Midway through a Mets–Nationals game, Washington overcame New York's lead and evoked the franchise's former identity as the Montreal Expos. The Nationals' relocation after the 2004 season gradually obscured the Quebec connection, though the first year produced a hybrid nickname, the Natspos. By 2005 the team had settled into the Nationals identity and the Expos began to feel like a franchise from another era. In 2025 the Nationals briefly morphed into an Expos-like foil, producing unexpected resistance against a strong Mets club reminiscent of seasons when Montreal cost New York crucial wins. The last-place Nationals took two of three in the series.
Midway through Thursday afternoon's Mets-Nationals game, about the time I suspected Washington's overcoming of New York's lead was not going to be reversible, I remembered the Nationals used to be the Expos. It's not as if I'd wholly forgotten from whence the Nationals moved following the 2004 season, it's just that the Quebec connection long ago faded from contemporary concern. For the first year after the Expos had become the Nats, I considered them a hybrid: the Natspos.
The Nationals of 2025 seemed to morph into the Expos of any number of years when the Mets verged on indisputable excellence and the Expos weren't supposed to present much of a challenge, yet did. Years like 1985. Years like 1987. Years like 1990. Years like 1998. Years when a few more wins against the Expos probably would have pushed the Mets into playoffs they wound up missing.
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