MLB commissioner Bud Selig gives Montreal fans hope for return of baseball

This is what Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said Tuesday about baseball in Montreal, in the wake of the 96,350 or so fans who showed up for a meaningless two-game exhibition series between the New York Mets and the Toronto Blue Jays last March:

As you can imagine, Montreal baseball fans skipped right past the double "they have a lot of work to do" part, and right to the "excellent candidate in the future" part.

Hopefully they stopped and pondered that "no hard or angry feelings towards Montreal at all" part. Seriously? Why would Selig have any such feelings? Did the city somehow betray or disappoint him, break his heart? He's got that part backwards. No question about it.

Who were that "lot of people" in Montreal that the commissioner, who celebrates his 80th birthday in a couple of weeks, talked to in Montreal? Well, he didn't name names. So, "people." No question about it.

Sportsnet's Shi Davidi flashed back to baseball's general managers meetings last November, when Selig was asked about the work done by the Montreal Baseball Project, including a feasibility study about what it would take to get another baseball franchise back in the city that lost the Expos in 2004.

Here's what he said:

Translation?

The feasibility study, which you'd have to think is on the conservative side so as not to scare everyone away, starts at $1 billion – a franchise relocation fee and a (conservative) estimate of $500 million for a new ballpark.

In the end, it always comes back to the new ballpark. When the Expos were in Montreal, it was the new ballpark. And they couldn't come close to getting it done even if the purported price tag was about half what it has since become.

Since their departure, the price of baseball has gone up another half-billion dollars with that relocation fee, and the purported cost of a new stadium has doubled. This isn't going in the right direction. And every year baseball is gone from the city, and everyone somehow manages to survive and thrive, doesn't help the cause, either.

Yes, there should definitely be more sports network television money available this time around (a decade ago, they wouldn't even carry the Expos' games except under duress, and as long as the club shouldered the financial burden). But is that close to enough?

The feasibility study also notes that a "modest but competitive payroll" is equally an assumption in the return of baseball to the city. Which, generally, is an oxymoron depending on your definition of "modest", as well as your definition of "competitive."

The mantra in Montreal, through all the difficult years, was that the fans would surely come out if they had a winning team. A "modest but competitive payroll" doesn't come with huge odds of getting that done.

So, to sum up: Bud Selig spoke. He committed to absolutely nothing (the Selig mantra). Everything remains status quo. No question about it.

Also worth noting: Selig left another door open this week, this one concerning banned former baseball superstar Pete Rose and the All-Star game to be held in Cincinnati in 2015.

He's a world-class open-door leaver. No question about it.

In the end, Montreal is still waiting for a benevolent billionaire (and he won't be a hometown Mr. Money Bags) with a massive jones for baseball to step in and save the day.

Sort of like Jeffrey Loria – except with a bank account about 100 times greater, and no stepson who wants to run the team.

If there's one lesson to be learned from the Expos' 35-year history in the city, it's that an endeavour started up on a shoestring budget will always be hanging by that string, until it ultimately hangs itself.

The difference between now and 1969 is that said shoestring is no longer plain white cotton, but 18-karat gold-encrusted titanium. No question about it.

On that note, we leave you with this:

The Perfect Storm - Story of the 1994 Montreal Expos - Teaser/Trailer from Sean Menard on Vimeo.