1989 Montreal Expos season explained

Montreal Expos
Season:	1989
League:	National League
Division:	East
Ballpark:	Olympic Stadium
City:	Montreal
General Managers:	Dave Dombrowski
Television:	CBC Television (Dave Van Horne, Ken Singleton) The Sports Network (Ken Singleton, Jim Hughson) Télévision de Radio-Canada (Claude Raymond, Raymond Lebrun)
Radio:	CJAD (English) (Dave Van Horne, Bobby Winkles, Jerry Trupiano) CKAC (French) (Jacques Doucet, Rodger Brulotte)
Record:	81–81
Divisional Place:	4th

The 1989 Montreal Expos season was the 21st season of the baseball franchise. With owner Charles Bronfman thinking of selling the team he founded, he contemplated taking one last shot at a playoff berth. Bronfman gave young general manager Dave Dombrowski a clear mandate to win now, reportedly telling him he would provided all the money needed in the quest to bring a championship to Montreal in 1989. Dombrowski pulled off a massive trade on May 25, acquiring star left-handed pitcher – and pending free agent – Mark Langston from the Seattle Mariners. While the move was viewed as a coup at the time, it came at a heavy cost as a young, very tall and very raw Randy Johnson was the key part of the package going to the Pacific Northwest. Johnson would eventually harness his fantastic stuff and became one of the game's most dominant left-handed pitchers for well over a decade. Langston pitched 4 months for the club and left as a free agent. Still, it seemed like a worthy gamble at the time for the Expos. That year, there was no dominant team in the National League. The team seemed poised to compete for the NL East crown with a loaded starting pitching staff that featured Langston, Dennis Martínez, Bryn Smith, Pascual Perez and Kevin Gross.

The team peaked on August 2 with an National League best record of 63–44, holding a 3-game lead in the National League East and everything running along smoothly. What followed would go down as the greatest collapse in franchise history. The next night, a Benny Distefano pinch hit single in the 12th inning dealt the Expos a 1–0 loss in Pittsburgh. It was the start of a 7-game losing streak. The club limped through the rest of August but remained in the race in early September, with the team being only 2 games back of first place on September 6. Regardless, the downward spiral continued as the Expos inexplicably ended up losing 37 of their final 55 games to finish the season a disappointing 81–81, well out of the playoff picture. The easiest analysis of what caused the collapse is to point to the offense, which struggled after August 2, scoring an MLB worst 3.23 runs per game. For long-time Expos fans, the collapse is viewed as the beginning of the end of the franchise. If the club had won the NL East title that year and then beaten the Giants in the NLCS, clinching a World Series berth in the process, Bronfman may have changed his mind about selling the team. Instead, the late season collapse only added to the owner's frustration.

Offseason

December 8, 1988: Tracy Jones was traded by the Expos to the San Francisco Giants for Mike Aldrete.^[1]
December 8, 1988: John Dopson and Luis Rivera were traded by the Expos to the Boston Red Sox for Spike Owen and Dan Gakeler.^[2]

Spring training

The Expos held spring training at West Palm Beach Municipal Stadium in West Palm Beach, Florida – a facility they shared with the Atlanta Braves. It was their 13th season at the stadium; they had conducted spring training there from 1969 to 1972 and since 1981.

Regular season

August 23, 1989: The Expos and Los Angeles Dodgers engage in a 22 inning marathon, the longest game in Expos history. It eventually ended when Rick Dempsey homered for the Dodgers in the top half of the 22nd innings off Dennis Martínez in a very rare relief performance. Rex Hudler was caught stealing second in the bottom half of the 22nd to end the game. The game would have ended earlier when an Expo scored from third on a sacrifice fly. The Dodgers' appeal, that the runner left the base too soon, was recognized by the third base umpire and the third out was recorded. The game also marked the first time that a mascot was ejected by an umpire. Youppi!, dressed in a nightgown and nightcap, pretended to go to sleep on top of the Dodgers dugout, former Montreal Royals reliever and then coach of the Dodgers Tommy Lasorda demanded that Youppi! be run from the game. In the end the game took over 6 hours to finish and ended close to 2:00 am.
August 15, 1989: San Francisco Giants pitcher Dave Dravecky pitched three no-hit innings, but in the fifth inning, he felt a tingling sensation in his arm. In the sixth inning he started off shaky, allowing a home run to the lead off batter and then hitting the second batter. Then, on his first pitch to Tim Raines, his humerus bone snapped, ending his career.

Opening Day starters

Notable transactions

May 25, 1989: Randy Johnson, Brian Holman, and Gene Harris were traded by the Expos to the Seattle Mariners for Mark Langston and a player to be named later. The Mariners completed the deal by sending Mike Campbell to the Expos on July 31.^[3]
July 2, 1989: Sergio Valdez, Nate Minchey, and Kevin Dean (minors) were traded by the Expos to the Atlanta Braves for Zane Smith.^[4]
July 27, 1989: Rick Carriger (minors) was traded by the Expos to the Cleveland Indians for Doug Piatt.^[5]
August 29, 1989: Mike Blowers was traded by the Expos to the New York Yankees for John Candelaria.^[6]

Draft picks

June 5, 1989: 1989 Major League Baseball draft
- Charles Johnson was drafted by the Expos in the 1st round (10th pick), but did not sign.^[7]
- Doug Bochtler was drafted by the Expos in the 9th round. Player signed June 26, 1989.^[8]

Major League debuts

Batters:
- Marquis Grissom (Aug 22)
- Marty Pevey (May 16)
- Larry Walker (Aug 16)
Pitchers:
- Steve Frey (May 10)
- Mark Gardner (May 16)
- Gene Harris (Apr 5) ^[9]

Roster

1989 Montreal Expos

Roster

Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

(Pitching)
(Bench)
(First Base)
(Bullpen)
(Third Base)
(Hitting)

Player stats

= Indicates team leader

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; SB = Stolen bases

Pos	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI	SB
C	97	304	76	.250	5	31	2
1B	152	572	147	.257	23	85	12
2B	122	375	86	.229	7	39	2
3B	154	573	159	.277	13	77	3
SS	142	437	102	.233	6	41	3
LF	145	517	148	.286	9	60	41
CF	126	361	99	.274	3	27	23
RF	148	542	145	.268	14	70	6

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; SB = Stolen bases

G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI	SB
100	290	69	.238	7	42	3
126	258	56	.217	0	21	37
80	203	55	.271	3	18	5
92	155	38	.245	6	13	15
76	136	30	.221	1	12	1
85	114	31	.272	2	17	1
26	74	19	.257	1	2	1
32	74	12	.162	0	2	3
20	47	8	.170	0	4	1
21	44	10	.227	0	1	0
13	41	9	.220	0	3	0
13	10	3	.300	0	2	0
4	5	1	.200	0	1	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games played; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
34	232.0	16	7	3.18	142
33	215.2	10	11	2.84	129
31	201.1	11	12	4.38	158
33	198.1	9	13	3.31	152
24	176.2	12	9	2.39	175

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
10	31.2	1	2	4.83	23
7	29.2	0	4	6.67	26
7	26.1	0	3	5.13	21

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
68	9	3	28	2.55	54
57	3	5	2	4.68	40
43	6	4	3	5.77	44
31	0	1	2	1.50	35
20	3	2	0	5.48	15
19	0	2	0	2.18	15
12	0	2	0	3.31	14
11	1	1	0	4.95	11
4	0	0	0	1.93	2
3	0	0	0	6.75	3
1	0	0	0	9.00	0
1	0	0	0	27.00	0

Award winners

Mark Langston, National League Pitcher of the Month, July

1989 Major League Baseball All-Star Game

Farm system

External links

1989 Montreal Expos team at Baseball-Reference
1989 Montreal Expos team at baseball-almanac.com

Notes and References

https://www.baseball-reference.com/a/aldremi01.shtml Mike Aldrete
https://www.baseball-reference.com/o/owensp01.shtml Spike Owen
https://www.baseball-reference.com/l/langsma01.shtml Mark Langston
https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/smithza01.shtml Zane Smith
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/piattdo01.shtml Doug Piatt
https://www.baseball-reference.com/c/candejo01.shtml John Candelaria
https://www.baseball-reference.com/j/johnsch04.shtml Charles Johnson
https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/bochtdo01.shtml Doug Bochtler
Web site: The Baseball Cube - Research Site for Pro + College Stats + draft.
Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007