Going, Going...

The gates have opened at Olympic Stadium, but no more than 50 people are in the stands and fewer than a dozen are clustered around the Montreal Expo dugout, begging for spare bats or autographs. No one is lining up for biere (beer) or a boisson gazeuse (carbonated drink) at the concession stands.

It’s quiet. Ghost-town quiet. A silence that resonates of sadness and loss and happier times that will never be recaptured.

In a deserted corridor across from a shuttered souvlaki stand, Jackie Robinson’s likeness peers down from a plaque on the Expos’ Wall of Excellence. Noting that Robinson played for the minor league Montreal Royals before he became the first African American player in the major leagues, the plaque features a quote from the Hall of Fame infielder.

This is the city for me. This is paradise.

And it was, and not only for him.

A vibrant city where French and English have lived for centuries in sometimes tenuous harmony, Montreal opened its heart to the expansion Expos in 1969. The NHL Canadiens inspired awe. The Expos, jaunty in their red, white and blue caps, inspired affection.

They had style and flair, featuring such stars as Coco Laboy, Rusty Staub, Bill Stoneman, Gary Carter, Andre Dawson and Tim Raines. Playing in a city that looks American, only cleaner, the Expos brought a dash of foreign chic to America’s pastime.

But love was eventually trampled by money, and the Expos have been pushed to the brink of extinction.

A victim of fan resentment after the 1994 player strike--they led the National League East by six games and lost a likely World Series trip when the season was cut short--they also were hurt by small-market financial limitations and ownership changes. Attendance declined steeply, falling below 8,000 a game last season.

Targeted for contraction by Major League Baseball last winter, they got a reprieve when a grievance filed by the players’ union postponed their demise. But because baseball Commissioner Bud Selig anticipated contraction would be approved and had allowed Expo owner Jeffrey Loria to buy the Florida Marlins, the Expos landed in Selig’s lap, to be operated by Major League Baseball this season. After that, they could be moved--perhaps to Washington--or dissolved.

Just like that. Paradise lost.

“I am always here watching them since they began, 33 years,” retiree Pierette Turcotte said while watching batting practice last week, a bright spot in a sea of empty seats. “They’re going to leave, and I can’t tell you how much I will miss them.”

But if this is the end, the Expos are going out in style.

Although they have little depth and their pitching is largely unproven, their prolific hitting has lifted them atop the NL East for 20 days. Not bad, considering there’s no blueprint for conducting business while a sword hangs over your head.

“This is sort of like a situation where you go in to see the doctor and you’re told you’ve got terminal cancer and you’ve got six months to live,” said Expo President Tony Tavares, who was recruited by Selig in February, a month after he resigned as president of the Angels and Mighty Ducks.

“You can be despondent and sulk, or you can choose to celebrate life. That’s what we asked the players to do, celebrate life. And they have. This is really all about baseball. There’s almost a baseball purity to it right now.”

Gallows humor helps too.

“There’s no five-year plan here,” said General Manager Omar Minaya, a Dominican native and baseball’s first Latino GM. “This is not like one of those situations where we’re going to trade for some young players. We’re about trying to win now and win as many games as possible.”

They won six in a row in mid-April before losing two of three to St. Louis and slipping into a tie for first with the New York Mets. They’re winning because of the bat of right fielder Vladimir Guerrero, who’s on target to exceed the 118 runs batted in he averaged the last four seasons and is among the NL leaders with a .383 batting average. Second baseman Jose Vidro (.318) and catcher Michael Barrett (.370), like Guerrero a product of Montreal’s superb scouting and development system, have established themselves as core players.

“There’s really not a ton of pressure because we’re not expected to do anything,” Tavares said. “This reminds me of the early days of the Ducks, from the standpoint that we didn’t have a lot of time to put this together. No one got hung up on a title or a role. Everybody pitched in. That’s how it is up here.”

Frank Robinson, persuaded by Selig to relinquish his duties as vice president of on-field operations for Major League Baseball and return to managing after an 11-year absence, is impressed by his players’ demeanor.

“I’ve never been around a team like this. Nothing seems to bother them,” he said. “They have something what I would kind of call special.

“I told myself I was going to make it be fun and I wasn’t going to let anything get me down. But the attitude of the players, from spring training, I could see it was great. They never let the attitude from the world outside carry over. I knew from there it was going to be enjoyable.”

But there haven’t been many fans around to enjoy it.

“It’s almost like we walk out of the tunnel [to the field] every night hoping there will be more fans,” first baseman Lee Stevens said. “And maybe there will be, if we keep winning and playing well.

“It’s a great city. As a player, you get used to moving around, but the sad thing here is I think the fans are going to miss us. Next spring, when the season rolls around, I hope they don’t regret it.”

The Expos have drawn an average of 8,143] fans to the cavernous stadium called “the Big Owe” for the debt its construction and the 1976 Olympics left the city. (Tavares said club executives call it “the Orphanage,” and dubbed themselves “Les Miserables.”)

Too bland and big to be cozy like Jarry Park, the Expos’ first home, Olympic Stadium echoes like a tomb between pitches. The upper deck is cordoned off, leaving fans scattered among the yellow and blue seats on the lower levels. Youppi!, the team’s furry orange mascot, clomps around and tries to generate enthusiasm, but it’s not easy.

“Everybody believed Loria was a hero at the beginning, but he was a crook,” said Jean Claude Trottier of Montreal, sitting with friends at a recent game. “It’s all a frame-up from the owners. They’re killing the spirit here.”

It wasn’t always this way. The Expos drew more than 2 million fans four times and nearly 1.5 million in 1997. However, their tight budget didn’t allow them to keep their young stars, and fans became disenchanted by the constant turnover.

The fans who remained had to make an effort to follow them. The Expos had no English-language radio outlet last season and have no local TV package this season, although they’re negotiating to get some games on the air.

“I think young people in Montreal love baseball, but it has been tough to be an Expos fan the last few seasons,” said Serge Alarie, who makes the 90-minute drive from Trois Rivieres with his son, Philippe, two or three times a season. “It’s sad this will be the last season for the Expos.”

Attendance traditionally has been low in April, while school and the Canadiens’ playoff run are in session.

This season, though, poisoned by the threat of contraction, has been the worst. The Expos drew 34,351 fans for their opener but drew barely 3,500 at each of two weeknight games that conflicted with Canadien playoff games during their last home stand.

Infielder Mike Mordecai, an Alabama native who’s in his fourth season in Montreal, said players long ago decided to block out thoughts about the team’s future. He hopes fans will do the same, and enjoy the present.

“There’s a whole lot of baseball fans here, and they’re not going to waste their time or spend their money or energy on a losing team,” he said. “They love their hockey team here, but I’ve said all along if this team starts to win, you’ll see 20,000 or 25,000 people here.”

The Expos haven’t surrendered to what seems inevitable. They’ve cut ticket prices, let kids in for $1 on family days and scheduled six bobblehead doll giveaways. They’re also tentatively planning to invest in a marketing campaign this month.

It’s probably too little too late. Lisa Derepentigny, who boasted she was “born an Expo in ‘67,” the year of the World’s Fair that gave the team its name, mourns the prospect of losing her team after the season.

“My boyfriend wants to take the kids to ballgames because his father never took him to baseball games,” she said. “My kids are 9 and 5 and it will be sad if they can’t grow up watching the Expos.”

After thinking for a moment, she brightened. “Right now they’re doing really well,” she said. “If they continue in first place, there may be more fans, and if there are more fans, maybe the team will stay.”

Minaya is determined to be positive, because the team’s fate is out of its hands.

“If it is our last season,” he said, “we can leave with our heads high and know we did the best we can, not only for baseball but for the city of Montreal.”

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Teams’ Drawing Power

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*--* How They Compare Attendance per game (rank) 2002 2002 record (rank) payroll (rank) SEATTLE (1st) 41,318 N.Y. BOSTON (1st) 17-7 (.708) YANKEES (1st) $125,92 8,583 MINNESOTA (23rd) 20,727 MINNESO MINNESOTA (T7th) 17-11 (.607) TA (27th) $40,225 ,000 MONTREAL (30th) 8,143 MONTREA MONTREAL (T4th) 17-10 (.630) L (29th) $38,670 ,500 Source: Major League Baseball TAMPA MILWAUKEE (30th) 8-19 (.296) BAY (30th) $34,380 ,000

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