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Vermont Lake Monsters Wiki Information

The Vermont Lake Monsters are a minor league baseball team in the Short-Season A classification New York - Penn League, affiliated with the Washington Nationals. The team plays its home games at Centennial Field on the University of Vermont campus in Burlington, Vermont. The team was located in Jamestown, New York (as the Jamestown Expos) prior to 1994, and has always been an Expos/Nationals affiliate. On August 16, 2005 the then-Expos were featured on ESPN SportsCenter as a part of the program's "50 States in 50 Days" segment on Vermont.

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History

In 1993, Burlington businessman Ray Pecor, the owner of Lake Champlain Transportation Co. in Burlington since 1976, ^[1] purchased the franchise rights of the Jamestown Expos and moved the franchise to Burlington, retaining the Expos name. The Vermont Expos played their first game at Centennial Field on June 16, 1994. The Expos lost 6 to 5 to the Pittsfield Mets but more than 5,000 fans turned out for the game. ^[2]

2005 Name Change

The Montreal Expos announced on September 29, 2004 that they would move to Washington, DC after the 2004 season. They would re-name themselves the Washington Nationals. Minor League Baseball gives clubs 60-days after the end of the season to change their names and logos. Vermont did not have enough time for an identity change and retained the nickname Expos for the 2005 season.

During the 2005 season, the club announced its plan to change the nickname and solicited suggestions from its fans. The team received 30,000 fan suggestions for the new name. The New York Times reported that the two leading contenders were "Green Mountain Boys" and "Lakemonsters". ^[3] They announced the new name, "Lake Monsters", and revealed the new team colors and uniforms on November 15, 2005. The Expos colors of red, white and blue were replaced with the Lake Monster colors of navy blue, columbia blue and green. The name references Champ, the legendary Lake Champlain monster which had been the team's mascot since 1994. ^[4]

The club's last game as the Vermont Expos was on September 8, 2005. They opened the 2006 season as the Vermont Lake Monsters.

Expos Legacy

The franchise was the last professional ball club to carry the Expos name. The team's home ballpark, Centennial Field, is 100-miles from the Montreal Expos' last home ballpark Olympic Stadium - closer than the Boston Red Sox' Fenway Park. While baseball fans in Burlington tend to root for the Red Sox and Yankees, Montreal was the closest Major League Baseball stadium until 2005.

On July 22, 2005, the Vermont Expos held its first "Tribute to the Expos" promotion and honored Andre Dawson at Centennial Field. While the club changed its name to the "Lake Monsters" in 2006, the organization held its second "tribute to the Expos". The club honored pitcher Dennis Martinez and for the game, wore powder-blue Expos uniforms with the Expos name on the front and a Lake Monsters patch on the left sleeve. On August 5, 2007, the Lake Monsters honored the Expos again and brought Tim Wallach to Burlington. ^[5]

Notable alumni

Randy Johnson (1985, San Francisco Giants)
Geoff Blum (1994, Houston Astros)
Orlando Cabrera (1995, Chicago White Sox)
Michael Barrett (1995, San Diego Padres)
Milton Bradley (1997, Texas Rangers)
Jorge Julio (1998, Atlanta Braves)
Jason Bay (2000, Boston Red Sox)
Brandon Watson (2000, AAA Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs; set the Minor League Baseball hit-streak record of 43 games in 2007)
Jason Bergmann (2002)
Darrell Rasner (2002, New York Yankees)
John Lannan (2005)