The Expos Bring Baseball North of the Border

On April 14, 1969, the Montreal Expos played their first home game at Jarry Park, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 8-7 before 29,184 fans. It was the first regular-season Major League Baseball game played outside the United States.

Jarry Park was the smallest stadium in the league. It had one deck, no seating in center or right field, and a capacity that would have embarrassed most minor league parks. None of that dampened the crowd. Montreal had waited decades for big league ball, and the city showed up loud and unrestrained.

Mack Jones supplied the signature moment, launching a three-run home run that cleared the fence and landed on a street beyond the park. It was the first MLB homer hit on foreign soil. Jones also added a two-run triple, driving in five of the team's eight runs. The Expos had debuted on April 8 with a wild 11-10 win over the Mets at Shea Stadium, but this was the game that belonged to Montreal.

The expansion-era Expos would lose 110 games that first season under manager Gene Mauch. The franchise would spend 36 years in Montreal before relocating to Washington. But on this afternoon, professional baseball crossed an international border for the first time, and the crowd at Jarry Park gave it a welcome that had nothing to do with wins and losses.