Tampa Bay Rays mulling split-season in Montreal
The move looks unlikely, but it's still got people excited
Talk about a tantalizing prospect for baseball-bereft Montrealers: The Tampa Bay Rays are looking into playing a split season of home games in the former home of the Montreal Expos.
It's not set in stone by any means. In fact, the only story at the moment is that Major League Baseball has given the Florida-based team "broad permission to explore what's available," according to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred (as relayed by the Associated Press).
And there are plenty of hurdles in the way, not least of which is the mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, where the Rays' Tropicana Field is located. Rick Kriseman told the AP that the Rays can't even explore the possibility of playing home games elsewhere before 2028 without signing an agreement with the city, and he himself had no intention of even bringing the idea to St. Petersburg City council for consideration.
"In fact, I believe this is getting a bit silly," the mayor said, which doesn't sound like there's much wiggle room.
Still, the story travelled far and wide last week, and it's hard not to be wistful at the thought. Montreal hosted the Expos from 1969 to 2004 before their move to Washington, D.C., and though the team never won the World Series, it still engrained itself into the city's culture.
So if the stars align, and some kind of split season does happen, what kind of weather could the team face in its occasional, semi-new digs? For starters, the cooler summer conditions compared to St. Petersburg, which swelters on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. The hottest month, July, features average highs of 29°C, seven degrees hotter than the same month in Montreal.
Montreal also features less frequent rains. Its wettest month, November, sees an average 104 mm of rainfall, about half of St. Petersburg's wettest month of August, at the peak of summer.
Sounds like Montreal's weather would save the Rays from the prospect of a few washouts, if not for one thing: Tropicana field has its own dome, in fact the only non-retractable dome of any MLB stadium. The weather gods couldn't rain on a Rays home game if they tried.
But there is one thing Montreal has over St. Petersburg: Quebec's largest city has no hurricane season, compared to St. Petersburg, whose state is one of the most hurricane-prone in the U.S. That may be on the Rays' mind, as the AP reports one potential setup would see the team play in Montreal for the latter part of the season, neatly side-stepping the hurricane months of August, September and October.
It's all speculation at this point, but for now, Montreal baseball fans have something to look forward to.