A History of the Ottawa Lynx: From Their First Season to Their Last

An Ottawa Lynx pitcher delivers a pitch during a Triple-A game. (SeregaI / Dreamstime.com)

 

The freshly minted Ottawa Lynx were to make their debut March 20, 1993 in a preseason game against the Albuquerque Dukes in Dodgertown. The mixture of prospects and borderline major leaguers who made up the new Triple-A International League affiliate of the Montreal Expos hopped on the bus for the 90-minute ride from Lantana, Florida to Vero Beach.

They were rained out.

They were rained out the following day as well. On the third day, the sun came out, but the field was too wet to play.

It was an omen of what was to come. Dark clouds hung over the Lynx for most of a 15-year existence that began brilliantly but was forever plagued by an ongoing battle with the weather, squabbles with the Expos over the quality of players sent to Ottawa, disputes with the City of Ottawa over parking, and the ascendance of the National Hockey League’s Ottawa Senators, who stole attention and ticket-buying customers just as the new-team sheen was wearing off the Lynx.

The International League approved Ottawa businessman Harold Darwin for a franchise in September 1991, with the team scheduled to begin play in 1993. The return to Canada would put the international into the International League for the first time since former Expos affiliate the Winnipeg Whips decamped for Hampton, Virginia after the 1971 season. The timing was serendipitous. Baseball was enjoying unprecedented popularity in Canada, with the Toronto Blue Jays having won their first World Series championship in 1992 and embarking on another title run in 1993. The Expos, only a two-hour drive east of Ottawa on Highway 417, were putting the final touches on a good young team that had the best record in the major leagues in 1994 before the players’ strike finished off their World Series dreams—and expedited their eventual exit out of Montreal a decade later.

Ottawa baseball fans—and, as it would turn out, non-baseball fans—were quick to jump on the bandwagon. The brand-new ballpark was the place to be in the spring and summer of 1993. Despite a cold and constant drizzle and a first-pitch temperature of 7 degrees (44 F), a sell-out crowd of 10,332 was on hand for Opening Night against their expansion partners, the Charlotte Knights. The Lynx had sold more than 5,000 season tickets two months before the season started and by Opening Day had sold 500,000 game tickets, breaking the all-time attendance record for any Ottawa team in any sport. By the end of the season, the Lynx had shattered the International League regular season attendance record that had stood since 1947 with 663,926 paying fans, including 44 sell-outs for its 71 home dates. Throw in a pair of playoff-games and an exhibition game against the Expos, and the Lynx final attendance was 693,043.1

Despite the success in the stands, front-office squabbling led to tensions between fans and management. Promoting the team was not a priority for ownership. A public relations officer was not hired until two days before the season started. Season-ticket holders complained that their tickets had not arrived. Ticket prices were the second-highest in the 10-team league and there were no discounts for children or seniors, which meant the Lynx were charging more for kids tickets than were the Expos or Blue Jays.2 Except for Sunday afternoons, all but four of the other remaining 55 games started at 7:30 P.M., giving rise to complaints that children wouldn’t be able to attend and questions being asked about the wisdom of playing night games on frigid Ottawa spring nights when snow usually blanketed the city and daytime temperatures rarely reached 10 degrees Celsius. The club’s early rain-out policy dictated there would be no rain-checks for games that were rained or snowed out after five innings, even if there was no winner and the game would be completed at a later date. The policy was changed in May in response to fan and media criticism.

Internally, disputes between Darwin and General Manager Tom Maloney, the 1991 minor-league executive of the year, over how to run a minor-league team were already percolating and resulted in Maloney’s firing at the end of the season.

Darwin’s disagreements with the Expos over the quality of players sent to Ottawa and how to use them drew a rebuke from Expos manager Felipe Alou. In their third game of the season, Lynx manager Mike Quade pulled pitcher Gil Heredia, who the Expos had on a 65-pitch limit, five innings into a perfect game at Richmond. “I’ve never before taken out a pitcher who is throwing a no-hitter, let alone a perfect game,” said Quade. “But every so often you’ve got to do stuff down here to help out the major-league club.”3

Six weeks later, on a frigid Victoria Day (night game) in Ottawa, Chris Nabholz threw eight innings of no-hit baseball in his first start with the Lynx after being sent down by the Expos earlier in the week. Working on three days’ rest, he was on an Expos-mandated 80-pitch limit and had reached 78 after eight innings. Quade took him out and was roundly booed for his decision. “We all have somebody from above who gives orders. If I had a direct line to Duke (Expos General Manager Dan Duquette) in the dugout, I would have called him…I felt a little bad for (Nabholz), but much worse for the fans.”4

Darwin was incensed. “I’m not happy with what happened. I’ve got to go to the Expos . . . They’ve got to clean up their act and use better judgment, give Quade more freedom.” Alou dismissed the complaining, saying, “Some people don’t understand the minor leagues are for development. A no-hitter doesn’t come into the picture.”5

Though Alou often touted Quade’s abilities as a baseball man, Quade’s relationship with Duquette was tense and he was fired at the end of the season despite leading the team to a 73-69 record and a wild card spot in the playoffs, being voted International League manager of the year, and named minor-league manager to watch by Baseball America. Duquette didn’t offer a specific reason for the sacking, saying, “We elected to make a change. We think we can run a more efficient player development operation in ’94 with a new manager.”6 Quade ended up winning over 1,000 games as a minor-league manager and managed the Chicago Cubs for the last month of the 2010 season and all of 2011.

On the field, it was a tale of two seasons marked by a disappointing first half as the Expos remained true to their philosophy of player development and keeping their most promising young prospects in Double-A Harrisburg in the Eastern League instead of moving them up too early to Triple A. By the end of June, the Lynx were fighting to stay out of the Eastern Division basement with a 33-49 record. “Two-and-a-half runs a game isn’t going to win you many games, no matter how much pitching you’ve got,” said Quade. “We don’t have a ton of speed and we’re not getting a lot of extra-base hits.”7

The Expos were talented and young. Future All-Star outfielders Marquis Grissom, Moises Alou, and Larry Walker, and catcher Darrin Fletcher were all 26 years old during the 1993 season. Second baseman Delino DeShields was 24. The next generation, headlined by Cliff Floyd, 20, Rondell White, 21, and Curtis Pride, 24, spent the first half of the season marinating in Double A. The Lynx, for the most part, were spare parts and injury fills for the Expos, who took full advantage of their proximity to Ottawa to call up and send down players. By the end of the season, Quade had had to deal with 107 player transactions.

As summer arrived, the Expos decided to promote some of its Double-A talent and the Lynx season turned around. Led by Canadian pitcher Denis Boucher, who went 6-0 with a 2.72 ERA in 11 appearances and White, who hit .380 with seven homers and 32 RBIs in 37 games, the Lynx moved above .500 for the first time since April on August 19, clinched a playoff spot with a week to go in the season and narrowly missed winning the division when they lost their final game. Their playoff championship chances were dealt a blow when the Expos called up Boucher and White during the final week of the Triple-A season and then summoned Charlie Montoyo, the future Blue Jays manager, who led the Lynx with a .411 OBA, before Game Three of the playoffs with the series tied 1-1.

The Lynx dropped the series 3-2 to the Rochester Red Wings, but not before providing one final lasting memory for the home fans when outfielder Scott Bryant cracked a three-run walk-off homer in Game Two. Bryant led the team with 12 homers and 65 RBIs but was released at the end of spring training the following February.

Over the course of the season, hometown fans developed a love affair with the gritty, get-your-uniform dirty kind of players on the roster, like Montoyo, and particularly “The Saint,” F.P. Santangelo. Drafted in 1989 by the Expos, Santangelo had reached Triple A in 1992 with Montreal’s team in Indianapolis and came to Ottawa for the inaugural 1993 season when the Expos switched affiliates. He was the first batter in Lynx history, scored their first run, played outfield, shortstop, and second and third base, ran hard on every play, dove into bases, and crashed into walls with little concern for his body. Santangelo is the all-time Lynx leader in runs scored (186) and runs in a season (86) and graced the cover of the 1995 media guide. That didn’t save him from punishment by the Expos at the beginning of the 1995 season for his refusal to cross the players’ picket line in spring training, as did Canadian catcher Joe Siddall, who began work as a Blue Jays television analyst in 2014. The Expos ordered manager Pete Mackanin to keep both players out of the opening day line-up. Siddall ended up in the starting line-up when his replacement, Clemente Alvarez, forgot his passport and was denied entry into the U.S. Santangelo was back in the starting lineup after also being held out of the first home game.8 His number was retired by the Lynx on June 8, 1998 when he returned to Ottawa for the annual exhibition game with the Expos.

Expectations were high for the 1994 season, with new manager Jim Tracy (who later managed the Dodgers, Pirates, and Rockies for a total of 10 years) promoted from Harrisburg, where he had led the Double-A team to a 94-44 record and the Eastern League championship. Many of those prospects were expected to spend the season with the Lynx, but it didn’t work out that way. The team’s record fell to 16-25 by Victoria Day. After scrapping their way back above .500, they dropped a doubleheader to Columbus on August 5 and lost 10 of their last 16 to finish 70-72 and out of the playoffs. Highlights included Tim Laker rediscovering his “can’t-miss prospect” status and being named International League catcher of the year while hitting .309 with 12 homers and 71 RBIs and third baseman Shane Andrews breaking team records with 16 homers and 85 RBIs.

Off the field, there were continuing signs of problems to come. Despite responding to a fan survey that showed a clear preference for earlier start times for night games and more afternoon games, attendance dropped by about 1,000 a game, although the 607,000 tickets sold again led the league by a wide margin.9 Cold weather continued to be a culprit. The season opener was postponed by a 15-centimeter (six-inch) snowfall. The temperature was just above freezing when the game was played the next day. “In April, people were coming here with skidoo suits on,” said Darwin. “There’s no way I would have been here if I didn’t have to be.”10 Darwin was also still unhappy with Expos player moves that he believed were damaging his team. As well as releasing Bryant, the Expos traded Montoyo in the final week of spring training. “It’s like they’ve taken our heroes the hell out of town.”11

 

 

Lynx management was also struggling to land a deal with local radio stations. When Maloney was named general manager in 1992, he described that as his first priority. “Radio is essential to any ball club,” he said. “We have to maximize all revenue streams and radio and television are certainly two big areas. They are also two great marketing tools.”12 It was especially important for the Lynx, which did little in the way of game promotions and advertising. However, a full-season deal was never reached with any of the 12 radio stations in the city. By the start of the 1994 season, the Lynx had arranged for 24 games to be carried by English radio CFRA, with play-by-play done by current Ottawa mayor, Mark Sutcliffe, and another 17 in French by CKCH in neighboring Hull, Quebec, with Paul Lajoie (grandson of Hall-of-Famer Nap Lajoie) delivering the play-by-play.13 The players’ strike at the end of the 1994 season led to the flagship stations of the Expos adopting the Lynx for the final month of the season. CFRA was one of the stations carrying the English Expos network, which resulted in the Lynx finally having all of their games available on hometown radio.14 The arrangement didn’t survive the end of the season and reached tragicomedy levels in 1995 when, after failing to reach agreement with CFRA or any other commercial station, the Lynx struck a deal with CKDG, a student-radio station run by Algonquin College, to broadcast 10 games. It might have been more but the station went off the air when the student year ended at the end of April. The other problem was that the station had an eight-watt signal with a range of about eight kilometers, meaning that Lynx Stadium itself was out of listening range.15

The 1995 season opened under the shadow of the major-league baseball players’ strike, which wasn’t resolved until April 2, leaving organizations and fans uncertain about the future. For a team entering its third year of existence, generally considered the end of the honeymoon period for a new franchise,16 the timing couldn’t have been worse. Season tickets were down by nearly 1,000 from 1994, which were down 700 from 1993. “Instead of paying their full deposits, people have come to Joe (Fagan, ticket manager) and said ‘Here’s $100. Hold my seat. I want to see what the team’s going to look like,’” said Darwin.17 The Lynx ended up looking pretty good, winning their only league championship, but the fans did not come back, with attendance dropping to 511,865, fourth in the league, and managing only one sell-out.18

On the field, former Expos second-baseman Pete Mackanin was appointed the team’s third manager in three years after Tracy was promoted to bench coach for the Expos. In addition to the usual revolving door of players headed to Montreal and back (the 23-man roster switched out 10 players on a week-long road trip in late April),19 Mackanin had to deal with potential tensions between replacement players and those who refused to cross the picket line to play with them during major-league baseball’s spring training. One of those replacement players, Kevin Castleberry, had been destined to be the Expos’ starting second-baseman after hitting .400 in spring training prior to the strike being settled. He was signed by the Expos and sent to the Lynx where he played 118 games and led regular starters with a .294 batting average (future Expos All-Star Mark Grudzielanek hit .298 but played only 49 games with Ottawa between call-ups to Montreal). A number of players were unhappy about replacements being on the team and Castleberry was confronted by player association representative Tom Foley.20 When Castleberry, an International League all-star in 1995, was asked prior to spring training before the 1996 season whether he was concerned about player backlash to him being there, he responded, “Not really. They should be worried about me because I’m here to take one of their jobs.”21 Castleberry never did make it to the majors.

Despite the chaos, and what was generally considered to be a lack of talent (they finished tied for last in team batting and fifth in pitching, and Expos general manager Kevin Malone described the roster as “serviceable major leaguers”),22 the Lynx had clawed their way to a 53-42 record, a franchise-best 11 games over .500 by mid-July.

Things went south from there, dropping 17 of 23 games to fall out of first place and out of the playoff picture before a successful late-season road trip brought them to a season-ending homestand against the Pawtucket Red Sox needing one win to qualify for the postseason. Playing in front of a crowd of 9,885, their largest of the season, the light-hitting Lynx won the first game 10-0.

More magic awaited in the playoffs, where they came from down two games to one on the road to defeat the Rochester Red Wings, beating Baltimore ace Ben MacDonald, who was making a rehab start in Game Four, and then getting a two-run single in the ninth inning from replacement catcher Ben Heffernan, who had started the season as a coach, to win the series. After that, the 3-1 championship series win over the Norfolk Tides, who had finished 13 games ahead of the Lynx in the regular season, seemed inevitable. The Lynx won the final game 4-0, but not without the Ottawa weather making an appearance and forcing separate delays of 55 and 45 minutes.

“It’s like we couldn’t stop this thing,” said Mackanin. “I think what makes this so satisfying is where we were in the regular season. Us winning is like the .200 hitter getting the winning hit in the World Series.”23

Fan-favorites Santangelo and Siddall, both called up earlier in the season, got the news from the Expos’ clubhouse TV monitor after their game and drove to Ottawa to celebrate with their former teammates.24 Two weeks later, Darwin was named International League executive of the year and The Sporting News then selected Mackanin as minor-league manager of the year.

But then came 1996, and as the Tragically Hip, the monster Canadian band from down the road in Kingston, Ontario could have told the club, “When it starts to fall apart, Man, it really falls apart.”25

There was no positive momentum from the 1995 Governors’ Cup championship. Attendance continued to fall, dropping to a franchise-worst 347,050, seventh in the league and barely half of the 1993 love fest. The stadium was less than half-full for an Opening Night victory and the largest cheer of the night was an announcement that the NHL Ottawa Senators were leading Mario Lemieux’s Pittsburgh Penguins in a sold-out game across town. The product on the field was not good, with the team finishing a franchise-worst 60-82 and last in the league. The radio situation continued unresolved as local stations chose instead to continue to carry the full schedule of Blue Jays and Expos games, as well as those of the Senators and Canadian Football League Ottawa Rough Riders.

But worse than that, and the error that many believe was the death knell for a franchise that stayed in town for another decade, came on May 30, in what should have been the highlight of the season—the near-annual exhibition game with the parent Expos. After four years of a mediocre career, Expos outfielder Henry Rodriguez had taken major-league baseball by storm early in the season with a power barrage that would end with him hitting a career-high 36 homers in 1996. Expos fans responded by celebrating his homers by throwing Oh Henry! chocolate bars on to the field. An Ottawa rock station encouraged Lynx fans to replicate the celebration at the exhibition game. However, Darwin, citing rules against bringing outside food into the stadium, ordered stadium staff to confiscate the treats, sparking public and media outrage. It also prompted Murray Wilson, the club’s marketing and sales director, to resign. “(This) should have been the crown jewel of the season for this organization,” he said. “The Expos were here, the stadium was nearly full, a four-year association with Montreal was announced and all you read about the next day was the Oh Henry! controversy.”26

The episode was symptomatic of a bigger problem. The club had never done much marketing. Ottawa Citizen columnist Wayne Scanlan described the strategy as “open the gates and pray for sunshine.” There were very few of the in-stadium giveaways common in other ballparks, or discounted tickets for children or organizations looking for an outing. Security was described as “fastidious.”27

Little was done to address those concerns and, as bad as 1996 was, it was a high-water mark for the rest of team’s years in Ottawa. Attendance never again cracked 300,000 and finished below 200,000—and last in the league—for its final six years. The team finished above .500 only three more times (2002, 2003, 2006) and made the playoffs once, in 2003.

The dismal 1997 season was marked by the Lynx fielding their worst team to that point in their history, finishing 54-86 and getting recognition in late May for its .255 winning percentage (12-35) that made it the worst team in professional baseball.28 Another fiasco with the Expos game marred the 1997 season. Anxious to make up for the previous year’s Oh Henry! debacle, the Lynx announced they would be giving away 10,000 Oh Henry! bars to fans. Game day had been bright and sunny. In fact, it hadn’t rained in three weeks. But then those dark clouds that had followed the club around since its birth showed up just before first pitch and drenched the stadium, creating a one hour and 22-minute rain delay. The teams played on the soggy surface for five innings before it was called because of unsafe conditions. A mob of angry fans surrounded the ticket office demanding refunds, which Darwin granted the next day.29

A similar “beyond their control” event scuttled another Lynx event scheduled in 2003 with the best of intentions. Jamey Carroll, who had replaced Santangelo as Lynx fans’ favorite pepper-pot during his 2000-2002 tenure in Ottawa, was to have his number retired. A big crowd was anticipated for the August 14 event and an extra 8,000 hot dogs were prepared for sale. But at 4:11 P.M., three hours before game time, Ottawa was hit by a power blackout that affected 50 million people across Ontario and the U.S. northeast. About 500 people showed up to the stadium and were invited into center field for an intimate ceremony that was missing video clips and a microphone. The lost gate and spoiled hot dogs cost the club and concessions company about $30,000.30

A new stadium-naming agreement was reached in February 1997 with JetForm, an Ottawa-based software multinational, which paid the municipality $1.5 million for a 10-year-deal to name the stadium JetForm Park. While welcoming the involvement of JetForm, Darwin was critical of the overall Ottawa corporate community’s lack of support and warned for the first time that the team needed more or he might have to sell or move the team. In August, he sent a letter to the league and Ottawa Mayor Jacquelin Holzman, informing them of his intention to sell the team.31

Appropriately, the season ended with the final home game being rained out.

Darwin’s warnings about selling the team and back-and-forth lawsuits with the City over monies owed were the dominant story of 1998, but on the field, the club overcame a desultory start to the season to roll off a franchise-record nine-game winning streak to get back in the playoff race, before losing 10 of their final 11 games. After selling off their best players, who they could no longer afford, the Expos, who finished 41 games behind the National League East champion Atlanta Braves, had again stripped the Lynx of prospects, leaving them with the lowest batting average in the league and only 76 homers in 143 games—30 behind the second-last Toledo Mud Hens. Opined Ottawa Citizen columnist Bruce Deachman, “All in all, it was another year in which the Ottawa manager was handed a clubhouse full of straw and told to turn it into gold.”32

Things did not change and despite renewed commitments from the Expos that there would be fewer disruptions to the Lynx roster in 2000, the team started slowly and went on to have its worst record (53-88). The team also endured the worst early-season weather in its history with eight of its first 11 home games being rescheduled. With the NHL Senators playing into late April in the playoffs, paid attendance dropped below 900, with the actual number of fans in the park well below that. Darwin had had enough and agreed in June to sell the team to Vermont entrepreneur Ray Pecor, owner of the Expos Single-A Vermont Expos.34

Unfortunately for Pecor, who had resurrected the failing Vermont franchise and hoped to do the same in Ottawa by doubling service staff, discounting tickets for seniors and children under 14, cutting parking costs, and more promotions, local fans were unmoved. Only 3,834 fans showed up for Opening Day, the best opening crowd since 1997, but only about half of what had been anticipated. The next night attracted only 814 people, the smallest crowd to that point in Lynx history. However, with warmer weather in summer, season attendance improved by 70,000, the most fans since 1998, providing some hope to new ownership. Things were better on the field, with a franchise-best 14-11 record in April. By mid-July, the Lynx had a six-game lead in the wild card race. But once again, the Expos came knocking and in short order summoned slugger Fernando Seguignol, outfielder Brad Wilkerson, starting pitchers Bobby Munoz and Britt Reames, and closer Joey Eischen. “Our offence just went to the major leagues,” said manager Stan Hough.35 They lost 15 of 18 and limped home 24 games off the lead.

The Lynx did have an all-time moment at JetForm on August 22 when future Hall of Famer Tim Raines, in Ottawa on a rehab assignment from the Expos, played against his son Tim Jr. with the Rochester Red Wings. The pair exchanged line-up cards at home plate before game one of a doubleheader, marking the first time a father and son faced each other in a regular-season professional game.36

Despite putting together the best team in franchise history in 2002, going 80-61 and led by International League batting champion Endy Chavez who hit .343 and Joey Vitiello who finished third at .329 and added 82 RBIs, the longstanding problems of attendance and roster raiding by the Expos continued. Pecor, who lost about $1 million in each of his first two seasons as owner,37 said more stability was needed and opted out of continuing the relationship with the Expos. After the new affiliation with the Baltimore Orioles was announced in September, speculation immediately began that the Lynx would soon be leaving Ottawa.

The Orioles provided the Lynx with a stronger roster in 2003 than had been the norm with Montreal, although the 123 transactions over the season were familiar. Future everyday major leaguers Luis Matos, Darnell McDonald, Jack Cust, and Larry Bigbie led a strong offense that carried the team to a 79-65 record and their first playoff appearance since 1995. However, few in Ottawa seemed to care as less than 3,000 fans attended the playoff games.

The 2004-05 NHL lock-out of players provided another glimmer of hope for the Lynx as the 2005 baseball season started with no Stanley Cup playoffs to distract fans. Perhaps in the most definitive message from would-be fans, attendance dropped despite an Opening Day crowd of 7,651. But even that rare large crowd came with problems. Because development over the years around the stadium had reduced the number of parking spaces from 2,800 to 1,000, many fans didn’t get into their seats until the second inning.38 Fewer than 4,000 combined attended the next two games. As Yogi Berra may or may not have said, “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.” The team launched a lawsuit against the City in 2006, charging that it had violated its own rules on the number of parking spaces required.

By mid-2006, despite denials from Pecor and the International League in June, it was clear that the Lynx were going to move. On August 28 it was made official that majority ownership was being sold to Joseph Finley and Craig Stein, who would be moving the team in the 2008 season to a new stadium being built in Allentown, Pennsylvania.39 Lynx affiliation shifted in 2007 from Baltimore to the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Phillies populated the 2007 edition of the Lynx primarily with older players who were hoping to get back to the majors or who were minor-league lifers. After being named the Lynx MVP in 2003, Pedro Swann bounced around the minors before returning to Ottawa to finish his career. It was the kind of season where neither the players nor the fans seemed to care much. The team finished last at 55-88 and last in attendance, averaging under 2,000 fans a game. In one of those cosmic moments that are baseball, the relationship was cemented by milestone wins and losses. On July 15, the Phillies lost their 10,000th game. On August 30, their new junior partner won their 1,000th. “It’s nice, especially to do it at home,” said Lynx manager John Russell. “Of course, we’d like to have about 80 wins to go with that, but it’s a nice thing for Ottawa.”40

A season-high crowd of 7,468 showed up for the final game. There were standing ovations for the Lynx as they took the field for their final game and again during the final at-bat – a Dusty Wathan groundout to second.

There wasn’t enough parking. The concession stands ran out of beer.

At least the sun was shining.

After failing to achieve his childhood dream of becoming the starting centerfielder for the San Francisco Giants, MIKE TRICKEY turned his attention to covering sports for radio stations and newspapers in British Columbia. Later, as a foreign correspondent for Southam News, he sought out opportunities to cover events connected to baseball. He covered the 1991 Hot Dog Summit between U.S. President George Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, at which they met int the bowels of Toronto’s SkyDome to discuss how to support Mikhail Gorbachev’s efforts to democratize the Soviet Union and how to end apartheid prior to watching the All-Star game. He was in Havana in March 1999 when the Baltimore Orioles met the Cuban national team, marking the first time an American professional team had played in Cuba since the 1959 revolution. He also has a remarkably poor record in far too many fantasy baseball leagues.

 

Notes

1 Wayne Scanlan, “Year three beckons,” Ottawa Citizen, April 13, 1995: C1.

2 Michael Prentice, “Baseball is Baseball, One Price for All, says Lynx Management,” Ottawa Citizen, March 24, 1993: C1.

3 Ken Warren, “Quade Yanks Lynx 5-inning no-hit pitcher for reasons beyond his control,” Ottawa Citizen, April 12, 1993: C3.

4 Stephanie Myles, “Nabholz pulled after eight in Lynx’ first no-hitter,” Ottawa Citizen, May 25, 1993: C1.

5 Stephanie Myles, “Darwin has reason to smile, but there are problems,” Ottawa Citizen, May 28, 1993: D1.

6 Stephanie Myles, “Quade’s first season with Lynx also turns out to be his last,” Ottawa Citizen, September 23, 1993: E8.

7 Ken Warren, “Road woes continue as Lynx get pounded again,” Ottawa Citizen, June 28, 1993: C3.

8 Wayne Scanlan, “Dirty pool scratches F.P. from Opening Day line-up,” Ottawa Citizen, April 9, 1995: D2.

9 Ken Warren, “Darwin’s theory breeds success,” Ottawa Citizen, September 4, 1994: D3.

10 Wayne Scanlan, “1993 Lynx tough act to follow,” Ottawa Citizen, May 25, 1994: C1.

11 Wayne Scanlan, “Home is where the heroes are, for a while,” Ottawa Citizen, April 7, 1994: D1.

12 Don Campbell, “Local radio broadcasts high on GM’s agenda,” Ottawa Citizen, April 3, 1992: E7.

13 Michael Prentice, “Lynx radio: The sound of silence,” Ottawa Citizen, June 8, 1994: D1.

14 Ken Warren, “Major-league strike shifting spotlight to Lynx,” Ottawa Citizen, August 12, 1994: D1.

15 Wayne Scanlan, “Students signal end to Lynx radio,” Ottawa Citizen, August 19, 1995: B1.

16 Ken Warren, “Darwin’s theory breeds success,” Ottawa Citizen, September 4, 1994: D3.

17 Wayne Scanlan, “Clouds of doubt over Lynx,” Ottawa Citizen, February 25, 1995: G1.

18 Allen Panzeri, “1995 International League champions,’ Ottawa Citizen, September 15, 1995: B1.

19 Allen Panzeri, “Lynx await players they can call their own,” Ottawa Citizen, April 28, 1995: B2.

20 Allen Panzeri, “No one wants to be in the minors, no one is putting the team first,” Ottawa Citizen, April 3, 1996: F1.

21 Mal Florence, “At $500 a game, he had it made ‘til he checked,” Los Angeles Times, February 28, 1996: 2.

22 Allen Panzeri, “Majors far, far away for Lynx.” Ottawa Citizen, July 16, 1995: B3.

23 Wayne Scanlan, “Misfit Lynx roar to unlikely title,” Ottawa Citizen, September 14, 1995: A1.

24 Wayne Scanlan, “Memories of magic night linger as Lynx go their separate ways,” Ottawa Citizen, September 15, 1995: B1.

25 Lyrics to “Boots or Hearts” from Tragically Hip’s Up to Here album.

26 Wayne Scanlan, “Oh Howard! Chocolate bar ban last straw for Lynx sales director,” Ottawa Citizen, June 1, 1996: A1.

27 Wayne Scanlan, “Where have Lynx fans gone?,” Ottawa Citizen, June 2, 1996: B1.

28 Allan Panzeri, “Lynx last – in all of North America,” Ottawa Citizen, May 24, 1997: F1.

29 Wayne Scanlan, “Lynx yet to reap benefits of farm visits,” Ottawa Citizen, June 3, 1998: G1.

30 Darren Desaulniers, “Lynx defeat to PawSox on field follows promotion loss,” Ottawa Citizen, August 16, 2003: C3.

31 Allen Panzeri, “Darwin plans to sell Lynx,” Ottawa Citizen, August 13, 1997: A1.

32 Bruce Deachman, “Lack of offence dominates Lynx season,” Ottawa Citizen, September 12, 1998: F3.

33 Lisa Burke, “Lynx owner set to cut Expos connection,” Ottawa Citizen, September 8, 1999: B7.

34 Tom Casey, “It’s Pecor’s ballgame now,” Ottawa Citizen, June 20, 2000: D1.

35 Tom Casey, “Short-staffed Lynx hit tough stretch,” Ottawa Citizen, July 30, 2001, C3

36 Lisa Burke, “Family fun day for Raines,” Ottawa Citizen, August 22, 2001: B3.

37 Wayne Scanlan, “Fickle Lynx fans get reacquainted with spurred franchise,” Ottawa Citizen, September 3, 2002: C1.

38 Wayne Scanlan, “How good was that, for openers,” Ottawa Citizen, April 17, 2005: B1.

39 Ken Warren, “Lynx are outta here,” Ottawa Citizen, August 29, 2006: A1.

40 Darren Desaulniers, “1,000 wins and counting,” Ottawa Citizen, August 31, 2007: B1.