For the players, a change of scenery might mean stability and a fresh start. For the past two seasons, the Expos have scheduled 22 "home" games in Puerto Rico. At Monday's game, pitcher Joey Eischen said it was disappointing that so few people came to say goodbye when some tickets, at $10, cost about the same as a pack of Canadian cigarettes.

Brian Schneider, the Expos' catcher and player representative, said that the resolution of the team's status "is going to be a relief for a lot of people," but that major questions were still unanswered.

"Now, hopefully, they can come up with an owner," Schneider said. And he added: "You can't forget about the city of Montreal. They're losing a lot." He said Tim Raines, a former Expos star and now a coach, said it best when he observed that many fans had grown up with the team and would find it hard to say goodbye.

"The crowd will be loud and rowdy, but at the same time, there will be a lot of sad thoughts and a lot of good memories leaving a lot of people's heads," Schneider said. "It's going to mean a lot for me. This is the team that drafted me. It's going to be tough."

This franchise and this city have always provided baseball with oddity, variety and diversity. The Expos played their first eight seasons at Jarry Park, a minor league stadium in a public recreation center. It had a swimming pool behind the right-field fence.

Dave Van Horne, the Marlins' current radio announcer, was the original broadcaster for Expos. He recalled the April morning of the first home game, when the general manager rented folding chairs from a funeral supplier and placed them along the left-field line for customers.

"The frost had not come out of the ground, and running on the dirt portion of the infield was like running on sponge," Van Horne said. "So the Cardinals and Expos would run on the grass portion because it was a little firmer. They beat the Cardinals that day and the town went bonkers."