Hard-nosed Doug Schuyler has been hounding me for the past few weeks to reveal what team I’m bringing to the Chicagoland APBA World Series Tournament. To be fair, I’ve been brushing him off (sorry, Doug!) My decision has been made though. I’m getting the 1984 Montreal Expos ready for the tourney.
Honestly, the ‘84 Expos aren’t the best in that era. They went 78-83 and ended in fifth place in the NL East. I haven’t been stopped from bringing sub-par teams to Chicago tournaments in the past. I brought a last place Chicago Cubs team last time and still won a game. The Expos do have a fun team with the heavy bats of Gary Carter, Tim Raines and Andre Dawson.
One anomaly exists with this team… they really don’t have a full-time first baseman. No one started more than 49 games at first that year.
Terry Francona (yes, THAT one) played the most with 50 games and Dan Driessen putting in 45. Both are 1B-4. Pete Rose actually played 40 at first for Montreal but he was traded to the Phils mid-season and wasn’t carded for the team. Even Gary Carter chipped in with 25 games as a first-sacker. The good news for me is that Francona batted .346 obviously in limited play. And no, that wasn’t my reason for choosing this team. That was just a juicy afterthought.
I’ll need Francona’s card (and maybe his managerial advice) because the Expos’ pitching isn’t much to write home about. If memory serves, I’m bringing a B-C-C-D rotation. It was Steve Rogers’ off-year.
Finally, Scott Fennessy will be happy to know that the 1984 Expos team I’ll be using comes from the set that you gifted me at a previous tournament weekend. What comes around goes around.
Hi Tom,
I have the 81 Expos. Could get interesting.