Blue Jays' return to World Series stirs memories of the Expos for some P.E.I. fans

The World Series is here, and the Toronto Blue Jays are back on baseball’s biggest stage for the first time in more than 30 years.

But for many longtime fans, the moment stirs memories of another beloved Canadian team: the late, great Montreal Expos.

The Jays face off against the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers at Rogers Centre starting at 9 p.m. AT Friday.

And while some fans still carry a torch for Montreal’s lost franchise, many say they’ll still be tuning in and cheering for the Jays.

Campbell Webster, owner of Timothy’s World Coffee in Charlottetown, is one of them.

More than two decades after the Expos left the city, Webster said the loss still feels fresh. But when people ask if he’ll be watching the Jays, his answer is yes.

“Just because our beautiful marriage between fans and that team have ended, it doesn't mean you don't appreciate somebody else's beautiful marriage,” Webster told CBC’s Island Morning.

“If you've had 30, 40, years of loving a team, and then suddenly they vanish, you just don't go down the street and gather another one. It is a bit like that. But I enjoy it. I'm rooting for them. I see the Canada context, but it's not as deep as my first love.”

For fellow Expos fan and retired CBC journalist Ian Petrie, the transition took time. When the team moved from Montreal to Washington, he said he felt no loyalty toward the new Nationals squad and even shared some common grudges Expos fans held against Toronto.

“I kind of got over it then, and I have followed the Blue Jays closely, I have to admit, for the last four or five years,” Petrie said.

The Montreal Expos were a dying franchise — pitiful payroll, low attendance, middling results on the field. But in 1994, a long period of "rebuilding" finally yielded results.

The Expos led the National League East, six games ahead of the Atlanta Braves (a team that spent twice as much on player salaries).

Attendance was up, and many thought the Expos were a lock for the World Series. Then a labour dispute brought it all to a screeching halt on Aug. 12, 1994.

“What happened in 1994, I think will always be for a baseball fan… a huge disappointment. I mean, you had a collection of players that we'd gotten to know, and you'd watch them develop,” Petrie said.