1989 Montreal Expos season

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.

1989 Montreal Expos
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s)Charles Bronfman
General manager(s)Dave Dombrowski
Manager(s)Buck Rodgers
Local televisionCBC Television
(Dave Van Horne, Ken Singleton)
The Sports Network
(Ken Singleton, Jim Hughson)
Télévision de Radio-Canada
(Claude Raymond, Raymond Lebrun)
Local radioCJAD (English)
(Dave Van Horne, Bobby Winkles, Jerry Trupiano)
CKAC (French)
(Jacques Doucet, Rodger Brulotte)
< Previous season     Next season >

The team peaked on August 2 with an NL best record of 63-44, holding a 3-game lead in the NL 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 1st 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 offence, 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 after such a big win now move only added to the owner's frustration.

Offseason

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

Season standings
NL East W L Pct. GB Home Road
Chicago Cubs 9369 0.574 — 48–33 45–36
New York Mets 8775 0.537 6 51–30 36–45
St. Louis Cardinals 8676 0.531 7 46–35 40–41
Montreal Expos 8181 0.500 12 44–37 37–44
Pittsburgh Pirates 7488 0.457 19 39–42 35–46
Philadelphia Phillies 6795 0.414 26 38–42 29–53

Record vs. opponents
1989 National League Records

Sources:
Team ATL CHC CIN HOU LAD MON NYM PHI PIT SD SF STL
Atlanta —5–78–108–106–106–62–108–44–87–116–123–9
Chicago 7–5—7–55–77–510–810–810–812–68–46–611–7
Cincinnati 10–85–7—8–108–104–84–84–87–59–98–108–4
Houston 10–87–510–8—10–84–86–69–37–58–108–107–5
Los Angeles 10–65–710–88–10—7–55–76–67–56–1210–83–9
Montreal 6–68–108–48–45–7—9–99–911–75–77–55–13
New York 10–28–108–46–67–59–9—12–69–95–73–910–8
Philadelphia 4-88–108–43–96–69–96–12—10–82–104–87–11
Pittsburgh 8–46–125–75–75–77–119–98–10—3–95–713–5
San Diego 11–74–89–910–812–67–57–510–29–3—8–102–10
San Francisco 12–66–610–810–88–105–79–38–47–510–8—7–5
St. Louis 9–37–114–85–79–313–58–1011–75–1310–25–7—

Notable transactions

Draft Picks

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 Manager

Coaches

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 Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI SB
CNelson Santovenia9730476.2505312
1BAndrés Galarraga152572147.257238512
2BTom Foley12237586.2297392
3BTim Wallach154573159.27713773
SSSpike Owen142437102.2336413
LFTim Raines145517148.28696041
CFDave Martinez12636199.27432723
RFHubie Brooks148542145.26814706

Other batters
Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI SB
Rex Hudler9215538.245613
Mike Aldrete7613630.221112

Pitching

Starting pitchers
Player G IP W L ERA SO
Dennis Martínez342321673.18142
Mark Langston24176.21292.39175

Other pitchers
Player G IP W L ERA SO

Relief pitchers
Player G W L SV ERA SO
Gene Harris111104.9511

Award winners
  • Mark Langston, National League Pitcher of the Month, July

1989 Major League Baseball All-Star Game

Farm system
See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Indianapolis Indians American Association Tom Runnells
AA Jacksonville Expos Southern League Alan Bannister
A West Palm Beach Expos Florida State League Felipe Alou
A Rockford Expos Midwest League Mike Quade
A-Short Season Jamestown Expos New York–Penn League Don Werner
Rookie GCL Expos Gulf Coast League Jerry Weinstein

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Indianapolis, Jamestown[10]

References
  1. Mike Aldrete at Baseball-Reference
  2. Spike Owen at Baseball-Reference
  3. Mark Langston at Baseball-Reference
  4. Zane Smith at Baseball-Reference
  5. Doug Piatt at Baseball-Reference
  6. John Candelaria at Baseball-Reference
  7. Charles Johnson at Baseball-Reference
  8. Doug Bochtler at Baseball-Reference
  9. http://www.thebaseballcube.com/statistics/1989/18.shtml
  10. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
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