the Bears to the Super Bowl right away, although nothing’s impossible – given time – in the NFL, but something much more down to earth, namely beating the Green Bay Packers, a division rival who’s had their number.

A realistic No. 1 priority. Chicago beat Green Bay in only the season’s second week. As for that nickname, well, let’s not forget that the greatest player in Bears’ history, Walter Payton, was nicknamed “Sweetness.” Smith, by the way, says that his name came about because a great aunt , anticipating a girl, decided to stick with Lovie.

How many former players does it take to telecast an NFL game?

There was a time when letting three ex-football players share a broadcast booth would have been considered ill-advised. But that’s exactly what ESPN has gone to this month on Sunday nights, inserting veteran play-by-play man Pat Summerall next to Joe Theismann and Paul Maguire.

Each has enjoyed a second career in broadcasting, a profession they’ve pursued more than 70 years, combined. Summerall temporarily has replaced Mike Patrick, who’s on the shelf after off-season surgery, with a mid-October return expected. Many fans may not know that Summerall, long John Madden’s broadcasting partner, once was a placekicker for several teams, including the Giants, or that Maguire was a punter and linebacker for the Bills and Chargers. Theismann surely was the best known of the group as a player, leading the Redskins to a Super Bowl title in 1983.

Though rare, this is hardly the first time three ex-players have worked as a team in broadcasting actual games, as opposed to handling studio assignments of some kind.

In 1974, innovative ABC executive Roone Arledge teamed Frank Gifford, Alex Karras, and Fred Williamson – with Howard Cosell – on Monday Night Football.

Those telecasts weren't left entirely to a trio of ex-NFLers until 1984, the year after Cosell’s retirement. The lineup: Gifford, Don Meredith, and O.J. Simpson, followed then next season by Gifford, Simpson, and Joe Namath.

When the Tampa Bay Devil Rays cited hurricane-related travel complications for their recent hours-late arrival in New York, it was a reminder of the incredible record of on-time game starts pro sports enjoy. Really, when was the last time you heard of a team showing up late at a ballpark or arena?

Sure, flying charters helps teams to be on time (and avoid autograph seekers), but weather can delay any flight at any time, commercial or private. If the Devil Rays had changed their plans, and moved up their flight to get out of Florida before hurricane Frances hit, they could have played a scheduled doubleheader. Instead, one of the games was canceled, a decision that so distressed the Yankees that they wanted a forfeit. In a no-brainer, the American League rejected the notion. After all, it’s really quite unthinkable that a team might win a division by the margin of a “freebie” game.

Tampa Bay (again) having devil of a time

Speaking of the Devil Rays, did they really enjoy a midseason hot streak or was that a mirage? Their hopes of turning in the club’s first-ever winning record are pretty much out the window now. Last I looked, they were stuck in reverse, about 18 games under .500.

Get out the paddles, Barry's at the plate
As Barry Bonds closes in on Hank Aaron’s all-time career home record (he'll reach 700 any day now and looks capable of surpassing 755), San Francisco may need to call in the Coast Guard to patrol McCovey Cove. That’s the increasingly small-craft- and inner-tube-crowded body of water just beyond right field at the team’s waterfront stadium, SBC Park.

The Giants, actually, are probably grateful that most of Bonds' home-stadium clouts clear the stadium wall, thus lessening the total mayhem in the stands when his home runs land there. To wit, the scrum that occurred after he broke Mark McGwire’s single-season record and two guys had to go to court over who owned prized souvenir ball.

The college football season is still young, but I’ve already identified a player worth watching, if only to see what he’s made of. That’s redshirt freshman placekicker Alexis Serna, who began his career with Oregon State in the worst possible fashion, and by now, could be riding the pine or facing demotion at any possible moment.

The reason is simple: Serna missed three kicks, all so-called "gimme" extra points, in OSU’s opening-game loss to highly favored Louisiana State, a co-No. 1 team a year ago and No. 4 heading into this season. Kerry Eggers of the Portland (Ore.) Tribune said an Oregon State win would have been the biggest regular-season victory in OSU history. Instead, the Beavers, who were nearly three-touchdown underdogs, lost 22-21 in overtime.

Several factors added to the pathos. For one, this was OSU, a long downtrodden football school that's only recently enjoyed a modest rebirth, up against a Southern power in Death Valley, the telling nickname given to LSU’s 90,000 stadium. Piling on more heartache was that two of the missed extra points were agonizingly close – they bounced off the right goal post – and the third, well, it was wide right, a sure sign that Serna’s confidence was shot. OSU coach Mike Riley tried frantically to call a time out to consider going for a two-point conversion, and the win.

His plea was too late. Serna missed, ripped off his helmet and threw it to the ground, and dropped inconsolably to the turf. Riley couldn’t find any comforting words. “Like I told him, there’s nothing I can say. It just didn’t work out he way we all wanted it to,” the coach is quoted as saying.

Worse still, there was a long plane flight home made even longer when the charter had to fly to the airport in Portland rather than Eugene, which is closer to Corvallis. As a result, the team bus didn’t arrive back on campus until 7 a.m. Sunday morning.

Placekicking is a high-tension position, and sometimes a devastating miss or two can shatter the confidence of a capable athlete. Against LSU, Serna managed a 40-yard, second-quarter field goal that demonstrated what he can do. He also won the starting job by making all seven field-goal attempts during spring drills, including a pair of 42-yarders. Even at point-blank range, though, those uprights can look incredibly far away when so much rides on splitting them.

Circumstances proved much kinder for another young placekicker, whose college debut was almost the polar opposite of Serna’s. Like Serna, who played his high school ball in Fontana, Calif., Jeremy Ito of Rutgers University is a Californian, from Redlands.

A true freshman, he got off to a shaky start with the Scarlet Knights, who considered his recruitment key to turning around a program that appears on the cusp of a breakthrough.

Ito missed his first two field goal tries against Michigan State, including a 29-yard chip shot that sailed wide left after Rutgers marched 70 yards on its opening drive.

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano knew a vote of confidence was needed at this juncture and let Ito know that he wouldn’t be judged by one kick. As Schiano told Newark’s Star-Ledger, “I just wanted him to know he was going to kick more today, and some weren’t going to be good and some were going to be good, and that’s the way it’s going to be for the next four years, so, I said ‘I believe in you. Let’s go.’”

Though uneven, the results thereafter were on the whole totally satisfactory: Ito missed his next attempt and had a fourth blocked, but his confidence surged as the game progressed and by the end he made four field goals on a school record seven attempts. Despite scoring no offensive touchdowns, Rutgers won 19-14. Interestingly, as a high school senior, Ito had only 10 field goal tries all season.

Now, those goal posts are looking wider, and Rutgers, which met Princeton in the first college game 135 years ago, is beginning to anticipate its first winning season since 1992 and possibly a run of the same.

Just as Alexis Serna bears watching in the weeks and years ahead, so too does Ito. Whether their first varsity games have cast the die for what’s to follow in their college careers remains to be seen. But I intend to keep checking the Sunday box scores to gauge their progress.

Thoughts on ESPN as it blows out 25 candles

True confessions: I can’t begin to tell you what ESPN, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary, does to fill its vast amount of air time.

Presumably there’s some pretty esoteric programming in the mix, especially on those auxillary cable channels that create an entire sports “neighborhood” on the TV clicker. Mostly, though, I think of ESPN as sports highlights with attitude. As for ESPN’s greatest contribution to the enjoyment of meat-and-potato fans, well for my money it’s probably the decision to telecast the early rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament.

Also, I’ve always enjoyed the wider selection of college football telecasts that remind us that schools like the University of New Mexico and Ball State exist. By the way, in case you wondered, ESPN stands for Entertainment Sports Production Network. In another peculiarity, the cable giant is headquartered in Bristol, Conn.

My hometown team, the Boston Red Sox, is doing great. But my "home" hometown team, the Chunichi Dragons, is doing even better. They are leading the league, four-and-half games ahead of the Japanese "evil empire," Yomiuri Giants as of 9/6.

I check their stats and standings on the net every week. As I was doing my weekly browsing of websites today (The Internet was made for "remote" fans like me!), a headline caught my attention: "Players vow to strike."

My first thought: Whoa, are the 2004 Dragons going to be the 1994 Montreal Expos? One of the biggest "what-if" baseball teams, the Expos had the best record in the Majors before the MLB went on strike that year.

I had to call my dad: "What will happen to our team if they go on strike?"

"Well, actually, they are only going to strike on weekends, so the chances get better for us," my dad replied. Good news, the Dragons were going to face the Giants on the weekend of 9/18, so there is less chance of them gaining ground on us.

But is it really good news?

My dad and I talked about a bigger problem that the Japanese Professional Baseball league is facing - "If the league goes on strike, the fans are not going to like it," he said. As it is, Japanese baseball fans are already losing interest. There are many reasons, but lack of fair competition is one. Another is that many of the star players are going to the major leagues in the United States, leaving their home league. Japan's all-pro-players Athens Olympic "Dream team" also fell short of the gold, just another major upset to the fans.

There are two leagues in Japan, just like Major League Baseball, the Central League (CL) and the Pacific League (PL). What is different from MLB in the US is that the Central league attracts many more fans than the Pacific league.

Why?

Well, there is a team called the Yomiuri Giants that belongs to the Central league - the prestigious, rich, popular, Tokyo-based team that has tons of high-paid stars, and has won more championships than any other team (now you see why I call them the "evil empire"). Hideki "Godzilla" Matsui (now with the New York Yankees) played for them. And he was - and still is - a national hero.

The financially troubled Osaka-based Pacific League (PL) team called Kintetsu Buffaloes (Hideo Nomo, LA Dodgers, played for them) made a big announcement in June. They are going to merge with Orix BlueWave, (Ichiro's and Shige Hasegawa's - both now with the Seattle Mariners - former team).

When a six team league goes to five teams, there will be problems with scheduling. Because of this, the PL is said to be considering merging two more teams into one. Two less teams means about 140 registered players will lose jobs (including minor players). Players don't want that.

If this strike happens, this will be the first ever strike in the Japanese baseball history.

If you own a Pacific league team, you can't compete. Yomiuri owner, George-Steinbrenner-like Tsuneo Watanabe refused to have inter-league games. Though he is reported to have resigned last month, he just recently suggested moving the Giants to the PL, sending all CL team owners into a panic.

It is interesting that the association is demanding not only that the Orix-Kintetsu merger be reconsidered but also requesting to revamp the draft system and reassess the broadcasting revenue-sharing methods.

Well, my dad and I didn't come up with a solution, but we agreed that something needs to change in Japanese baseball. When one team gets much more rich off the TV rights, attracting high-paid players and still gets good players with complicated, unclear draft rules, something is wrong. I hope there will be no strike, but they may not be able to avoid it.

Oh well, maybe my Dragons will win it all this year anyway.