Blue Jay hopes Montreal will get its mitts on another MLB franchise
MONTREAL Toronto Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin not only thinks Montreal deserves another Major League Baseball team, he believes when the new team arrives it should play in the American League.
“To kind of rival Toronto’s team,” said Martin, who was born in Toronto and raised in Montreal. “I think it would be good for baseball. It definitely would make sense to have that extra rivalry right there.”
This is the third year the Jays have played spring training games in Montreal and there are hopes in La Belle Province that once (and if) a new stadium is built downtown, Major League Baseball will expand back into Montreal. The Expos played in the National League from 1969 to 2004, when they relocated to Washington, D.C.
At this point, it’s all about having someone step up and build a stadium and invest in a team. The total cost of both would be well over $1 billion. But one thing this city has in its favour is Mayor Denis Coderre, who is going all out to bring MLB back to the city.
“I think first of all we need a team, but clearly you have a lot of people who wish to be in the same (division) as the Red Sox, the Yankees, the Orioles and, of course, the Blue Jays,” said Coderre. “But one step at a time. What’s important is to get a team, but we have to connect the dots. We need a serious plan to work on and we’re on that big time. I will announce later on a major action plan for baseball in Montreal. We have the fans. We sold out 106,000 tickets (for this weekend), which is amazing for exhibition games.”
Coderre said Montreal and Toronto will be signing an agreement with a “baseball clause” attached. Toronto Mayor John Tory is expected to attend Saturday’s final pre-season game at Olympic Stadium. Russell, meanwhile, is champing at the bit to get the regular season started.
It would be good for baseball. It definitely would make sense to have that extra rivalry right there.” RUSSELL MARTIN
“I feel the guys are pretty excited, the troops are ready to go, definitely want to pick up where we left off,” he said. “I think we have some unfinished business to take care of this year, but there’s a long season ahead. It’s going to be a grind, I think everybody knows it’s a marathon and I think people are going to be trying to come after us this year and we’re well aware of that.
“But I like our team, I like our depth, I think we have more depth when it comes to starting pitching, I think our bullpen is much tighter and is going to be much more consistent, especially where we started from last year. And offensively I feel like we have a good enough team to make two lineups out there.”