On September 29, 2004 — Hours after MLB’s announcement of the franchise’s impending shift to Washington, D.C. in 2005, the Expos played their final game in Montreal, a 9-1 loss to Florida before 31,395 enthusiastic fans at Olympic Stadium.
As part of the ceremonies, the team commemorates their unfinished 1994 season by unfurling a banner that reads “1994 Meilleure quipe du Baseball/Best Team in Baseball,” a reference to the club’s 74-40 record before the work stoppage ended the season and the city’s hopes of playing in a World Series.
The nation’s capital, which was chosen over finalists including Las Vegas and Northern Virginia, will have baseball for the first time in 33 years since the expansion Senators left in 1971 to become the Texas Rangers.
