In the End, I Was an Expo Trivia Quiz

Answer: Graig Nettles

Graig Nettles played half of his 22-year MLB career with the New York Yankees, helping them win two World Series titles, in 1977 and 1978. He was acquired by Montreal prior to the start of the 1988 season, and hit a home run in his very first at-bat as an Expo. It would unfortunately be the only home run hit by Nettles all year, and the last one of his career.

Answer: Woodie Fryman

Left-handed pitcher Woodie Fryman played 18 seasons for six different teams in his MLB career, retiring in 1983 at the age of 43. He was named Expos Player-of-the-Year for 1976, when he finished with a record of 13-13 and an ERA of 3.37 for a Montreal team that lost 107 games.

Answer: Lee Smith

Lee Smith became MLB's all-time saves leader in 1993 when he logged his 358th save while pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals, moving ahead of Jeff Reardon and holding the record until Trevor Hoffman broke it in 2006. The Cardinals were Smith's third team of what would eventually amount to eight teams played for in his 18-year career.

He was signed as a free agent by Montreal in 1997, appearing in 25 games and registering 5 saves.

Answer: Henry Rodriguez

Expos' outfielder and sometime first baseman Henry Rodriguez made the 1996 All-Star game on his way to hitting 36 home runs, breaking Andre Dawson's team record of 32, and driving in 103 runs, earning Expos Player-of-the-Year honors. He was traded to the Chicago Cubs following the 1997 season, where he hit 31 home runs in just 415 at-bats in 1998, the year of the McGwire/Sosa HR record chase.

He returned to the Expos for the start of the 2002 season but was released shortly afterwards after managing just one hit in 20 at-bats.

Answer: Jason Thompson

Left-handed hitting first baseman Jason Thompson slugged over 30 home runs twice during his 11-year career, with the Tigers in 1977, and with the Pirates in 1982, when his 101 walks were second most in the National League to Mike Schmidt's 107. His first and only season with the Expos was 1986, but he was released by the team halfway through the season after an unproductive .196 batting average in 52 at-bats without a home run.

Answer: Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers was a first-round draft pick by the Expos in 1971 and made his major league debut with the team as a mid-season call-up in 1973. He finished second for the Rookie-of-the-Year award that year, going 10-5 with an ERA of 1.54. He won 158 games for the Expos in a career that spanned from 1973 to 1985.

He had a Cy Young-worthy season in 1982, with a 19-8 record and league-leading 2.40 ERA, but finished a distant second in the vote to perennial contender Steve Carlton.

Answer: Bill Lee

Left-handed pitcher Bill Lee played ten years with the Boston Red Sox before being traded to Montreal after the 1978 season. He contributed a team-leading 16 wins in 1979, the Expos' first-ever winning season, but he would win a total of only nine games over the course of the next two seasons, losing his spot in the starting rotation, and was let go by the team in 1982.

Answer: Roy Face

Veteran reliever Elroy Face was acquired by the Montreal Expos in late April of their inaugural 1969 season, collecting four wins and five saves before being released by the team and retiring at age 41. He finished seventh in the National League MVP voting for his remarkable 1959 season when he recorded 18 wins and only one loss, and helped the Pirates win the World Series against the Yankees the next year.

At the time of his retirement in 1969, he ranked second to Hoyt Wilhelm for the most career saves in MLB history with 191.

Answer: Dave McNally

Dave McNally was one of four Orioles pitchers to win 20 games in 1971, his fourth consecutive 20-win season, and won World Series titles in 1966 and 1970 with Baltimore. In what turned out to be a completely lopsided trade, the Montreal Expos sent outfielder Ken Singleton and pitcher Mike Torrez to Baltimore in December 1974 in return of McNally and outfielder Rich Coggins. Singleton became a star with the Orioles, and Torrez won 20 games his first year there. With the Expos in 1975, McNally chose to retire after pitching a mere twelve games, and Coggins didn't make it past June before being dealt to the New York Yankees for cash.

Answer: Gary Carter

Gary Carter played 19 years in the major leagues, twelve of them as a member of the Montreal Expos. He was used mostly as an outfielder his rookie season of 1975, finishing second to pitcher John Montefusco for the Rookie-of-the-Year award. He became the Expos' full-time catcher in 1977, when he hit 31 home runs, breaking Rusty Staub's team record of 30.

In one of the most unpopular trades in Expos history, Carter was dealt to the New York Mets after the 1984 season, but he would return to Montreal for his final season of 1992, and would hit a game-winning RBI double in his final at-bat.