The Washington Nationals are the newest team in Major League Baseball, but they are not considered an expansion franchise. The franchise was formerly known as the Expos, and was located in Montreal before moving to the Nations capital at the end of the 2004 season.

 The Montreal Expos were formed as a franchise 1969 as a National League expansion team. They were the first Major League team outside of the United States. The home stadium of the Expos was the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. It had a capacity of 43, 769. The Olympic Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium and it held the ceremonies for the 1976 Summer Olympic.

 The franchise will now play their home games as the Nationals in Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. This stadium opened in 1961 and was once home to the National Football League’s Washington Redskins. The stadium seats roughly 56,00 fans, and played host to the 1962 and 1969 Major League Baseball All-Star Games.

 The franchise has so far won only 2 Division Titles, coming in 1981 and 1994. The franchise is still waiting for that big moment of reaching and then winning the World Series.

The Nationals retired 5 players’ numbers while they were known as the Expos. Those players were: Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Rusty Staub, Tim Raines, and Jackie Robinson (whose number was retired throughout all of baseball). * At the start of every season at RFK stadium, U.S. presidents have traditionally opened the season by throwing out the first pitch. BUY NATIONALS TICKETS The 2002 season for the Expos was filled with talks of contraction as the team sunk to the bottom of the National League’s East Division. The franchise lost several key players, while acquiring others, only to lose them through trades later in the same season. The Expos ended the season with a record of 83-79, while trying to keep the team in Montreal. The following season was filled with more of the same for the Expos: trying to climb out of the bottom of their division standings and remain in Montreal. The Expos would challenge for the Wild Card spot, but would fade toward the end of the season. At seasons end, the Expos lost Javier Vazquez through trades and Vladimir Guerrero to free agency. The 2004 season would be the last for the franchise in Montreal as the team went 67-94, 29 games out of first place in their division. The team would move to Washington DC at the seasons end and the franchise would be renamed the Washington Nationals. The move has angered many fans in Montreal, but team’s owners thought the movie was necessary or else the team would be contracted.