Expos Forced to Wait as L.A. Violence Grows

They flipped on the clubhouse television minutes after their 9-3 victory Thursday over the Padres, and then the Montreal Expos dressed with one eye on their socks and the other on pictures from Los Angeles.

The Expos were subdued, withdrawn and nervous. They are due in Los Angeles today for a weekend series with the Dodgers, and they do not want to go.

“I’d rather go back to my own beautiful country,” said outfielder Larry Walker, who is from Canada. “We don’t need to go there.”

Said former Dodger pitcher John Wetteland: “Definitely not, for a number of reasons. Carry on a baseball game while all of this is going on? It’s kind of like the earthquake in the World Series, and how the games became secondary.

“We’re talking human lives here.”

The Expos were supposed to travel to Los Angeles immediately after Thursday’s game, but canceled those plans and chose to remain in San Diego overnight.

If there is a game tonight, the Expos will leave San Diego at 1:30 p.m. and ride a bus directly to Dodger Stadium. If there is no game, they won’t go near Los Angeles.

“We’re just waiting, you know?” said Expos Manager Tom Runnells. “It’s kind of like an extended rain delay. You don’t know what’s going to happen.”

If the Expos do go to Los Angeles, they will stay at a hotel in Pasadena. They already have canceled their reservations at the Los Angeles Hilton.

Infielder Tom Foley, Montreal’s player representative, spoke with Mark Belanger, special assistant in the Major League Baseball Players’ Assn., and said that the Expos have also been in contact with NL President Bill White and the Dodgers. Foley said that they talked about moving the Expos-Dodgers series to Montreal Saturday through Monday or moving the series to Anaheim Stadium.

Both options, he said, failed to materialize.

“A lot of us feel like the games won’t take place,” Foley said. “By looking at the TV shots they’re sending out all over the world, how can you say, ‘Everything is fine now; you go play the game?’ ”

Despite the victory, Montreal’s clubhouse was much quieter than your average major league clubhouse after a loss. Many Expos said they had followed the Rodney King case and couldn’t believe the verdict.

“I followed it pretty closely, and I have a hard time believing justice was served,” Wetteland said. “It’s better to steer clear of (Los Angeles) now until things are cleared out and, hopefully, justice is served to those four (police) men.

“It’s hard to draw your attention away from what’s going on. That’s one of the most difficult things. I found myself talking about it during the game.”

The live reports continued on the television on the clubhouse wall. Players stared, some blankly and some intently, as the screen flashed the words, “State of Emergency.”

Most of them had also stayed up late Wednesday night, also watching the riots. Pitcher Mark Gardner, from Fresno, had already told his wife to stay home and not meet him in Los Angeles.

“I’d rather just go home,” pitcher Dennis Martinez said.

He gestured toward the television.

“This will not be over in one or two days.”