Who grieves for the Montreal Expos?

The 2016 World Series has generated much excitement and much talk because the two teams involved have tortured histories.

Cleveland hasn't won the Series since 1948. The Chicago Cubs haven't won the Series since 1908, and haven't even played in the Fall Classic since 1945.

Shed a tear if you must, but the fans of another team have had it far worse. Their team has never won the World Series, and they've never played in one, either.

We speak, of course, of the Montreal Expos. From 1969 to 2004 they played 5,698 games. They never made it to the World Series. Never. What hurts even more is that the Expos never will play in the Series. Their fans have been robbed of the trickle of oxygen that breathes life into the ones of even the most hapless of teams. There is no next year for the Expos. Major League Baseball moved the franchise to Washington 11 years ago.

Thirty-six seasons of major-league baseball in Montreal without winning it all may not sound like much compared to the Cubs, who have waited 108 seasons. But since the Expos' inaugural season, the Cubs have played in five National League Championship Series. The Expos played in just one.

The Cubs have a guy named Steve Bartman as their NLCS bringer-of-doom. He was a fan who tried to catch a foul ball, knocking it away from Cubs outfielder — and former Expo Moise Alou of all people — opening the floodgates to a big inning for the opposing team. The Cubs lost that game, and the next day they lost the series. This was heartbreak by the domino theory — one event leading to another event leading to another event. There were countless chances to turn it around.

Blue Monday

By contrast, the Expos' one NLCS appearance was heartbreak by sudden catastrophe. It was the last inning of the last game of a tied game in the 1981 NLCS. The Expos had recorded two outs. And then a Los Angeles Dodger named Rick Monday hit a home run. The day is forever remembered (painfully) as Blue Monday.

The Cubs are said to be cursed by Billy Sianis, who once owned a Chicago tavern. For some reason, Mr. Sianis brought his pet goat to Game 4 of the 1945 World Series. Not surprisingly, other fans complained about the odour, and Mr. Sianis was asked to leave. He was so insulted that he put a hex on the Cubs, declaring that the team would never win a World Series again. And they haven't.

It's unclear who or what cursed the Expos, but consider this. The World Series has been played since 1903. It's been played through both world wars, in addition to the Korean and Vietnam wars. The only thing to derail it was a players' strike that wiped out the end of the 1994 season, the post-season and World Series. It was particularly heartbreaking for the Expos.

The last game was played on Aug. 11, with the Expos leading the National League East by six games over the Atlanta Braves.

When the strike began, the Expos were the best team in baseball. Their record was 74 wins against just 40 losses. Their pitchers had the best era in baseball. They featured offensive talents like Larry Walker, Marquis Grissom, and Alou. Just when it seemed everything would align for an Expos World Series, the whole thing vanished. It had never happened before. It hasn't happened since.

It wasn't a goat that got the Expos. It was a labour dispute. How sad is that?

Either Cleveland or Chicago will lose the World Series this year. The fans in that city will go on suffering. They will be too busy feeling sorry for themselves to give a thought to fans of the Montreal Expos. But to alter a line from poet Alfred Lord Tennyson: "Tis better to have played and lost than never to have played at all."