What Happened To The Montreal Expos First Home, Jarry Park?

In 1969, a small baseball field in Montreal was transformed into a near 30,000 seat major league ready stadium. In today’s video, we’ll take a look back at how the Montreal Expos’ desperate search for a temporary stadium, found them transforming an amateur baseball field into their home that lasted for eight seasons.

The Breakthrough

Well before Jarry Park existed, Delorimier Stadium was the preeminent place to watch a baseball game in Montreal. Built in 1928, Delorimier stadium was the home to the Brooklyn Dodgers triple A affiliate team, the Montreal Royals for many years. But, after the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958, and what owner Walter O’Malley described as “weak attendance” hurting the Royals, it didn’t take long for the Dodgers to cut ties with the Royals as their affiliate club. With the Dodgers’ affiliation gone, this put the Royals’ time in Montreal in jeopardy. Around the same period, a new 3,000 seat baseball stadium was being built, named Jarry Park. The small stadium was built mainly to host local amateur baseball games, but there was a thought that it could someday be expanded to host minor league baseball games, possibly even with the Royals. A breakthrough came when the Minnesota Twins franchise, having just relocated from Washington D.C., struck a deal with the Royals to become their team’s affiliate. However, attempts to negotiate a new deal with Delorimier Stadium fell through, and rather than use Jarry Park, the International Baseball League unanimously voted to relocate the club to Syracuse New York (where they became the Syracuse Chiefs) instead.

In 1968, MLB officially granted expansion bids to four cities, Kansas City, Seattle, San Diego, and Montreal, with all four new teams set to begin play in the upcoming 1969 season. Because of the speed up expansion process, the new clubs had very little time to prepare before the next season. The Montreal club, who’d later settle on the name “Expos” as their team’s nickname, looked at a few sites for a potential temporary home while they hoped to have a brand new domed stadium built (more on that a little later). The Expos first looked at, and ruled out Delorimier Stadium mainly due to its size of only 20,000 seats, and the inability to expand the stadium because of its proximity to a residential area. The Montreal Alouettes’ home, The Autostade, was also briefly considered but it too needed to be expanded and there was uncertainty over who would pay the expense of renovating the federally owned stadium. The Expos then looked at Jarry Park, and although it only had 3,000 seats, the area surrounding the stadium was largely undeveloped and could be expanded more easily and more cheaply. With mounting pressure from MLB to make a decision, the Expos chose Jarry Park and plans then got underway to renovate the stadium to bring it up to Major League standards. The biggest change of course was adding 25,00 seats to Jarry Park, bringing its capacity to just over 28,000. While that still made it the smallest Major League stadium at that time, it was only just 500 seats shy of Cincinnati’s Crosley Field capacity. Also, even as the league’s smallest stadium, Jarry Park still managed to draw 1.2 million people in its first year. This placed it just inside the top ten attended teams for that year, including ahead of more established clubs like the Yankees, Orioles, Giants, and Phillies.

The Temporary Home

Jarry Park featured symmetrical dimensions, with a posted distance of 420 feet in straight away center and 340 feet at each of the foul poles. One unique feature of the stadium was a public pool that sat just beyond the right field fence. In the Expos first season, Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit a nearly 500 foot blast that landed in the pool. It was the stadium’s first “splash hit” and local fans began to nickname the pool “Willie’s Pool”. Opening day for the Expos and Jarry Park took place on April 14, 1969, where the Expos defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 8-7. This was the first ever MLB game to take place outside of the United States. During that first season, the club explored holding other major events at Jarry Park as well. The Expos actually invited NFL and AFL teams to play preseason games at the stadium, and a few teams agreed to play there. There were two preseason interleague NFL-AFL games played, one featuring the Detroit Lions vs the Boston Patriots and the other featuring the New York Giants vs the Pittsburgh Steelers. Neither game was particularly attended or received very well by fans, with bad weather impacting the second game further subduing interest. In fact, weather and environmental related issues were a pretty regular occurrence at Jarry Park. One issue was that due to the stadium facing northwest, during the late spring and early fall months of the year the setting sun would be shining directly in the first baseman’s eyes. There were even instances where the second game of a double header was delayed so that the sun could set and not be directly in the first baseman’s eyes. Also, during cooler periods, cold winds would blast the infielders due to the large gap between the third-base grandstand and the left-field bleachers. Most glaringly, the stadium had no cover protection for the fans, so games were often delayed or postponed due to inclement conditions.

Jarry Park was of course intended to be a temporary home, until the Expos permanent home could be built. In 1970, Montreal was awarded the Summer Olympics for 1976, and part of that deal was a planned brand new stadium with a retractable roof that could host the opening and closing ceremonies. Montreal’s mayor, Jean Drapeau  (CHON DRAH-POE) had also promised the Expos owner Charles Bronfman, that not only would the Olympic Stadium be the Expos new home but that it also would be open by 1972. Well, as that year approached it became clear that the stadium would not in fact be opening on time, mainly due to a workers strike in 1972 that caused a massive delay in the groundbreaking for the building. This setback caused the Expos to have to get permission from MLB to stay at Jarry Park another season, and repeat this process again and again, as there were continuous delays building Olympic Stadium. It would take another five years before the new stadium was ready for the Expos to move in.

The Transformation

The last ever Expos games played at Jarry Park, took place on September 26, 1976. Montreal lost both games in a doubleheader to the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1 in the first game, and 2-1 in the last game. Although the Expos were gone, many fans would remember the breakout stars that Montral came to know and love during the Expos time at Jarry Park. A star player like Rusty Staub, who was an all-star in each of his three years with Montreal, would eventually have his number 10 retired by the Expos in 1993. Future hall of farmers also got their start as an Expo at Jarry Park, like outfielder Andre Dawson and catcher Gary Carter. In fact, a street near where Jarry Park is today, was renamed after Gary Carter in 2013. In the immediate aftermath of the Expos leaving, Jarry Park continued to hold concerts and other events at the stadium. By the early 1980s, plans got underway to transform Jarry Park from a baseball field into tennis courts. In 1996, the park’s center court stadium was built in the footprint of the Jarry Park’s old baseball diamond. Presently, the stadium is named after the grocery chain IGA, and has a capacity of 11,815. Prior to Jarry Park’s transformation into a tennis stadium, it was also home to Inter-Montreal soccer club, who played in the Canadian Professional Soccer League for one season in 1983. And a year later, the former baseball stadium hosted Pope John Paul II on September 11, 1984. Montreal actually briefly renamed the stadium after the Pope, until the name was changed again in 1987 to Du Maurier Stadium.

Jarry park’s intimate atmosphere and unique features, including its relatively small dimensions and close proximity to the action, endeared it to fans and players alike. Sporting News even ranked Jarry Park’s swimming pool number three on their list of all-time stadiums with unique landing spots for home runs. It was ranked just behind the monstrous right field wall at the Phillies’ old Baker Bowl stadium, and the Polo Grounds horseshoe shaped upper deck. Jarry Park witnessed memorable moments in baseball history, including the Expos’ inaugural game and the legendary performances of players like Rusty Staub and Gary Carter. Sadly for Montreal, In 2005 the Expos relocated to Washington D.C., and became the Washington Nationals. Fortunately, the club has continued to honor their roots over the years from time to time. For Expos 50th anniversary, the Nationals wore Expos throwback uniforms and replicated Jarry Park’s scoreboard for the game against the Kansas City Royals on July 6, 2019. Although the Expos eventually moved to Olympic Stadium, Jarry Park remains a cherished landmark, evoking nostalgia and fond memories for baseball enthusiasts, particularly those who experienced the magic of the Expos’ early years in this historic venue.

So what did you guys think of the baseball field at Jarry Park being transformed into tennis courts? Do you agree with Jarry Park’s pool being ranked number three as an all-time unique landing spot for home runs? Where would you place it? And, would you like to see Major League Baseball return to Montreal in the future? Let me know in the comments below!