It was no secret to anyone that a big fight for the biggest attendance between the Expos and the Marlins was a focus during all the season. A lot of people know why this situation is like that between both teams.
However, what I saw on the news today really frustrated me. Montreal brought an average of 10,031 attendees per game this year while Florida brough in 10,038. That represents 7 persons more per game which totals a difference of 567 persons. Now, yesterday, the Marlins confirmed approx. 8,000 attendees for their closing game of the season but the announced crowd was 28,599. Wanna know why? Simple, an unidentified person purchased 15,000 tickets by himself/herself yesterday in order to boost up the stats so they could move on top Montreal in the overall attendance. And as more ridiculous as is gets is that no one wants to tell who that person is or seems to know about him/her is as if noboby knows about who that person really is. Talk about that! Is there someone over there who really think baseball fans are stupid?
As if it wasn't enough that during all year the press has turned their back against Montreal, now we end up the season with such a low profile act. For those who might not be aware of it, here's some interesting stats for Montreal which should deserve them a little more respect than what it has been all year long.
Montreal finished 13th overall in the major out of 30 teams. They finished with a winning record 4 games over 500. If you compare that to some extremely bad seasons that other teams have obtained such as Milwaukee, Detroit and Tampa Bay who got 106 losts each. That's a full month of playing games and loosing more than Montreal.
Montreal finished 2nd in their section. Of course, the Braves got another exceptionnal year which makes other teams in that section to look bad.
Montreal aligned a 20 winning game pitcher.
Montreal aligned two players in the top 6 in the overall National league for the best batting average.
Guerrero finished 3rd in the batting average, 5th in the home runs standing and 5th in the RBI. Add to that 40 stolen bases which ranks him on 4th spot. Add as well the most hits in the National league and among the top in the scored runs.
Montreal also showed an increase in their attendance this year despite all the bad publicity the press has done against them. And, that without a TV contract on national TV.
They also obtained, if I recall correctly, 4 seven games winning stretch. They won 11 out of their 14 games.
I guess I could also add that they finished in 5th place for the National League best home record. That is just one win below the 4th place.
As for the press, I don't remember having heard anything when Montreal was on a winning stretch. I remember however that when a team such as New York or Los Angeles won 3 or 4 games in a row, for example, that they made the top spot at the ESPN page. During all year, I was also looking as the scores at the ESPN Web site, which shows 4 games at a time by default, that, I don't remember having seen once a stat from a Montreal game. But, when a member of the staff, not even a player, is caught with a small drug case, then, the entire planet is talking about it. I remember also having read on top spot when Montreal was having a loosing streak. That I remember quite well. As for such a good team, especially this year, this was just unacceptable from the press this year. All that because their future is uncertain. Well, guess what, it's the same story year after year. So, why was it worst this year. Probably because they were own by the league itself.
Now, here's the funny story. Montreal has presently the same power as in 1993. Keep the team as is for 2003 and you'll have the same team power as it was in 1994 which was heading right into the World Series before the strike took place. Keep them intact and you can be sure that some people will stop laughing at them, yes, that's for sure!
