RELOCATION Expos will be moving to nation's capital

Former major leaguers are sad baseball will soon be leaving Montreal.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
PHILADELPHIA -- The rumblings you've been hearing are true. The Expos are leaving Montreal after this season and heading for the Washington D.C./Northern Virginia area.
For weeks, people in the know have said that it's a fait accompli. But the commissioner's office isn't ready to announce it because there are still details to work out.
Sometime this summer, commissioner Bud Selig has promised, we'll learn who the new owner is and where the team will actually be located when a permanent stadium is built.
But, be sure of this, baseball is going to the nation's capital, or at least the surrounding area.
Some people in Montreal won't even blink an eye when the Expos leave. It used to be a good baseball town, but years of bad ownership and Major League Baseball's recent stewardship of the team have resulted in many of the fans finding other forms of entertainment.
That doesn't mean there won't be some sad faces when the Expos leave.
Need a miracle
"It makes me very said," said Denis Boucher, a Quebec native who pitched in the majors for Toronto, Cleveland and Montreal. "I never thought it would happen, but it would probably take a miracle to save the team now.
"I'm involved with youth baseball, and what's really going to be tough is there won't be anyone for the kids to look up to anymore -- at least not in Montreal. These kids looked up to Vladimir Guerrero and Jose Vidro. Now, you'll have to drive five hours to Boston or Toronto to see a game."
Claude Raymond, the former all-star pitcher and Quebec native, has been with the Expos since 1968, when he was still a member of the Atlanta Braves. Because of his popularity in Montreal, the Braves allowed Raymond to help the Expos sell season tickets the winter before they played their first game in the spring of 1969. He was traded to the Expos later that season, finished his career with them in 1971 and still works for the club.
"It will break my heart," Raymond said. "I've been there the entire history of the Expos. Gary Carter is in the Hall of Fame as a Montreal Expo. What's he going to feel like when he takes his kids to the Hall of Fame and says, 'I played for the Expos,' and they say, 'Who are they?'
"It's sad. I think Montreal would become a minor league town if it didn't have major league baseball."