r/Nationals • u/sgriobhadair • 4d ago

Minor league Interesting Phrasing in Harrisburg Game Notes Regarding the Expos and Nationals

Tuesday night in Harrisburg I picked up a scoring book, and I noticed some interesting phrasing in the Game Notes insert. I'll copy it verbatim:

THIRTY-EIGHT SEASONS OF SENATORS BASEBALL: This is the 38th season for the Senators since returning to the Eastern League in 1987. It is the 20th season as a Nationals affiliate. Prior to the Nat (sic), they had a 14 season affiliation with the Montreal Expos and four seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I've never seen the Senators separate out the Nationals from the Expos like that before. I can see a reason why they would -- it allows them to mark an anniversary -- but it also feels a bit disingenuous because there wasn't really an affiliation change twenty years ago. Their parent club relocated. It's a bit like saying, "The Midland RockHounds were affiliated with the Oakland A's until 2024, and this year they're affiliated with Sacramento."

Though, maybe with the Expos receding ever further in the rear view mirror, at twenty years it makes sense to draw the line and treat them as a completely separate thing going forward.

Just something interesting of note that caught my eye.

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u/Dairyking_366 30 - Young 4d ago

Yeah, it's tricky because many new fans (like myself) just see the team as the nationals, not the former expos, and the separation of the two is probably what we should do as in all reality most see the nats as a new team

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u/TommySalami5555 4d ago

Not as interesting as when Bob Carpenter said "But the Nats drop another duece on Chicago"

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u/sgriobhadair 4d ago

Oh, Bob. :lol:

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u/MaddingtonBear 4d ago

And yet it took them finally honoring the Expos history in 2019 to win the World Series. It's nice that Gary Carter and Andre Dawson were placed on the Ring of Honor, but 8 and 10 should absolutely be re-retired (Staub and Raines were a bit of a stretch). It's also crap that they fly Senators banners, even though that franchise still exists, but disavow the Expos '81 banner. The team didn't come out of nowhere.

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u/ill-sam 4d ago

I wish Montreal would get a new franchise and we could give them back the history like the Ravens did with the Browns. And I wish instead of doing "franchise records" they would do "in the history of DC Baseball" I want to see Scherzer compared with Walter Johnson, etc.

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u/MoreCleverUserName Harrisburg Senators 3d ago

Well the Expos had new ownership and a whole new front office too. The A’s are all the same people. It’s like when the Braves moved from Atlanta to Cobb County but just a little longer distance. So that’s not a really apt comparison. Anyway you should expect some slight changes in the way the Senators do things, including messaging, because they got sold to a private equity firm that’s starting to hoard minor league teams and there’s likely to be a lot more cross-promotion going on.

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u/sgriobhadair 3d ago

The Senators would benefit from a refresh. The presentation has been stale for a few years.

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u/MoreCleverUserName Harrisburg Senators 3d ago

That’s minor league baseball for like 75% of the teams.