2004 Montreal Expos season
The 2004 Montreal Expos season was the Expos′ 36th and final season in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The team finished in fifth and last place in the National League East at 67-95, 29 games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves. After the season, the team – which had played in Montreal since its foundation as an expansion franchise in 1969 – relocated to Washington, D.C., and became the Washington Nationals, as Major League Baseball returned to Washington for the 2005 season after a 33-season absence. Spring training. The Expos held spring training at Space Coast Stadium in  Viera, Florida, in 2004. It was their second year of spring training at the facility. Regular season. Opening Day lineup. Source Game log. Source The final game in Montreal. Scorecard. September 29, Olympic Stadium, Montréal, Québec The final game as the Expos. Scorecard. October 3, Shea Stadium, Flushing, New York Attendance. Including both games played in Montreal and "home" games played in San Juan, the Expos drew 749,550 fans during the 2004 season, and were 16th in attendance among the 16 National League teams. Their highest attendance for the season was for their final game in Montreal on September 29 , which attracted 31,395 fans to see them play the Florida Marlins, while their lowest was for a game in Montreal on May 5 against the Colorado Rockies, which drew only 3,609 fans. For games played in San Juan, the largest crowd was 16,836 for a game against the San Francisco Giants on May 22, and the smallest was a crowd of 7,436 that came to a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 9. The Expos lost one home date during the season, when the May 23 "home" game at San Juan against the Giants was rained out and rescheduled  to be played as an away game in San Francisco as part of a single-admission doubleheader on August 18. The doubleheader drew 42,296. Player stats. Batting. "Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; AVG = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases" "Complete offensive statistics are available here." Pitching. "Note: Pos = Position; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV  = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts" "Complete pitching statistics are available here." Awards and honors. All-Stars. 2004 Major League Baseball All-Star Game Relocation to Washington. After several years in a holding pattern, MLB began actively looking for a relocation site for the Expos. Some of the choices included Orlando, Florida; Dayton, Ohio; Oklahoma City; Washington, D.C.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Monterrey, Mexico; Portland, Oregon; Northern Virginia; Norfolk, Virginia; and Charlotte, North Carolina. In the decision-making process, Commissioner Bud Selig added Las  Vegas, Nevada to the list of potential Expos homes. On September 29, 2004, MLB officially announced that the Expos would move to Washington, D.C. in 2005. The move was approved by the owners of the other teams in a 28–1 vote on December 3 (Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos cast the sole dissenting vote). In addition, on November 15, 2004, a lawsuit by the former team owners against MLB and former majority owner Jeffrey Loria was struck down by arbitrators, ending legal moves to keep the Expos in Montreal. Retired numbers ceremony. As a tribute to the Expos, on October  18, 2005, the Montreal Canadiens honoured the departed team by raising an Expos commemorative banner, which lists the retired numbers, to the rafters of the Bell Centre. Gary Carter and Andre Dawson were at the ceremony with Youppi, who was now the Canadiens mascot. The Banner featured all of the Expos retired numbers: Expos in the Washington Nationals Ring of Honor. On August 10, 2010, the Washington Nationals formally presented a new "Ring of Honor" at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., to honor Major League Baseball Hall of Fame players with ties to the Washington Nationals, original Washington Senators, expansion  Washington Senators, Homestead Grays, or Montreal Expos. Gary Carter and Andre Dawson were the former Expos honored in the Ring of Honor on that day. The Expos logo appears next to their names in the Ring of Honor. On May 9, 2015, the Nationals added former Expos (2002–2004) and Nationals (2005–2006) manager Frank Robinson to the Ring of Honor at Nationals Park. External links. Montreal Washington