March 6, 1969: Montreal Expos’ first spring training game

March 15, 2024

By Kevin Glew

Cooperstowners in Canada

On Monday, I wrote about the 47th anniversary of the Toronto Blue Jays’ first spring training game that took place on March 11, 1977 in Dunedin, Fla.

But what happened in the Montreal Expos’ first spring training contest eight years earlier?

I did some digging to find out and I managed to uncover articles written by Ted Blackman of the Montreal Gazette and Dan Rosenburg of the Montreal Star.

Here are the details:

– On March 6, 1969, the Expos defeated the Kansas City Royals 9-8 in front of 1,768 fans at Terry Park Ballfield in Fort Myers, Fla. This stadium was the Royals’ spring training home from 1969 to 1987 and was known for its hard and unpredictable playing surface. Blackman wrote that half of the hits in this game were due to “strange bounces over the fielders’ heads.”

– It was only fitting that the Expos play the Royals in their first professional game. From 1928 to 1960, the International League team that played in Montreal was nicknamed the Royals. Blackman notes in his account of the game that the Kansas City Royals players were “wearing uniforms identical to those of the old Montreal club.”

– Florida governor Claude Kirk threw out the first pitch, while Expos owner Charles Bronfman made a short speech in French to the fans prior to the game.

– With his team trailing 8-6 in the top of the ninth, Expos first baseman Bob Bailey belted a 423-foot, three-run home run over the left field wall to put the Expos ahead 9-8. Hard-throwing rookie right-hander Bob Reynolds, who pitched just one game for Montreal in the 1969 regular season, registered the final three outs for the Expos in the bottom of the frame.

– The first pitcher to take the mound for the Expos in their spring training debut was Jack Billingham, who later starred on two World Series-winning Cincinnati Reds teams in 1975 and 1976. Billingham, who allowed four runs on eight hits in three innings in Montreal’s first spring contest, was dealt to the Houston Astros prior to pitching a single regular season game for the Expos.

– The rest of the Expos staff was also hit hard. Left-hander Dan McGinn was the most impressive, limiting the Royals to one run in three innings. But Carroll Sembera, a slender, 155-pound righty, allowed four runs on four hits and three walks to the Royals in his two innings of work.

– In fact, Blackman indicates in his game report that Sembera was so wild that the Royals almost scored three runs on a wild pitch. In the eighth inning with the bases loaded and a full count on the batter, all of the Royals runners were on the move when Sembera uncorked a wild pitch. Two runs scored while Expos catcher John Bateman retrieved the ball. But Bateman managed to tag the third runner out that was attempting to score.

-Expos second baseman Gary Sutherland had three hits in his club’s winning effort, including a triple into the right field corner. Bateman added two hits – a double and a single.

– The Expos’ second spring training game took place the next day at West Palm Beach Municipal Stadium. This was the Expos’ home stadium that they shared with the Atlanta Braves. That day, they would compete against the Braves. Propelled by a lineup that included Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, future Blue Jay Rico Carty and Aaron’s brother Tommie, as well as three scoreless innings from Phil Niekro, the Braves prevailed 4-3.

– It’s interesting to note that Felipe Alou, later a beloved manager with the Expos, was the starting centre fielder and leadoff hitter for the Braves in that game.

– Also, in that second Expos’ spring game, St-Jean, Que., native Claude Raymond, who later pitched for the Expos, hurled the final three innings for the Braves.